Key Research Findings This report examines the way in which the history of Australia is currently being taught in Australian universities. It is based on a systematic review of all 147 Australian...
While England was in the middle of tearing itself apart during the Civil War, Oliver Cromwell and his fellow puritans were so profoundly offended by the singing of Christmas carols that they...
“The Morrison government’s proposed religious discrimination laws will be a ticking time bomb for freedom of belief in Australia,” said Morgan Begg, Research Fellow and author of the Institute of...
Last week, thousands of angry and emotional schoolchildren carrying an array of crudely-made placards bearing messages of varying degrees of originality took to the streets of Sydney to protest...
Historian Alex Ryrie expounds Martin Luther’s profound influence on the modern world but also explains Protestantism can’t take all the credit for the rise of tolerance and freedom, writes Richard...
Stan Lee’s contribution to modern pop culture was nearly without comparison. His creations in the pages of Marvel Comics – the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, the...
In this review of “Skin in the Game; Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life”, Scott Hargreaves argues that Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s writings on the benefits of a stake in risks—‘skin in the...
Two weeks on, the Wentworth byelection result continues to be the Rorschach test of Australian politics in 2018. Pundits and politicians are interpreting the outcome to mean whatever they want it...
The Liberals should stop trying to play identity politics. They’re not very good at it and they should leave that sort of thing to the Labor Party. The race/class/gender/religion card is a...
For the hundreds of millions of people worldwide who watched Apollo 11 land on the moon in 1969, there are few moments more iconic than the vision of astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin...
Recently, Erik Jensen, founding editor of the Saturday Paper and convener of the Horne Prize for essays, had been so struck by what he considered to be an intolerable amount of ‘chauvinism and...
In a public debate in Canada a few months ago with the psychologist Jordan Peterson and the philosopher Sam Harris, Bret Weinstein, the American evolutionary biologist, got to the heart of the...
Australia’s universities are public institutions with a corresponding legal responsibility to uphold free expression. This point was made by former High Court chief justice Robert French last week...
The federal government needs to introduce US-style campus free-speech legislation to safeguard free intellectual inquiry and open debate at Australia’s universities. We are in the midst of a...
Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie is only the latest politician to mistakenly suggest that Australia Day celebrates the arrival of Captain Cook on our shores, as reported in her hometown...
The University of Sydney is encouraging censorship by charging security fees to student event organisers, according to free market think tank the Institute Public Affairs. University of Sydney...
The story of Scott Morrison since he became Prime Minister a few weeks ago is very much the story of a boss in the modern-day Australian workplace. On one hand Morrison is attempting to do his...
In recent years behaviours on university campuses have created widespread unease. Safe spaces, trigger warnings, and speech codes. Demands for speakers to be disinvited. Words construed...
