Social Policy
The Centre for Independent Studies remains at the forefront of social policy debate in Australia, with a focus on key issues such as welfare, health care, education and child protection. Ending the growth of the welfare state is a priority for the CIS social research team, as government spending on welfare continues to increase, seemingly unabated.
Since the 1980s, the CIS has been researching social policy issues, with the aim of promoting policies that emphasise personal responsibility and individual choice.
The CIS seeks a future for Australia that has individual freedom under a limited government. We believe that such a future would strengthen community life, leading to a more cohesive and flourishing civil society.
Follow the links for further information on our major social policy areas:
Featured Publication
Without Fear or Favour: Practising your Faith and your Profession
Debra Mullins
20 June 2018 | OP165
The adequacy of religious freedom protections in Australia has been now reviewed by the Ruddock Inquiry established by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after the same-sex postal survey in later 2017. By late June June 2018, however, the government had yet to release Ruddock’s findings. Nonetheless, advocates acknowledge that many Australians…
READ MOREPublications
A Shy Hope in the Mind: Secularisation and the Diversity of Australia’s Religious Economy
Peter Kurti
12 June 2018 | AP1
There are few facets of human society — whether political, social, or economic — that are untouched by the influence of religion. Yet those who oppose any appearance of religion in the Australian public square argue that it simply has no part to play in…
A Viable Option: A National Adoption Framework
Jeremy Sammut
06 June 2018 | PP4
Implementation of the National Child Protection Accountability Framework would correct the bias towards ‘early intervention and prevention’ — in isolation from other important policies and outcomes, especially permanency — evident in the existing National Framework introduced under the Rudd Government in 2009. The new national…
Submission to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet – Consultation Paper: COAG Closing the Gap Refresh
Charles Jacobs
30 April 2018
While the targets set in 2008 were ambitious, and the task immense, the failure to meet the majority of targets implies the need for a reassessment of the underlying principles and structures of the Closing the Gap strategy. The Centre for Independent Studies welcomes the…
Risky business: the problems of Indigenous business policy
Charles Jacobs
29 November 2017 | RR35
The Commonwealth’s Indigenous Procurement Policy (IPP) has put Aboriginal owned small businesses at the heart of a renewed approach to Indigenous economic development. The IPP has irrevocably changed the space, and the Indigenous business sector has grown exponentially since its introduction in 2015. While the…
Reason, Repentance, and the Individual: Recovering the Religious Roots of Western Civilisation
Peter Kurti
23 November 2017 | OP160
Reason, repentance, and the individual are three of the principal roots of Western civilization. They are, moreover, roots that are set firmly in the rich soil of our Judeo-Christian heritage. But the danger is that as our commitment to that heritage weakens, so, too, does…
Media & Commentary
How to think about gender inequality
Simon Cowan
06 July 2018 | Ideas@TheCentre
One of the most frustrating debates in public policy is the one over women’s workforce participation and the gender pay gap. On one side you have people taking the raw…
New Child Care Subsidy expensive, inflexible and complicated
Eugenie Joseph
29 June 2018 | DAILY TELEGRAPH
The government would like us to believe the much-touted Child Care Subsidy is a magical fix-all solution for nearly one million Australian families in need of an affordable solution. But…
Don’t let absurd theatre of identity politics divide us
Jeremy Sammut
23 June 2018 | The Spectator
The controversial University of Melbourne dance performance, Where We Stand, is an insight into kind of divided society we will become if identity politics is allowed to split the nation…
Don’t let absurd theatre of identity politics divide us
Jeremy Sammut
22 June 2018 | Ideas@TheCentre
The controversial University of Melbourne dance performance, Where We Stand, is an insight into kind of divided society we will become if identity politics is allowed to split the nation…
Education system produces anti-capitalist millennials
Tom Switzer, Charles Jacobs
21 June 2018 | The Australian
Anyone over the age of 45 will have clear memories of the ecstatic reaction to the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. The wall had been erected in…