As part of the Centre for Independent Studies annual Christmas Soirée, this episode explores the ever expanding reach of the modern nanny state through the lens of the 2025 Nanny State Award shortlist.

Presented by Peter Kurti, Director of CIS’s Culture, Prosperity and Civil Society program, the discussion surveys some of the most striking examples of government and institutional overreach from the past year. A recurring theme emerges around food, drink and lifestyle choices, with growing efforts to regulate not just behaviour but taste, advertising and personal preference.

From bans and planning controls to warning labels, taxes and compliance schemes, the episode examines how well intentioned policies can slide into excessive paternalism, often at significant cost to taxpayers and civil liberties. It also touches on expanding regulation beyond government, including activism that seeks to reshape sport, family life and everyday habits.

Witty, sharp and unapologetically sceptical, this conversation asks a larger question. When does public interest become intrusion, and how much control over ordinary life are Australians prepared to accept.

Recorded live at the Centre for Independent Studies annual Christmas Soirée.

Senator Andrew Bragg and economist Peter Tulip join Michael Stutchbury for a wide-ranging conversation on Australia’s housing crisis, the politics of supply, and the future of home ownership. Senator Bragg outlines a centre-right vision for reviving the Australian dream, arguing that housing policy should prioritise freeing up land, cutting red tape, and empowering the private sector to build. Tulip, whose research has reshaped the national debate, examines why zoning restrictions, construction bottlenecks, and infrastructure delays have made housing increasingly unattainable for younger Australians.

This discussion explores the causes and consequences of Australia’s housing shortage: soaring construction costs, record migration, stalled supply, and the interaction between demand-side subsidies and house prices. Bragg critiques Labor’s Housing Australia Future Fund, expanded 5% deposit scheme, and regulatory approach, questioning whether these measures inadvertently inflate prices rather than improve affordability. Tulip contrasts these views with economic evidence showing that planning reform, density, and infrastructure provision are crucial to increasing supply — and highlights surprising areas of bipartisan agreement that have emerged in recent years.

Despite their shared commitment to increasing housing supply, Bragg and Tulip offer contrasting perspectives on key questions: Should governments play a larger role in public and community housing, or should policy overwhelmingly rely on markets? Do deposit guarantees and super-for-housing empower first-home buyers or simply push prices higher? And can the political system overcome entrenched NIMBY resistance to allow the density required to bring prices down? The conversation reveals a genuine debate within centre-right thinking — Bragg’s call for an “unabashed YIMBY” movement meets Tulip’s economic analysis of migration, productivity, and supply-side reform. Together, they examine red tape in the National Construction Code, the tradie shortage, the politics of leafy-suburb resistance, and the risk that declining home ownership poses to Australia’s social contract. This is a candid exchange that doesn’t shy away from hard policy disagreements or the urgency of the crisis.

Senator Andrew Bragg is the Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness and Shadow Minister for Productivity and Deregulation, known for his advocacy of housing supply, deregulation, and intergenerational fairness. Peter Tulip is Chief Economist at the Centre for Independent Studies and one of Australia’s leading housing policy researchers, whose work on zoning and supply constraints has shaped national debate.

This event was presented by the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, Australia. Recorded live at CIS’s Macquarie Street lunch forum.

Three leading education ministers — Sir Nick Gibb (UK), Erica Stanford (New Zealand), and Jason Clare (Australia) — come together for a rare and deeply insightful conversation about how to rebuild school systems, lift student achievement, and close the disadvantage gap. Hosted by the Centre for Independent Studies at NSW Parliament House, this discussion explores the real evidence behind what works in classrooms and what doesn’t.

Sir Nick Gibb shares the inside story of England’s education turnaround: the nationwide shift to phonics, a knowledge-rich curriculum, explicit teaching, strong behaviour standards, and school autonomy. He explains how these reforms reversed years of decline, elevated England to 4th in the world for reading, and empowered teachers to teach with confidence. Gibb also recounts the political, ideological, and institutional battles required to replace ineffective progressive approaches with methods proven to work — especially for disadvantaged students.

Erica Stanford, New Zealand’s Education Minister, offers a compelling and urgent account of reform in a system where half of 15-year-olds fail basic reading, writing, and maths standards. She outlines New Zealand’s shift to structured literacy, explicit teaching, phonics checks, and a knowledge-rich curriculum designed to stop “lost generations” of students. Stanford emphasises how every year of delay condemns tens of thousands of children to long-term educational failure, and why rigorous evidence, data, and teacher training are central to reversing the decline.

Jason Clare, Australia’s Education Minister, focuses on the country’s widening achievement gap and the need to ensure every child gains strong foundational skills by Year 3. He explains how early education access, phonics screening, tutoring programs, and teacher-training reforms are critical to helping struggling students catch up. Clare describes education as the great equaliser — the “superpower” that shapes life chances — and argues that overcoming entrenched disadvantage requires bipartisan commitment, sustained evidence-driven policy, and system-wide consistency.

Recorded live at NSW Parliament House, presented by the Centre for Independent Studies.