The Stutchbury Sessions

"Woolworths and Coles pay about 98% of revenue to stakeholders" | Brett Stevenson

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 20:30:00 +1000

Michael Stutchbury interviews Brett Stevenson about his new CIS paper The Discipline of Profit, which tests the claim that Woolworths and Coles have been raking in megaprofits at the expense of shoppers, suppliers and staff. Stevenson goes to the only place the argument can actually be settled: the companies’ own audited accounts.

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👉 Further reading: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/the-discipline-of-profit-what-supermarket-accounts-reveal-about-profiteering-debate/

Classrooms in Crisis: Why Australian Kids Are Losing 12 Weeks a Year | Blaise Joseph

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 09:15:41 +1000

Watch here: https://youtu.be/8PZDxDVb1_o

Michael Stutchbury interviews CIS Education Director Blaise Joseph about his new paper: Classrooms in Crisis: Australian teacher views on student behaviour.

A national survey of more than 370 teachers finds classroom disruption is costing students an average of 12 weeks of learning a year — roughly one-third of instructional time

👉 Further reading: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/classrooms-in-crisis-australian-teachers-perspectives-on-student-behaviour/

Australia’s workplace relations system is holding back growth, wages and opportunity | Graeme Watson

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 20:30:00 +1000

Michael Stutchbury interviews the Hon Graeme Watson, former Vice President of the Fair Work Commission, about how Australia’s workplace relations system is holding back productivity, real wages, investment and business growth.

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👉 Further reading: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/wrong-way-go-back-how-australias-workplace-relations-system-is-holding-back-growth-wages-and-opportunity/
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The Top 5 Suburbs You Can’t Break Into | Peter Tulip | The Stutchbury Sessions

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 20:00:00 +1000

Michael Stutchbury interviews Dr Peter Tulip about new NSW data showing development applications and lodgements rising sharply, with building approvals expected to climb but still falling short of the federal housing target. The conversation explains recent NSW reforms like transport‑oriented development and low/mid‑rise housing, and why supply constraints from local councils matter for affordability.

The episode also reveals a ‘naughty list’ of lagging councils, outlines graduated remedies (naming, inspections, state intervention), and explores the debate between concentrating high‑rise near transport hubs versus spreading townhouses more widely across suburbs.

👉 Further reading: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/will-nsw-meet-its-housing-target/
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Shaping the Next Generation: Inside CIS’s Liberty & Society Conference

Fri, 29 May 2026 05:01:00 +1000

At the Centre for Independent Studies' annual Liberty and Society student conference, 38 students from Australia and New Zealand explored classical liberal philosophy, free markets and social cohesion through talks and debates led by leading scholars and former officials.

Speakers traced the historical shift from Keynesian to pro-market ideas, discussed free speech and the rule of law, and challenged students to lead a renewed classical liberal movement for their generation.

Generation Trapped: Why Young Australians Can't Get Ahead

Thu, 21 May 2026 16:48:44 +1000

In this Stutch Sessions episode Parnell Palm McGuinness, author of the CIS report Generation Trapped, explains how young Australians (18–34) split into six distinct 'tribes' all still aspire to homeownership, family, meaningful work and financial security, but feel blocked by high housing costs and limited agency.

The conversation covers the political fallout from recent tax changes (capital gains and negative gearing), young entrepreneurs' resentment at perceived penalties on risk-taking, rising distrust in government spending, and the broader implications for policy: boosting opportunity and agency rather than punitive measures.

Australia's Broken Budget | Chris Richardson, Michael Stutchbury, Robert Carling & Richard Holden

Fri, 08 May 2026 13:24:16 +1000

Watch here: https://youtu.be/NpXfg20UPWg

As Treasurer Jim Chalmers prepares to hand down his fifth federal budget on 12 May 2026, four of Australia's leading economists gather at the Centre for Independent Studies to ask: is this budget up to the challenge?

Hosted by CIS Executive Director Michael Stutchbury, this roundtable brings together Robert Carling (CIS Senior Fellow, former Treasury and IMF official), Professor Richard Holden (UNSW Business School), and Chris Richardson (Principal, Rich Insight and Australia's most cited budget economist) for a frank, wide-ranging conversation on the fiscal pressures facing Australia.

They discuss rising inflation, a productivity slowdown, a housing crisis, a federal debt approaching $1 trillion, and whether Chalmers' promises on savings, tax reform, and intergenerational equity stack up.

CIS promotes free choice and individual liberty and the open exchange of ideas. CIS encourages debate among leading academics, politicians, media and the public. We aim to make sure good policy ideas are heard and seriously considered so that Australia can prosper.

Australia is a high tax country

Mon, 04 May 2026 08:05:32 +1000

As much as anything, the Centre for Independent Studies’ first 50 years has been dedicated to restraining the growth in the size, reach and financing of government to provide room for private enterprise and individual choice.

