John Roskam
Senior Fellow
John Roskam is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Australian Way of Life at the Institute of Public Affairs. He served as Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs from 2005 to 2022. Before joining the IPA he taught political theory at the University of Melbourne. He was previously the Executive Director of The Menzies Research Centre in Canberra, has been a senior adviser and chief of staff to federal and state education ministers, and was the manager of government and corporate affairs for a global mining company.
His publications include Australia's Education Choices (with Professor Brian Caldwell), 'Terrorism and Poverty' in Blaming Ourselves, 'Liberalism and Social Welfare' in Liberalism and the Australian Federation, and 'The Liberal Party and the Great Split' in The Split Fifty Years Later.
His fortnightly column appears in The Australian Financial Review. He is a member of the Editorial Board of The Australian Journal of Public Administration, and Connor Court Publishing, and the Advisory Board of The Centre for Advanced Journalism at the University of Melbourne. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration, Australia in Victoria, and is an Honorary Fellow of Campion College.
22 March 2019
The Unions Unsheath Their Super Weapon
Bill Kelty knew exactly what he was doing when 40 years ago, he and a few others first developed the idea of government-enforced compulsory superannuation. Superannuation was, is, and will be for the foreseeable future an essential part of the industrial armoury of the Australian trade union movement. Control of superannuation gives the union movement an influence over the factors
8 March 2019
Shorten’s Alternative IR Reality Based On Trumpian Alternative Facts
This week the Prime Minister got his wish. On Tuesday, in his speech to The Australian Financial Review Business Summit, Scott Morrison wanted to get the media talking about the risk of a recession under a Labor government. On Wednesday we learned Australia was actually already in a recession, at least as measured by economic growth per head. The release
21 February 2019
The NAB Board Will Pay A Heavy Price
The story of the resignation from NAB of its chief executive Andrew Thorburn and its chairman Ken Henry after the Hayne royal commission is instructive. It reveals just how hopeless the boards of directors are of most big businesses in Australia. What happened at NAB demonstrates that, these days, directors are more likely to make the easy and supposedly popular
8 February 2019
Banking Royal Commission: Duplicitous Banks, Foolish Borrowers
The funniest thing to come out of the Hayne royal commission is a story that appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald on Monday. Titled “I’m amazed they approved me: CBA lashed for lending to the naive”, the article began as follows. “One victim of irresponsible lending, 24-year-old Georgia Clark, believes the banking royal commission’s recommendations are a missed opportunity to protect the
6 February 2019
Special Episode – Churchill: Walking With Destiny
In this special episode of The Looking Forward Podcast Dr Chris Berg and Scott Hargreaves are joined by John Roskam, Executive Director of the IPA to interview former guest of the IPA in 2012 Andrew Roberts, author of the international bestseller Churchill: Walking With Destiny about the book, the life and times of Winston Churchill and his legacy today. They also discuss the modern
25 January 2019
Australians And Their Original Sin
In his book The Strange Death of Europe – Immigration, Identity, and Islam the British writer Douglas Murray compares the attitude many Australians have about their country’s history to that of the Europeans. “Whereas for contemporary Europeans, colonialism is just one of our middle-ranking, midway sins, for Australians, colonialism has become the nation’s founding, original sin. And not because like European nations
11 January 2019
Federal Election: A Paltry Policy Battleground
With this year’s federal election now only a few months away, the main themes of the Liberals’ campaign are becoming clear. The Liberals will spend a lot of time talking about Labor’s policies on two particular issues – border protection and taxes. It’s says a great deal about the Liberals’ policy development processes (or lack thereof) that after more than
20 December 2018
The Great Books of Literature Podcast – Bonus Episode: On Reading 10 Great Books
In this bonus episode of the IPA’s Great Books of Literature Podcast, John Roskam and Andrew Bolt talk about which book was their favourite, which characters stuck out for them, which author’s life was most interesting to learn about and what they learned from reading 10 of the great books of Western Civilisation
20 December 2018
The Great Books of Literature Podcast – Episode 10: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Brothers Karamazov is one of the most influential books ever written. Dostoevsky uses the book to explore morality, religion and the concept of free will. In this episode, John Roskam and Andrew Bolt discuss the book, its themes and the life of Dostoevsky
14 December 2018
When Politicians Desert Their Voters
These days much is made of the so-called “crisis of democracy” in the West. At one level it’s hard to disagree with the view that even if democracy is not in crisis, at a minimum it is facing some not-insubstantial challenges. That yesterday in London 200 Tory MPs could vote to keep in power Theresa May, a Prime Minister who is
