Cian Hussey

Adjunct Fellow
Cian Hussey joined the Institute of Public Affairs as a Research Associate in 2019.
He is interested in the impacts of red tape on small businesses and the broader economy. His work at the IPA focuses on using RegData Australia to quantitatively analyse the impacts of regulation.
Cian received a Bachelor of Arts from The University of Notre Dame Australia, majoring in Politics and International Relations.

20 December 2022
Tomorrow Never Knows
If educator and novelist John Marsden agrees our kids should be free to take risks; why not also adults?, wonders IPA Adjunct Fellow Cian Hussey. How ironic for a book called Take Risks to come out at the height of the panic-driven response to COVID. As former Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on numerous occasions, we adopted a ‘safety only’

22 August 2022
Let Pensioners And Veterans Shore Up Our Worker Shortage
The upcoming Jobs and Skills Summit in Australia, to be held on Sept. 1 to 2, must bring immediate reform to address worker shortages crippling Australian businesses. Australia is in the midst of a worker shortage crisis, with almost 500,000 job vacancies across the country. This is holding businesses back as they try to recover from the past two and

19 August 2022
Do We Fill Job Vacancies With Pensioners Or Migrants?
This article was originally published in The Spectator Australia. In this article, Cian Hussey contextualises and disseminates the findings of the IPA’s research into Australia’s worker shortage crisis and how that affects Australia’s economic freedom and prosperity. The IPA has been dedicated to preserving and strengthening the foundations of economic freedom through research and analysis since its inception in 1943.

3 August 2022
Age Pensioners Key To Solving Australia’s Labour Crunch
Featured Image Credit: Dean Alston/The West Australian I used to work at a community newspaper where I met some pretty interesting characters. One of the particularly eccentric ones among a group of older workers who came in to fold newspapers on distribution day used to pack up her things at strange times long before her colleagues. She was a pensioner and,

4 May 2022
Rising Red Tape Under The Morrison Government Is Strangling Australian Business
When the federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg remarked on the inspiration he takes from the Thatcher and Reagan governments in July 2020, he gave Australians an insight into what he had planned for the economic recovery following the pandemic. “… not everyone is a Keynesian and thinking about income support. It is important to go to the supply side. Thatcher, Reagan,

24 February 2022
Australian Notes
Why on earth are we stopping people who want to work from working? I used to work at a community newspaper where I met some pretty interesting characters. One of the particularly eccentric ones, among a group of older workers who came in to fold newspapers on distribution day, used to pack up her things at odd times long before

31 January 2022
Don’t Pass This On
What happened in Wuhan is a worry but what’s happening here now is even more disturbing, argues IPA Adjunct Fellow Cian Hussey. Until quite recently, few journalists were willing to even report on the possibility COVID-19 originated in a laboratory. Sharri Markson is an exception, and deserves credit for this. When the new coronavirus emerged in late 2019 and early

21 December 2021
Legislating On Social Media Is No Remedy For Alienation
It’s clear that social media does great damage to the minds and psychological wellbeing of young people. Perhaps legislation can do something to address this, but to try to do so may be to embrace “safetyism” and ignore root causes. To fix the problem of psychological stress exacerbated by social media requires an understanding of why so many young people

13 December 2021
Pandemic’s Great Divide
The west’s ’Doers’ aren’t happy with their Covid-era treatment, and it shows in council election results Comparing the results of the local government elections between the outer western suburbs and the inner-city tells the story of a divided state and nation. In July of this year, almost a month into the Greater Sydney lockdown, the Mayor of Fairfield, Frank Carbone,

28 November 2021
Holden’s 73rd Anniversary: Reflections on Australian Manufacturing
The post-World War II era was a golden age for Australia. Australians were united around their shared values, including democracy, egalitarianism, free speech, and the fair go—along with widespread economic growth and prosperity. This period gave birth to what cannot be called the Australian “dream” because it was so widely attained: owning a home in the suburbs and raising a