Centre for Independent Studies Level 1, 131 Macquarie St, Sydney, NSW 2000 Tel: 02 9438 4377 l Email: [email protected] l cis.org.au ABN 15 001 495 012 Academic Advisory Distinguished Council Fellows Professor James Allan Professor Ray Ball Professor Jeff Bennett John Calvert-Jones AM Professor Geoffrey Brennan Michael Chaney AO Professor Kenneth Clements Michael Darling Professor Sinclair Davidson David Darling (1925–2012) Professor David Emanuel Dr Roderick Deane Professor Ian Harper Alan Gibbs Professor Chandran Kukathas Ross Graham-Taylor (1919–2010) Professor Tony Makin Professor R. M. Hartwell (1921–2009) Professor R. R. Officer Andrew Kaldor Professor Suri Ratnapala C. R. Bert Kelly CMG (1912–97) Professor David Robertson Neville Kennard (1937–2012) PréCIS Editor Professor Razeen Sally Barry Maley Sue Windybank Professor Steven Schwartz Alan McGregor AO (1936–2005) Professor Judith Sloan PréCIS Publisher Hugh Morgan AC Professor Peter Swan Tom Switzer Dame Elisabeth Murdoch AC DBE (1909–2012) Professor Geoffrey de Q. Walker PréCIS Designer Maurice Newman AC Ryan Acosta Professor Ross Parish (1929–2001) Honorary Auditors Ian Roach AO (1925–2003) Deloitte Australia Professor Peter Saunders Dr Ben Teh (1941–98) Honorary Solicitors James Beatty & Associates 35 Academic Advisory Distinguished Council Fellows Professor James Allan Professor Ray Ball Professor Jeff Bennett John Calvert-Jones AM Professor GeoffreyWe Brennan must make the buildingMichael of Chaney a free AO society Professor Kennethonce Clements more an intellectual adventure,Michael Darling a deed of Professor Sinclair Davidson courage... Unless we can makeDavid Darling the (1925–2012) philosophic Professor David Emanuel Dr Roderick Deane Professor Ianfoundations Harper of a free societyAlan once Gibbs more a living Professor Chandranintellectual Kukathas issue, and its implementationRoss Graham-Taylor (1919–2010) a task Professor Tony Makin Professor R. M. Hartwell (1921–2009) Professor R.which R. Officer challenges the ingenuity and imagination Andrew Kaldor Professor Suri Ratnapala of our liveliest minds, the prospectsC. R. Bert Kelly CMGof (1912–97)freedom Professor David Robertson are indeed dark. But if we canNeville regainKennard (1937–2012) that belief PréCIS Editor Professor Razeen Sally Barry Maley Sue Windybank Professor Stevenin Schwartzthe power of ideas which was the mark of Alan McGregor AO (1936–2005) Professor Judith Sloan PréCIS Publisher liberalism at its best, theHugh battle Morgan is AC not lost. Professor Peter Swan Tom Switzer Dame Elisabeth Murdoch AC DBE (1909–2012) Professor Geoffrey de Q. Walker PréCIS Designer — Friedrich HayekMaurice Newman AC Ryan Acosta Professor Ross Parish (1929–2001) Honorary Auditors Ian Roach AO (1925–2003) Deloitte Australia Professor Peter Saunders Dr Ben Teh (1941–98) Honorary Solicitors James Beatty & Associates 35 Contents Goals and Aims .................................................. 3 From the Executive Director ............................... 4 Research Programs Economics ................................................... 6 Education .................................................... 8 Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society ...............10 Indigenous Affairs ......................................12 China and Free Societies ............................14 Scholar-in-Residence .........................................16 Liberty & Society ...............................................17 Event Highlights ................................................19 On Liberty .........................................................21 Events at a Glance ............................................ 22 Digital Reach .................................................... 23 Media and Communications ..............................25 Publications .......................................................26 Fundraising and Engagement ........................... 29 Researchers ...................................................... 30 Staff ..................................................................32 Board of Directors ............................................ 33 Accounts .......................................................... 34 Academic Advisory Council .............................. 35 Distinguished Fellows ....................................... 