Recent Australian laws risk undermining fundamental freedoms and weakening the principles that underpin a democratic society. In The Rule of Law, Excessive Regulation and Free Speech, Dr Paul M Taylor argues that government responses to challenges such as misinformation, online harms, privacy and hate speech are increasingly disproportionate and, in some cases, ineffective. “While governments are right and bound to protect citizens from genuine harm, measures that curtail political expression, encourage censorship, or prioritise one right over another threaten the very principles of accountability and fairness that the rule of law is designed to safeguard,” Dr Taylor says. The paper highlights several recent developments, including:

• The proposed misinformation bills, which would have incentivised excessive censorship without adequate safeguards for free expression.

• The expansion of the eSafety Commissioner’s powers, raising concerns about transparency, accountability and overreach.

• The rushed passage of privacy and social media legislation, with inadequate parliamentary scrutiny.

• The introduction of criminal hate speech provisions that lower the threshold for liability and remove long-standing protections for legitimate public debate.

According to Dr Taylor, these examples suggest that governments may be adopting an increasingly protective stance that risks subordinating individual freedoms to collective interests. He calls for a renewed commitment to rule of law principles: transparency, proportionality, accountability, and full respect for fundamental human rights. “The rule of law is meant to be more than just theoretical,” Dr Taylor says. “It ensures that power is exercised fairly and responsibly, that laws are clear and predictable, and that rights are properly protected for all. If these principles are weakened, democracy itself is diminished.” The paper concludes with a call to reassert the rule of law in Australian governance, warning that without vigilance and cultural commitment, recent trends may erode freedoms that citizens have long relied upon.

Dr Paul Taylor is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the T. C. Beirne School of Law, and Fellow of the Centre for Public, International and Comparative Law; Adjunct Professor at the School of Law, The University of Notre Dame Australia; and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

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/ 👉 Help Australia: 🔹 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/

Listen to our new show, The Stutchbury Sessions on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM or listen on your browser. Watch this episode here: https://youtu.be/sv9pXQxa9bo

In this episode of Liberalism in Question, host Robert Forsyth engages in a thought-provoking discussion with Mark Leach, co-founder and CEO of "Never Again Is Now", on the rise of anti-Semitism in Australia, the erosion of Western liberal values, and the need for cultural renewal. They explore how anti-Semitism is a broader threat to Australian society, rooted in declining confidence in Western civilisation's core principles like individualism, equality, and pluralism.

👉 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/

👉 Help Australia: 🔹 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/

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. Subscribe to The Stutchbury Sessions on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM or listen on your browser.

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.