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
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 policy has achieved its targets,…
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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…
Life Before Death: Improving Palliative Care for Older Australians
Jessica Borbasi
19 November 2017 | RR34
The notion that the problems associated with modern death and dying can be solved simply by allowing more Australians to die at home is an oversimplification. Moreover, the myth that most people want to die at home, but don’t, has also unhelpfully reinforced the popular…
Resetting the Pendulum: Balanced, Effective, Accountable Child Protection Systems and Adoption Reform in Australia
Jeremy Sammut
11 November 2017 | RR33
The national significance of the NSW child protection and adoption reforms cannot be overstated. The changes to child protection services in NSW not only constitute a blueprint for genuine systemic change across the full service spectrum, designed to address the unsustainable trajectory of OOHC services.…
The History Wars Matter
Jeremy Sammut
08 November 2017 | OP159
Despite what the post-modern theorists claim, the nation remains the ultimate political reality. The power of the national story to inspire our collective beliefs about ourselves as Australians, and for those beliefs to inspire the direction of our national life, is the reason the history…
UBI – Universal Basic Income is an Unbelievably Bad Idea
Simon Cowan
05 November 2017 | RR32
The idea of a Universal Basic Income (UBI), paid by the government to its citizens with few restrictions, has been around for a long time. One of the main justifications for introducing a UBI is the impending changes to the labour market as a result…
Media & Commentary
Mandatory diversity
Jeremy Sammut
20 April 2018 | Ideas@TheCentre
The Israel Folau saga has reached an ending of sorts — but, unfortunately, with ominous implications for religious freedom. Rugby Australia announced that Folau — its star player who is…
White adoptions won’t create new Stolen Generation
Jeremy Sammut
15 March 2018 | The Daily Telegraph
THERE has been predictable whingeing that Federal Children’s Minister David Gillespie says indigenous kids should be adopted by white families because he is a ‘racist critic of indigenous parenting’. But Gillespie…
Indigenous leasing limbo
Charles Jacobs
14 March 2018 | The Spectator
When picturing Indigenous land rights and economic development you typically conjure images of remote outstations, the challenges of developing infrastructure many hours’ drive away from proper towns, and establishing an economy in…
Indigenous child protection regime ‘apartheid’
Jeremy Sammut
09 March 2018 | Ideas@TheCentre
The recent revelations about systemic child protection failures in the Northern Territory as reported by The Australian are no surprise — as Jacinta Price has pointed out — to those…
Qantas flying low
Peter Kurti
09 March 2018 | Ideas@TheCentre
The Spirit of Australia has slumped further at what was once our proud national carrier. No longer content with changing the way we fly, the Flying Kangaroo now wants to…