Centre for Independent Studies

50 years ago, a schoolteacher named Greg Lindsay started the Centre for Independent Studies from a backyard shed in suburban Sydney. No funding, no backers, and not much appetite at the time for what he wanted to argue.

Everything since has rested on one rule: no government money, no commissioned research, free to follow the evidence wherever it leads. As Greg put it, independence is a fragile thing, but for those of us at the CIS it courses through our veins.

That has only ever been possible because people were willing to support it. If you'd like to help support the next 50 years, you can do that here: https://www.cis.org.au/support/donate/today/

This week brought a trio of uncomfortable numbers for the Australian economy: a fourth interest rate rise this year, a record 24.1% tax take, and government spending at its highest share of the economy since the mid-1980s.

As CIS executive director Michael Stutchbury argues, these aren't isolated events, they're the predictable result of bigger government, higher taxes and more regulation squeezing productivity, leaving the Reserve Bank to do all the work of controlling inflation on its own. It's also why the government's own Intergenerational Report now forecasts just 2% economic growth a year over the next 40 years, down from 3% over the past 40.

Read the weekly ideas: https://www.cis.org.au/ideas-october-2-2026/

A new CIS survey of 5,023 Australians found the generations split on how to respond to intolerance but not in the way you might expect.

Younger Australians favour visibility and representation. Older Australians favour stronger laws, with support rising steadily with age.

As Peter Kurti puts it, they don't disagree about how serious the problem is. They disagree about what tolerance actually requires.

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More than half of the average board's time now goes to compliance, much of it unnecessary box-ticking. Over the same period, Australia's productivity growth has fallen to its worst level in 60 years.

CIS Senior Fellow Stephen Walters argues these aren't separate stories. Each new rule looks reasonable on its own. But nobody is accountable for what they add up to and wages are what ultimately pay the bill.

Support our work: https://www.cis.org.au/support/donate/today