Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Current and former CIS staff joined founder Greg Lindsay and a small gathering of directors and early supporters for a morning tea to mark our 50th anniversary and the unveiling of a mural in our Macquarie St offices covering a timeline of CIS achievements.
Joining us were former prime minister John Howard, who spoke at the CIS 30th dinner in 2016, Tony Abbott and former NSW premier and foreign minister Bob Carr.
The informal gathering of CIS family harked back to the first day of CIS, April 26, 1976, in a backyard shed of Greg’s Sydney home in Pennant Hills.
CIS then was one of the small number of voices calling for a different course for the nation, one based on smaller government, lower taxation, less regulation, and more individual choice. The impact of that has been profound.
The mural timeline put together by Sue Windybank and Simone Ericsson highlighted the extraordinary people who have been involved in CIS over the past half century: from Nobel Laureates Milton Friedman and James Buchanan, political leaders from Gough Whitlam to Roger Douglas and Chris Minns, business leaders including Rupert Murdoch, historians Francis Fukuyama and Niall Ferguson, scholars on indigenous issues including Helen Hughes and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Reserve Bank governors including Glenn Stevens.
Greg conceived CIS as a centre of alternative ideas to the big spending and high inflation of the Whitlam years in government. The ideas could come from strong research with an academic bias.
“The output was to be papers, reports, monographs, books, talks, conferences, and so on,” he said.
“That is still the case and I'm very pleased with that. You change the thinking for the better with well-argued better ideas and not a press release.”
Tony Abbott said the Hawke and Howard governments were responsible for decades of economic reform and growth.
"And it was very much driven, supported, sustained, encouraged by the work of the Centre for Independent Studies. And by God, we need that again. We need your voice loud and clear in the land once more,” he said.
Bob Carr said he was on the CIS side in our education work.
Among the guests were Fran Collie and her husband David Hart. “We're the ones that shared the house in Pennant Hills with Greg, 50 years ago, when this was started,” Fran said.
"The three of us met campaigning in 1975. And we all had a similar philosophy. And we all remember the shed.”
Wednesday’s function will be followed by more formal and grander events to mare our 50th year. Watch out for details.
👉 Support CIS Research:
🔹 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/
______________________________________________________________________________________________
CIS promotes free choice and individual liberty and the open exchange of ideas. CIS encourages debate among leading academics, politicians, media and the public. We aim to make sure good policy ideas are heard and seriously considered so that Australia can prosper. Follow CIS on our Socials;
Twitter - twitter.com/CISOZ
Facebook - facebook.com/CentreIndependentStudies
Linkedin - linkedin.com/company/the-centre-for-independent-studies
Telegram - https://t.me/centreforindependentstudies
📖 Read more from CIS here: https://www.cis.org.au/
💬 Join in the conversation in the comments.
👍 Like this video if you enjoyed it and want to see more, it really helps us out!
🔔 Subscribe to our channel and click the bell to watch our videos first: youtube.com/channel/UC5c-JkKHb0YxFZ81XBtFCmw?sub_confirmation=1
⏲️ Missed this event live? Subscribe to CIS to be up to date with all our events:
https://www.cis.org.au/subscribe/
📝 Subscribe to CIS mailing list- https://www.cis.org.au/subscribe/
💳 Support us with a tax-deductible donation at - https://www.cis.org.au/support/
Current and former CIS staff joined founder Greg Lindsay and a small gathering of directors and early supporters for a morning tea to mark our 50th anniversary and the unveiling of a mural in our Macquarie St offices covering a timeline of CIS achievements.
Joining us were former prime minister John Howard, who spoke at the CIS 30th dinner in 2016, Tony Abbott and former NSW premier and foreign minister Bob Carr.
The informal gathering of CIS family harked back to the first day of CIS, April 26, 1976, in a backyard shed of Greg’s Sydney home in Pennant Hills.
CIS then was one of the small number of voices calling for a different course for the nation, one based on smaller government, lower taxation, less regulation, and more individual choice. The impact of that has been profound.
The mural timeline put together by Sue Windybank and Simone Ericsson highlighted the extraordinary people who have been involved in CIS over the past half century: from Nobel Laureates Milton Friedman and James Buchanan, political leaders from Gough Whitlam to Roger Douglas and Chris Minns, business leaders including Rupert Murdoch, historians Francis Fukuyama and Niall Ferguson, scholars on indigenous issues including Helen Hughes and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Reserve Bank governors including Glenn Stevens.
Greg conceived CIS as a centre of alternative ideas to the big spending and high inflation of the Whitlam years in government. The ideas could come from strong research with an academic bias.
“The output was to be papers, reports, monographs, books, talks, conferences, and so on,” he said.
“That is still the case and I'm very pleased with that. You change the thinking for the better with well-argued better ideas and not a press release.”
Tony Abbott said the Hawke and Howard governments were responsible for decades of economic reform and growth.
"And it was very much driven, supported, sustained, encouraged by the work of the Centre for Independent Studies. And by God, we need that again. We need your voice loud and clear in the land once more,” he said.
Bob Carr said he was on the CIS side in our education work.
Among the guests were Fran Collie and her husband David Hart. “We're the ones that shared the house in Pennant Hills with Greg, 50 years ago, when this was started,” Fran said.
"The three of us met campaigning in 1975. And we all had a similar philosophy. And we all remember the shed.”
Wednesday’s function will be followed by more formal and grander events to mare our 50th year. Watch out for details.
👉 Support CIS Research:
🔹 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/
______________________________________________________________________________________________
CIS promotes free choice and individual liberty and the open exchange of ideas. CIS encourages debate among leading academics, politicians, media and the public. We aim to make sure good policy ideas are heard and seriously considered so that Australia can prosper. Follow CIS on our Socials;
Twitter - twitter.com/CISOZ
Facebook - facebook.com/CentreIndependentStudies
Linkedin - linkedin.com/company/the-centre-for-independent-studies
Telegram - https://t.me/centreforindependentstudies
📖 Read more from CIS here: https://www.cis.org.au/
💬 Join in the conversation in the comments.
👍 Like this video if you enjoyed it and want to see more, it really helps us out!
🔔 Subscribe to our channel and click the bell to watch our videos first: youtube.com/channel/UC5c-JkKHb0YxFZ81XBtFCmw?sub_confirmation=1
⏲️ Missed this event live? Subscribe to CIS to be up to date with all our events:
https://www.cis.org.au/subscribe/
📝 Subscribe to CIS mailing list- https://www.cis.org.au/subscribe/
💳 Support us with a tax-deductible donation at - https://www.cis.org.au/support/