Now, as in the mid-1970s, the size of government has been ratcheted up. And politicians are increasing taxes to pay for it.

This week, CIS senior fellow Robert Carling has delivered an important corrective to the mantra that taxes aren’t really much of a burden in Australia.

Read more here: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/high-taxing-australia-how-we-measure-up/

Grim reality of the NDIS leviathan

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 17:03:17 +1000

Grim reality of the NDIS leviathan

“It will start big and get bigger and grow to become the new leviathan of the Australian welfare state,” CIS scholar Andrew Baker further predicted of Labor’s National Disability Insurance Scheme in his 2012 policy monograph.

Even the Productivity Commission failed to pick the looming NDIS fiscal disaster from the worthy goal of providing support to permanently and significantly disabled Australians...

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Defending 'Neoliberalism' from the Left and Right

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 15:58:41 +1000

The hard lesson of Australia’s protectionist past is that propping up uncompetitive and high cost industries invariably poses a burden on other sectors, including on the mining, gas and farm exporters that actually support our prosperity.

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Infinite possibilities from the dark side of the moon

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 16:33:39 +1000

Donald Trump’s threats to destroy the ‘whole civilisation’ of Iran this week jarringly contrasted with the out-of-this world American achievement of sending a four-member crew as far from Earth as any humans had gone.

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Middle East oil shock fuels panic vote-buying

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 09:01:00 +1100

Australia’s new economic decline is colliding with the breakdown of the liberal rules-based orders for global trade and security. The post-pandemic and oil shock push for more sovereign capability and supply-chain self-reliance will eat into national income just as living standards are under pressure.

Resolving this tension will require more, not less, of the pro-market —or neo-liberal — policy agenda of the Hawke-Keating and Howard-Costello era to reboot productivity and economic growth.

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Four lessons from the energy crisis of 1970s

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 15:57:06 +1100

I was in Canberra this week, in part to hear International Energy Agency head Fatih Birol warn that today’s oil price shock will rival the twin Middle East energy shocks of the 1970s.

The 1973 and 1979 shocks promoted using smaller and more fuel-efficient vehicles. And it prompted a wave of nuclear energy development in Japan, Europe and North America. Today’s oil price shock will have comparable repercussions, Birol predicts.

Here’s the four take outs I picked up at a National Security College conference, where I was on a panel, and the annual Minerals Council of Australia Minerals Week Conference, where I moderated a session:

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Inflation Expectations | Michael Stutchbury

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 05:01:00 +1100

RBA governor Michele Bullock has jacked up her cash rate by 25 basis points for the second month in a row because of two words that can strike fear into the heart of central bankers: “inflation expectations”.

What does this mean for you?

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"The 50% discount is unfair" and other CGT myths | Robert Carling

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 16:01:00 +1100

The criticisms and characterization of the 50% capital gains tax discount over many years have been full of misunderstandings, myths and distortions in the conventional narrative on how capital gains tax works, how it compares with the capital gains tax that it replaced in 1999, and the economic consequences of making the capital gains tax burden heavier. The myths and distortions are biasing the public discussion towards increased taxation.

👉 Further reading:

Why We Should Not Increase Capital Gains Tax: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/why-we-should-not-increase-capital-gains-tax/

10 CGT Myths Busted: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/10-cgt-myths-busted/

Leadership Failure and the Bondi Terror Attack | Peter Kurti

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 05:00:00 +1100

Shortly before 7pm on Sunday, a Hanukah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach was attacked by two alleged gunmen, believed to be a father and son. At the time of recording, 16 people aged between 10 and 87 are confirmed dead, including one of the alleged attackers, and at least 42 others are being treated in hospital for their injuries.

In this episode of The Stutchbury Sessions, Michael Stutchbury talks with Peter Kurti about the tragedy at Bondi, the politicial leadership failures and rising antisemitism in Australia.

👉Relevant writings:
🔹 Australia’s complacency and the Bondi beach shooting: https://www.cis.org.au/commentary/opinion/australias-complacency-and-the-bondi-beach-shooting/
🔹 Reframing an Ancient Hatred: the intersection of left-wing antisemitism and anti-Zionism: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/reframing-an-ancient-hatred-the-intersection-of-left-wing-antisemitism-and-anti-zionism/
🔹 The Darkest Path: The Puzzling Resilience of Antisemitism. Acton Lecture 2025: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/the-darkest-path-the-puzzling-resilience-of-antisemitism-acton-lecture-2025/
🔹 Fractured Loyalties. Australian citizenship and the crisis of civic virtue: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/fractured-loyalties-australian-citizenship-and-the-crisis-of-civic-virtue/

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#auspol #bondi

Rebuilding the Property-Owning Democracy

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 06:00:00 +1100

In this episode of The Stutchbury Sessions:

Michael Stutchbury examines Senator Andrew Bragg’s provocative event at CIS on the future of housing policy — a speech that openly challenged the Liberal Party’s long-standing comfort with rising house prices and called for an unapologetic YIMBY agenda to win back younger voters.

