In this episode, Rob sits down with Trisha Jha, a policy analyst at the Centre for Independent Studies, to explore the relationship between liberalism and education. They discuss how liberal principles, like individual freedom, pluralism, and limited government, may require an educated population to survive.

Trisha Jha is a Research Fellow in the Education program, where she leads a stream of work on the science of learning, as well as projects on school improvement and educational policy. Trisha has previously had roles as a secondary teacher, including through the Teach for Australia program, in state and independent schools in regional Victoria. She has also worked as a senior policy adviser to opposition leaders in Victoria.

She holds a Masters of Teaching with a specialisation in Research from Deakin University and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the Australian National University.

👉 More from Trisha Jha: Free Trade vs Tariffs: https://youtu.be/n69-4wdl5b0 What is the Science of Learning? https://youtu.be/RjQ004yGsOo Learning Lessons. The future of small-group tutoring: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/learning-lessons-the-future-of-small-group-tutoring/ Implementing the Science of Learning: teacher experiences: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/implementing-the-science-of-learning-teacher-experiences/

👉 Help Australia’s Educational Standards: 🔹 Become a member: https://www.cis.org.au/membership-2-step-1/ 🔹 Make a donation: https://www.cis.org.au/support/donate/today/ 🔹 Learn more: https://www.cis.org.au/

All our links: https://linktr.ee/centreforindependentstudies

Australia’s extraordinary modern prosperity, built on the supply-side economic liberalisation of the 1980s and 1990s and boosted by the China-fuelled resources boom, is being squandered.

In Our Prosperity is Slipping Away: Submission to Economic Reform Roundtable, Michael Stutchbury writes that urgent reform is needed to stop the slump.

“History shows such periods of relative affluence are rare and temporary, as seen in the 1850s–80s, early 1950s and late 1960s–early 1970s,” Stutchbury says. “Australia’s most recent peak in prosperity occurred in 2011–12 and has been in decline ever since. “Rather than taking the policy decisions necessary to sustain growth, the political process has descended into a contest over redistributing shrinking wealth.

“The Reserve Bank’s downgrading of productivity forecasts confirms an unacceptable low-growth future.”

The paper urges the Economic Reform Roundtable to reject this trajectory and commit to making Australia “an aspirational and enterprise-driven high-growth nation bursting with investment opportunities”.

It argues that this means reinstating credible fiscal rules, restraining government spending, and undertaking genuine tax reform — beginning with indexing personal income tax scales to curb bracket creep

“The tax system is weighing on the economy but piecemeal 'tax reform' should not become a mechanism to validate the increase in the size of government that already has contributed to declining absolute productivity,” Stutchbury says.

Housing shortages, caused by restrictive zoning and planning laws, must be addressed alongside a broader removal of “thickets of regulation” that stifle business dynamism. Education reform is also critical to reverse declining literacy, numeracy, and lifetime earnings.

Finally, energy policy must restore Australia’s low-cost advantage, reversing trends that have driven up prices, undermined competitiveness, and fueled costly protectionism.

Michael Stutchbury is Executive Director of the Centre for Independent Studies. #auspol #economics

Watch here: https://youtu.be/DgqdELXU4BI In this episode of Liberalism in Question from the Centre for Independent Studies, economist Robert Carling discusses the alarming rise in Australian government spending and its long-term consequences.

👉 More from Robert Carling: 🔹 Leviathan on the Rampage: Government spending growth a threat to Australia’s economic future: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/leviathan-on-the-rampage-how-the-growth-of-government-is-draining-australias-economic-vitality/ 🔹Government spending and inflation: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/government-spending-and-inflation/ 🔹The Truth About The Tax Burden: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/the-truth-about-the-tax-burden/

👉 Help Australia’s Economic Prosperity 🔹 Become a member: https://www.cis.org.au/membership-2-step-1/ 🔹 Make a donation: https://www.cis.org.au/support/donate/today/ 🔹 Learn more: https://www.cis.org.au/

For all references and graphs, read the paper here: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/the-productivity-problem-australias-growth-slump-is-undermining-prosperity/

Key Findings:

• Labour productivity growth has halved, sliding from 2.4% a year in the late 1990s to just 1.2% in recent years.

