What You Need To Know About | CIS

About What You Need To Know About | CIS

Feed your intelligence with policy research and commentary designed to enhance our liberal democracy. Join Michael Stutchbury and guests every Thursday for your 10 minute briefing. Michael Stutchbury is the former Editor-in-Chief of The Australian Financial Review, a role he held from 2011 until 2024, when he became the masthead's Editor-at-Large. With a career in journalism spanning several decades, and including a stint as a Washington correspondent, he is widely respected for his expertise in economic and public policy issues and his engagement with business issues. Before leading the Financial Review, he served as Economics Editor and later as Editor of The Australian, where he played a key role in shaping national discourse on fiscal policy, industrial relations, and economic reform. His career has consistently demonstrated a strong grasp of the interplay between government policy and market dynamics, making him a prominent voice in debates over taxation, regulation, and productivity.

Publisher

The Centre For Independent Studies

Category

government · news · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

24 Aug 2023

Latest episode

8 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

26 of 50 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   8 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT

   "Woolworths and Coles pay about 98% of revenue to stakeholders" | Brett Stevenson

   Michael Stutchbury interviews Brett Stevenson, author of "The Discipline of Profit," exploring supermarket financial accounts to settle the debate on alleged excessive profits.

2. 

   6 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Classrooms in Crisis: Why Australian Kids Are Losing 12 Weeks a Year | Blaise Joseph

   Michael Stutchbury interviews CIS Education Director Blaise Joseph about how classroom disruption costs Australian students 12 weeks of learning annually.

3. 

   27 Aug 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Australia’s workplace relations system is holding back growth, wages and opportunity | Graeme Watson

   Michael Stutchbury interviews the Hon Graeme Watson, former Vice President of the Fair Work Commission, on how Australia's workplace relations system hinders growth and wages.

Inside a recent episode

"Woolworths and Coles pay about 98% of revenue to stakeholders" | Brett Stevenson

Published 8 Sept 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] In a way, Michael, that's the story of most public companies. It's not often portrayed like that. Often the profit line is seen as a negative. But really, the vast majority of the money that goes into a business is paid out to all the people who keep the business going. So in the case of the big supermarkets that we're talking about and the net profit and 2% of it going to shareholders, well, 80% of that 2% goes out as dividend to them. 20% is of that 2% so we're really slicing it up now is retained in the business to invest it in future growth I suppose and that dividend goes to often you think of business and it's characterised as big business we're thinking of some sort of big fat cat big business sort of thing but really in Australia the supermarkets are very widely held the ownership is widely held and I think it's 400,000 shareholders of Coles and Woolworths have got 375,000 plus just about every working Australian would have Coles or Woolworths in their superannuation front. […]

Who has been a guest on What You Need To Know About | CIS

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Brett Stevenson
• Blaise Joseph
• Graeme Watson
• Peter Tulip
• Parnell Palm McGuinness

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

18,047,760

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 46 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

44

Social presence

0

YouTube

93

Engagement

27

Contact What You Need To Know About | CIS

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Questions about What You Need To Know About | CIS