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How loss of cheap energy pressures wage system

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 16:50:43 +1100

In this episode of The Stutchbury Sessions:

Are the Liberals sabotaging their path back to government by walking away from net zero? Or are they facing reality about Australia’s costly clean-energy transition?

In this episode, we dissect whether the Coalition’s internal divisions on climate and energy policy are overshadowing Labor’s failure to retain Australia’s traditional cheap energy advantage. Net-zero targets remain popular in the urban seats the Liberals must win back, so why pick this fight now?

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Echoes of the 1970s: Classical Liberalism Under Assault from Left and Right

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 06:00:00 +1100

Is the 2020s an echo of the 1970s for classical liberalism? In this episode of The Stutchbury Sessions, Michael Stutchbury recaps the CIS Consilium, exploring how free enterprise, free trade, and limited government are under assault from both the left and the populist right. Featuring insights from Andrew Neil on the plight of mainstream conservatism and Dave Rubin on the liberal side of MAGA, Stutchbury discusses globalization, immigration, tariffs, big government deficits, and the future of western liberal values amid rising populism.

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Consumer Choice, Risk & Safety with Fred Roeder

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 19:30:00 +1100

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Where is the line between risk and regulation? In this episode of The Stutchbury Sessions, Fred Roeder from the Consumer Choice Center dives into how consumers should stand against overregulation and embrace technological innovation for a more prosperous and free future. Michael Stutchbury and Fred Roeder discuss everything from ride sharing platforms to life and death medical innovations.

The Consumer Choice Center is an independent, non-partisan consumer advocacy group championing the benefits of freedom of choice, innovation, and abundance in everyday life.

Watch this content here: https://youtu.be/_2XkdpUSHGg

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Dark Forces at Work? Sir Frank Lowy on the Return of Antisemitism

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 21:25:09 +1100

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In this episode of The Stutchbury Sessions, host Michael Stutchbury reflects on his recent conversation with Sir Frank Lowy — the 95-year-old founder of the Westfield shopping centre empire and one of Australia’s most successful 20th-century immigrants.

Speaking from his Sydney home ahead of returning to Israel, Sir Frank offered a rare and emotional perspective on the country that gave him refuge and opportunity — and the unease he now feels about the rise of antisemitism in Australia. “I am 95 years old and came here when I was 21, and I prospered, and people prospered with me,” he said. “Now I am at an absolute loss to describe what has happened to Australia.”

To learn more about our research in this area, please click here: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/the-new-intolerance-antisemitism-and-religious-hatred-in-a-fracturing-civic-compact/

The Renewables Honeymoon Is Over | Michael Stutchbury

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 12:56:09 +1100

Australia’s “renewables honeymoon” is ending and the energy bill is coming due.

In this episode of The Stutchbury Sessions, we unpack the myth that government planning can fix every problem, from the $52 billion NDIS blowout to Labor’s net zero ambitions. Drawing on Friedrich Hayek’s timeless warning against the “conceit of planners,” Michael Stutchbury explores how Australia’s big-spending policies, from the NBN to Gonski and now the renewables transition, have delivered diminishing returns, rising costs, and lost productivity.

Stutchbury also covers:

Why Australia’s decarbonisation plan may never meet 2030 or 2050 targets
The real reason power prices keep rising despite “free” solar and wind
How subsidies and political conceit mask the true costs of energy policy
Why a new political bargain — including nuclear and gas — may be inevitable

This is a must-listen for anyone interested in energy policy, economic reform, Hayekian economics, and the future of net zero in Australia.

Research mentioned:

The Renewable Energy Honeymoon: starting is easy, the rest is hard: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/the-renewable-energy-honeymoon-starting-is-easy-the-rest-is-hard/

The New Leviathan: A National Disability Insurance Scheme: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/the-new-leviathan-a-national-disability-insurance-scheme-3/

Gorillas In The Mist. How government obscures its spending: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/gorillas-in-the-mist-how-government-obscures-its-spending/

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Iron, Ideas, and Abundance: Supply Side Mistakes and Lessons

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 06:00:00 +1000

Iron, Ideas, and Abundance: Supply Side Mistakes and Lessons

This week on The Stutchbury Sessions, Michael reflects on his recent visit to Western Australia, the engine room of the nation’s prosperity.

From the billion tonnes of iron ore dug out of the Pilbara to the decades-long export ban that once kept Australia poor, this episode revisits how lifting restrictions unlocked one of the greatest booms in our history. It’s a lesson in abundance: when governments get out of the way, entrepreneurs and investors unleash prosperity.