• Australia is falling further behind the United States, with the productivity gap now wider than it was in the early 2000s.

• Business investment – a driver of growth – is subdued, starving firms of the latest technology and techniques needed to compete globally.

Cox outlines that even small, sustained improvements in productivity compound into large gains. Conversely, persistently slow growth risks turning policy development by political parties into a zero-sum scramble for slices of a shrinking pie, undermining social cohesion and democratic norms. The paper identifies a triple threat:

1. Dwindling innovation diffusion, in which Australian firms are adopting new ideas more slowly than global leaders.

2. Rising regulatory burden, with Commonwealth legislation now containing 356,198 restrictive provisions, up 80% since 2005.

3. Cultural change, with surveys revealing fewer Australians now see work as “very important”, while support for environmental protection over economic growth has risen.

Cox calls for a new wave of micro-economic reform, smarter regulation that does not stifle experimentation, and a renewed national conversation about the values that underpin innovation. “Prosperity is not automatic,” Cox concludes. “It requires deliberate choices: investment in skills, encouragement of risk-taking, and institutions that reward creativity rather than rent-seeking.” “The prize is a richer, fairer and more resilient Australia.” A subsequent paper by Cox, which proposes options — including a new initiative — to best boost productivity growth rates to promote greater prosperity, will be published by CIS on Thursday, August 14. Jim Cox is a prominent economist and former Deputy Chair and board member of the Australian Energy Regulator, and former chief executive of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal. He has held positions with the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Social Policy Secretariat of the Department of Social Security.

Watch here: https://youtu.be/9bFoGoxcuQY

When Peter Kurti published "The Ties That Bind: Reconciling Value Pluralism and National Identity in Australia", Jude felt compelled to disagree vehemently, though only in a rhetorical sense!

“Australia’s multicultural democracy is under increasing pressure, not only from economic uncertainty but from the moral and cultural disagreements that have intensified in recent years. Deep cultural and moral diversity presents both remarkable opportunities and profound challenges for our national identity,” writes Peter.

Jude’s response? When disagreements grow too intense, the state must eventually intervene and take sides. He warns of ‘the tyranny of the majority’, the danger that majority opinion in a democracy can suppress dissenting voices or infringe on the basic rights of minorities. So, what happens when illiberal opinions become the dominant norm?

This is not a merely theoretical concern. We live in a time of growing social division. The war in Gaza, for example, has exposed rising levels of antisemitism in Australia which is seen by some as disturbingly close to the new normal. The mainstream media may even help to fuel these opinions in the way they report on global conflicts.

Earlier this year, the BBC admitted to airing a prime-time documentary narrated by the son of a Hamas terrorist leader. Our colleague Tom Switzer recently interviewed BBC journalist Tim Franks about this incident, broader questions of editorial bias and how journalists with strong opinions can still strive to report fairly.

So, what’s the answer?

Democracies thrive on healthy debate and a shared commitment to truth. If you're interested in Peter Kurti’s work on civil society and antisemitism, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to CIS: 👉 https://www.cis.org.au/support/donate/today/

Australia’s government expenditure has surged to a post-war high (except for the pandemic-era spike) of 38–39% of GDP, up from 34–35% before the 2008 global financial crisis, a new Centre for Independent Studies paper outlines. In Leviathan on the Rampage: Government spending growth a threat to Australia’s economic future, economist Robert Carling warns that federal spending alone has climbed from 24–25% to 27.6% of GDP since 2012–13, fueled by a culture of entitlement and relentless program expansion in social services, defence and debt interest. Key Findings

• Real per capita federal spending has risen 1.8% on average annually since 2012–13, far exceeding Australia’s 0.5% productivity growth and more than double real GDP growth.
• A dozen fast-growing programs — including the NDIS, aged care, defence, schools, Medicare and child care — account for 63% of the increase in federal own-purpose spending in that period and now represent around half of such spending.
• Public debt interest is projected to rise 9.5% a year for the next decade, as higher rates refinance pandemic-era borrowing and ongoing deficits push debt up further.
• Off-budget ‘investments’ — from student loans to energy transition funds — add a further $104 billion in hidden spending over five years.

