Opinion & Commentary
Opinion and Commentary contains media articles written by CIS researchers.
Categories
Awards don't deliver fair go
It is possible to increase labour market flexibility, create more jobs and keep the fair go alive by abolishing the outdated industrial award system.... Read More
It's time to put the break on corporate welfare
Corporate welfare for a favoured few - like Australia's car manufacturers - cannot be justified.... Read More
My School sheds a welcome light
If governments gather important information about schools and students, it should be available to everyone. The My School site simply gives parents easy access.If governments gather important information...... Read More
The fair go is fact, not political platitude
Australia's social escalator moves so quickly that the poorest Australians can find fortune in just a few years. With the controversy over the adequacy of unemployment benefits heating up again, the divide...... Read More
Gillard Deal Risks NDIS Timebomb
In its eagerness to lock in the funding and governance arrangements for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), the Gillard government seems to have created a fiscal time bomb, where future federal...... Read More
Sorry, Mr Swan, the Australian fair go is still going strong
In the lead up to what is likely to be a budget bloodbath on 14 May, Treasurer Wayne Swan has come out swinging. Instead of trying to steer Australia back into the black, he has resorted to the electoral...... Read More
Without a no-fly zone, Syria will burn
As news emerges that a fourth Australian has been killed in Syria, concerns are also mounting that the war-torn country is becoming a hotspot for the global jihadist movement. The head of the Nusra Front,...... Read More
Only a super-style savings system now will help Medicare survive
THE intergenerational reports have told us repeatedly that escalating government spending on health is unsustainable in an ageing Australia. But despite the warnings about the future of the health system,...... Read More
Big Brother deters charity
Reforms intended to boost confidence in Australian charities risk turning the charitable sector into just another arm of government.... Read More
It’s time for surgery: the public purse is in dire health
Reducing inefficient spending may harm vested interests, but meaningful reform cannot occur if no one is ever allowed to be worse off.... Read More
The magic pudding state
Australians want government to spend more money on us, but we do not want to hand any more of our cash over to the tax office.... Read More
Why a forex foray could burn the Reserve
With the Australian dollar trade-weighted index recently around 28-year highs, there have been calls for official intervention to weaken the exchange rate. But suggestions the Reserve Bank might need an...... Read More
Federal micro-managers to rule the schools
Responses to the federal government’s school funding proposal have been less than enthusiastic. People have rightly pointed out that increased expenditure on education does not guarantee better results....... Read More
Cure for a bloated public sector
TARGET30 is not a slash-and-burn campaign; it simply asks people to consider what they really need government to provide.... Read More
Gonski reforms at risk of failure to launch
Two camps have emerged in the Gonski wars, with one camp saying it's all about the money.... Read More
Unrealistic expectations of Australian defence spending
Australian defence planners must abandon inefficient big-ticket capital purchases in favour of a more sustainable and balanced defence force structure.... Read More
NDIS highlights welfare waste
It is time to end the tax-welfare churn and return the savings to taxpayers through tax cuts.... Read More
Don't let Iraq syndrome prolong the slaughter in Syria
The memory of the the rash military adventurism in Iraq is still fresh, but that must not prevent us from using force to help end the humanitarian crisis in Syria.... Read More
The politics of apologies: Easy moralism for past sins, but ignorance about the present
Official apologies tend to descend into simplistic condemnations of people and times past rather than criticising current practices.... Read More
Why adoption should, in some cases, continue
The "never again" approach to separating parents from children because of previous forced adoption practices has implicatons for current child protection policies.... Read More