Read our recent productivity research:

Addressing Australia’s Productivity Problem. CORE Blueprint to Unshackle Productivity: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/addressing-australias-productivity-problem-core-blueprint-to-unshackle-productivity/

The Productivity Problem. Australia’s Growth Slump Is Undermining Prosperity: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/the-productivity-problem-australias-growth-slump-is-undermining-prosperity/

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Why Australians Vote for Big Government

Fri, 19 Sep 2025 13:52:11 +1000

Why are Australians voting for bigger government? In this episode of The Stutchbury Sessions, we explore the paradox of a wealthy nation choosing more handouts, higher spending, and larger public debt. From cost-of-living subsidies to universal childcare, Australians are increasingly embracing policies that expand the welfare state, even as they fuel deficits and weaken productivity.

Drawing on CIS research from Robert Carling and recent remarks by Liberal leader Sussan Ley, we unpack the rise of “voting for a living,” where more than half of Australians now rely on government for most of their income. What does this mean for future taxpayers, younger workers, and Australia’s long-term prosperity?

Join us as we tackle the culture of dependency, the risks of a $1 trillion public debt, and the political challenge of saying no to endless handouts.

Read or listen to Robert Carling's Research: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/leviathan-on-the-rampage-how-the-growth-of-government-is-draining-australias-economic-vitality/

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Protests, Polarisation and Immigration

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 06:00:00 +1000

Feed your intelligence with policy research and commentary designed to enhance our liberal democracy. Join Michael Stutchbury and guests every Thursday for your 10 minute briefing.

In Australia, a growing sense of polarisation is erupting, evident in the recent 'March for Australia' rallies, where tens of thousands voiced concerns over mass migration's impact on housing, infrastructure, and wages, only to see their protests co-opted by far-right extremists and white nationalists. This mirrors the earlier pro-Palestinian marches, where genuine compassion for Gaza was tainted by support for Iran's theocratic regime. These divisions reflect a world grappling with identity, immigration, and geopolitical upheaval. Australia’s success as an immigrant nation is undeniable, yet mismanaged housing policies have fueled misdirected anger toward migrants. As global powers like Putin, Xi, and Kim Jong-un challenge the liberal order, Australia must counter these cultural rifts with honest, fact-based debate to preserve our cohesion and shared future.

Michael Stutchbury is the former Editor-in-Chief of The Australian Financial Review, a role he held from 2011 until 2024, when he became the masthead's Editor-at-Large. With a career in journalism spanning several decades, and including a stint as a Washington correspondent, he is widely respected for his expertise in economic and public policy issues and his engagement with business issues. Before leading the Financial Review, he served as Economics Editor and later as Editor of The Australian, where he played a key role in shaping national discourse on fiscal policy, industrial relations, and economic reform. His career has consistently demonstrated a strong grasp of the interplay between government policy and market dynamics, making him a prominent voice in debates over taxation, regulation, and productivity.

Relevant Research: The Future of Australian Multiculturalism: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/the-future-of-australian-multiculturalism/
Fractured Loyalties. Australian citizenship and the crisis of civic virtue: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/fractured-loyalties-australian-citizenship-and-the-crisis-of-civic-virtue/
Reconciling value pluralism and national identity: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/the-ties-that-bind-reconciling-value-pluralism-and-national-identity-in-australia/

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Our Prosperity is Slipping Away | Michael Stutchbury

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 06:00:00 +1000

In this inaugural edition, CIS Executive Director and former Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Financial Review, Michael Stutchbury, outlines how Australia once enjoyed extraordinary prosperity, built on bipartisan reforms of the 1980s and 1990s that liberalized markets, cut tariffs, and opened the economy to global competition.

Yet, since prosperity peaked in 2011–12, signs of decline have mounted: stagnant productivity, shrinking real incomes, persistent deficits, mounting debt, weak business investment, soaring energy costs, and a lower growth potential as estimated by the RBA.

The problem is not simply cyclical, Stutchbury says. As politics shifted from creating wealth to redistributing it, spending grew while reform stalled. New entitlements and universal programs have expanded government outlays, crowding out private investment.

To restore prosperity, Australia must pursue the four reforms outlined in this episode.

Australia has reinvented itself before; it must find the courage to do so again.

Preview: The Stutchbury Sessions

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 13:41:45 +1000

Join Michael Stutchbury, former Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Financial Review, in his brand-new show The Stutchbury Sessions. Don’t navigate Australia’s economic turbulence alone. Get ready for razor-sharp analysis backed by data and logic.

Don’t miss an episode. Policies evolve, and opportunities vanish, so here’s your chance to stay ahead of the pack. Subscribe to The Stutchbury Sessions on your favourite platform today.