1. Rolling reviews of major programs to cut waste and lift effectiveness.
2. Fiscal rules to cap per-capita spending growth below GDP growth.
3. Freeze public-service numbers and shift from consultants to permanent staff.
4. Shelve new spending ideas — including universal child care and expanded Medicare dental cover.
5. Return to structural surplus by 2029–30, echoing successful consolidations of the 1980s and 1990s.

Robert Carling is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies and a former World Bank, IMF and federal and state Treasury economist. #auspol #economics #econ

A new Centre for Independent Studies paper underlines the importance of developing early number sense in children, with advice for both parents and teachers, as well as invaluable exercises. In Early Numbers, Big Ideas. Fostering Number Sense in Young Children, authors Dr Nancy C. Jordan and Dr Nancy Dyson say children's trajectories in mathematics are shaped early. and the development of early number sense will reap benefits in later schooling and adult life. “Foundational mathematical knowledge at school entry is a strong and consistent predictor of later achievement, with effects that persist through primary and even secondary schooling,” Dr Jordan says. “Children who begin school with low numeracy skills are significantly more likely to continue struggling with mathematics across their schooling years, and early gaps in understanding tend to widen over time if left unaddressed,” she says. “All the evidence reinforces the need to ensure all children get off to a strong start in developing key foundational skills — particularly number sense — during the early years of schooling.” Number sense involves three key strands that work together — knowledge of numbers, understanding relationships between numbers, and grasping elements of number operations. Research shows that teaching all three together helps make explicit the connections between these three strands, especially for children who struggle with number sense. “Making connections between these three strands is essential for a firm foundation of number sense, starting with smaller numbers and visual representation,” Dr Jordan says. “Fluency rooted in number sense is the goal. “Instruction for the development of number sense should also use linear representations of number whenever possible to emphasise the linear nature of numbers and prepare children to think about numbers on the number line. “By the time children reach Foundation or Year One, many can see that numbers follow a linear pattern, with each number being exactly one more than the previous one. This understanding lays the foundation for using the visual number line, a critical tool for organising and comparing all real numbers.” Dr Jordan and Dr Dyson’s paper is structured in three parts. The first section defines number sense and outlines its significance in early cognitive and mathematical development. The second section explores how difficulties with number sense arise, how they can be identified through effective early screening, and why timely identification is essential. The final section presents practical, evidence-based instructional strategies and classroom routines that educators can use to support number sense development in all learners.

Dr Nancy C. Jordan the Dean Family Endowed Chair and Professor of Education at the University of Delaware. Her research centres on how children learn mathematics and why many struggle, particularly in early and middle childhood. Prof Jordan authored numerous highly cited articles, with recent work appearing in the Journal of Educational Psychology, Journal of Learning Disabilities, Developmental Psychology, and the Journal of Research on Mathematics Education, among others. Dr Nancy Dyson is a research associate at the University of Delaware where she received her doctorate, studying under Dr Nancy Jordan and Dr James Hiebert. The focus of her research is developing and testing instructional approaches and curricula for students who struggle with mathematics. She has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals and has made numerous conference presentations on this topic.

Watch Here: https://youtu.be/29qPdsxMHss “Freedom or death!” The rallying cry of revolutions, constitutions, and rights movements shaped the modern world — and liberalism was its architect. Built on the belief that individuals should be free to choose their paths, pursue their dreams, and speak their minds, liberalism became the moral and political foundation of the 20th century. But in the 21st, the definition of freedom is expanding — and straining. We seek freedom not just from tyranny, but from discomfort, constraint, and even contradiction. Liberalism promised liberty, but has it delivered too much choice — or the wrong kind? Has the pursuit of personal freedom begun to erode shared values, social cohesion, or even the self? Thucydides said, “The secret to happiness is freedom.” But is that still true — was it ever? Join Rob Forsyth and Priyan Max Jeganathan for this challenging discussion on the limits of freedom.

👉 Help promote freedom: 🔹 Become a member: https://www.cis.org.au/membership-2-step-1/ 🔹 Make a donation: https://www.cis.org.au/support/donate/today/ 🔹 Learn more: https://www.cis.org.au/

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