35 Goals and Aims Vision The Centre for Independent Studies is Australia’s indispensable voice providing independent research and policy solutions enabling the pursuit of happiness and the opportunity to live a prosperous life with less government interference. Mission Promote evidence-based policy Advance free choice Progress individual liberty Defend cultural freedom Foster the open exchange of ideas Our Independence CIS is a not-for-profit think tank with tax-deductible status. As a politically non-partisan organisation for more than 40 years, we are proud to be Australia’s independent voice in public policy research. Crucial to our independence is that CIS does not accept government funding, nor undertake commissioned research. Our funding comes solely from members, donors, business and foundations. CIS promotes evidence-based policy, which advances free choice, individual liberty, defends cultural freedom and the open exchange of ideas. 3 From the Executive Director In 2020, Australia faced several crises: health (COVID-19 pandemic), economic (a virus-induced recession), cultural (relentless attacks on Western civilisation) and strategic (an assertive China and an erratic America). The Centre for Independent Studies has been well placed to address three out of four of these challenges. Start with the economic crisis. This year we experienced the highest unemployment since the early 1990s, the largest budget deficit since World War Two and the sharpest economic downturn since the Great Depression. Given the extraordinary circumstances, and since relief in a crisis is a proper role for government, it was understandable that the size and scope of the state increased dramatically. However, as our Research head Simon Cowan and the Economics team (see pages 6–7) have made clear this year, there should be no ideological validation from the radical emergency measures designed to save lives. After all, the pandemic recession is the result of government policies to Maynard Keynes called the economy’s ‘animal spirits’ — that stem the spread the virus. It has had nothing to do with is, the passions and competitive instincts that are essential the productivity-enhancing economic reforms of the 1980s, to economic growth. A reform agenda that slashes costly 1990s and early 2000s that helped spur almost 30 years of regulations that impede job creation, modernises our enterprise unbroken growth with low inflation, low unemployment and, bargaining workplace system to drive wages through according to the Productivity Commission, no great widening productivity gains, and uses the tax system to encourage in inequality. Nor was it the result of a shrinking state: for more entrepreneurship among younger Australians. than a decade, government spending on health and education As unfashionable as it is to say, nations can’t tax themselves as a percentage of GDP has increased. back to full employment. Jobs and growth are not created by One of our intellectual heroes, Milton Friedman, used to say state paternalistic power, but by private enterprises free to that nothing is so permanent as a temporary government invest and innovate by being taxed and regulated less. This has program. As a result, we’ve been adamant that the massive been the central message of CIS for more than four decades; expansion of the state in response to the COVID-19 shock and it remains our mission in 2020 and beyond. should represent a temporary state of affairs. Then there is the cultural crisis. In the past year, a relentless Once the pandemic passes, it will be the right thing for campaign of ideological conformity has swept across the responsible leaders to do everything to ensure a true Western world. Statues and monuments are being ripped return to normal. That includes the liberation of what John down or defaced. In Britain and the US, many universities are 4 censoring speakers and suppressing controversial views. At the same time, both nations have witnessed the rise of what is termed cancel culture: when left-wing activists blacklist people because of what they sincerely feel and believe, or focus on imposing the ‘woke’ values of a noisy, self-advertising minority on a very different past. Protecting freedom of speech is a serious challenge that faces genuine free thinkers in coming years. As Peter Kurti and our Culture team make clear (see pages 10–11), we need to ensure the cancel-culture movement that has infected US and British institutions does not threaten Australian public discourse. The exclusion of views that challenge the consensus can only hurt the activists for the reason John Stuart Mill elaborated in his famous 1859 essay On Liberty: “He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.” As for foreign policy, in 2020 diplomatic tensions between Canberra and Beijing escalated, but this deteriorating relationship reflects a broader geopolitical trend. As Alan Dupont, one of Australia’s leading security experts, detailed in an important CIS paper, the US-China standoff over trade, technology and strategy has precipitated a new Cold War, with likely economic and trade consequences for Australia. How Canberra responds to the intensifying security and economic competition between