Posts

Unity through honesty must carry the stage

,

Published in the Spectator 6 October 2022

There often comes a time when a friend has to put his arm around a mate who is behaving badly and ask what’s going on. The Liberal Party and I had such a moment on Sunday during my speech at CPAC.

The Liberal Party seemed to consider CPAC as an opportunity to restore their conservative credentials and engage in a membership drive to the exclusion of other conservative parties, including One Nation.

The Liberals were staking their claim to an unearned (and undeserved) conservative voting ground. It was for this reason that I changed my speech on Sunday morning to start a conversation on what should be expected of a conservative politician.

CPAC was an amazing event, I congratulate the organisers for all their hard work.

While the speakers on the stage were excellent, what was even better was the full and frank conversation I had with attendees representing the full spectrum of conservative thought.

My speech condensed the advice I received from attendees into a six-minute critique of the Liberal Party.

On Saturday morning, the Outsiders panel with Spectator Australia editor Rowan Dean and fellow Sky News Australia co-hosts Rita Panahi and James Morrow declared Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Katherine Deves as Australia’s bravest women. I absolutely agree that Jacinta and Katherine are brave, intelligent, and strong women. Amazing women. Each is a credit to the conservative movement.

However, they are not Australia’s bravest women. That title has gone to Pauline Hanson for the last 25 years.

Pauline has fought the very battles frequently mentioned during CPAC – those battles to protect family, community, Christianity, Australia’s borders, the Indigenous industry, our flag, veterans, and way of life from predatory political ideologies.

It is ironic that the omnipresent party at CPAC was the same party that sent Pauline to jail to shut her up – the Liberal Party.

After being released and exonerated, Pauline put aside her time as Australia’s first political prisoner to lead One Nation in the fight for conservative values.

This should never be forgotten, especially with the release of a new national anti-corruption body lacking in checks and balances One Nation expected to be there.

In this last Parliament, Australia’s Covid response asked many questions of our elected leaders. Questions like:

What happened to my body my choice?

What happened to the vaccine approval process?

What happened to freedom of movement and freedom of association?

What happened to the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship?

What happened to free speech?

And how could a virus infect you in a small business, but not in a big business?

One Nation went to this last election defending conservative values and fighting for your freedom.

Senator Ralph Babet and the UAP were also there defending your freedom. The Liberal Democrats were there standing up against the genuinely evil Daniel Andrews regime in Victoria. Commentator and documentary filmmaker Topher Field was arrested for his courage and went on to produce the award-winning documentary Battleground Melbourne that I urge all Australians to watch.

What did the Liberal Party, which is now asking for your support, do in the last election? They chose to preference the Labor Party ahead of One Nation in many races, in the end delivering the Senate to the ALP.

And why was Peter Dutton and the Senior Liberal Party leadership absent from CPAC if conservatism is written large in the DNA of the Liberal Party?

Former Prime Ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott prepared messages, so why not members of the Liberal Party leadership who hold power? Why are they hiding from conservatives?

Attendees at CPAC want to see the Liberals rediscover their roots in true liberalism, although it would be unbelievable if the Liberals achieved that task in a single weekend. It could be argued that their performance over the weekend and subsequent defence of it has worsened their position within the conservative movement.

Many Liberal Party voters believe that the party quite simply sold Australia out.

‘You betrayed us!’ echoed from the crowd at one point, amid boos after some in the party misread the sentiment of the room. To those on stage who insisted that the behaviour of the Liberals was ‘not as bad as Labor’, we ask:

Who was it that locked Western Sydney residents into their homes and put troops on the streets to keep them there – that was the Liberal Berejiklian government.

Who closed their state off to the rest of Australia, imposed business closures, restricted movement, and forced medical mandates on their citizens – that was the Liberal Marshall government.

Who changed the rules to allow emergency health orders under the Biosecurity Act, and then tore up the vaccine approval rule book, while sharing the vaccine status of citizens with anyone who wanted to see it?

That was the Liberal Morrison government.

With the benefit of hindsight, we know the measures taken by the old parties, including the so-called conservative Liberal and National parties, were wrong and probably resulted in more loss of life than if the virus had been treated as a flu.

Australian Actuarial Data shows for the 3 months to March 2022 deaths from respiratory diseases, including Covid, the flu, and pneumonia were 7 per cent lower than the long-term average.

Put simply, Covid is now less deadly than the flu, based on overall deaths.

What that actuarial data also showed was that deaths from heart disease were up 10 per cent, Cerebrovascular disease was up 5 per cent, and Australia’s death rate overall is 13 per cent above the expected rate – all this despite respiratory deaths being 7 per cent down.

Why are deaths spiking?

There never was a firm or consensus medical basis for the measures that were taken by the Federal Liberal Party, and State Liberal Party governments in New South Wales and South Australia – but they did it anyway.

We must have a Royal Commission to get to the bottom of all of this.

If the Liberal Party want their supporters to ‘hold the line’, as we heard during CPAC, then they need to change their leadership, change their policies, apologise for their failures, and start over.

At CPAC, I also heard a speaker in favour of retaining the two-party system of government.

I do not agree.

It was not a two-party system that delivered conservatives a victory in Italy, that was a multi-party coalition.

It was not a two-party system that delivered conservatives to government in Sweden, that was a multi-party coalition.

While Brexit did deliver the first black eye to the globalists as another speaker mentioned, the conservatives did not do that. Nigel Farage did that, working outside of the establishment parties.

And it was not the Republicans that won the Presidency in 2016, it was Donald Trump.

It will not be the Republicans that regain Congress in a month, it will be Donald Trump and his Maga movement.

And they will retake Congress over the dead body of establishment republicans.

Can a unified conservative movement achieve more than a disunited movement?

Of course it can.

That is why all these decent, everyday Australians came to CPAC. They were there to make a difference.

We are people from all parties, united in the desire to defend conservative values. We can win this fight. Just as victory in two world wars was not any nation’s alone, rather, nations came together, allied in a single cause, to defend against evil and create a future that protects freedom, family, and abundance.

After a long period of peace and prosperity, those who seek to take everything and leave us with nothing are in the ascendency.

We have been at rest too long, my friends.

We are in a war against neo-paganism masquerading as Wokeism.

We do not need to be one party to triumph over evil, but we must be one community. We must be united, we must be resolute and most importantly, we must start today.

There is no need for a single conservative party, especially not one as arrogant and out of touch as the Liberal Party.

There is however a pressing need for conservative allies to unite, and fight side by side with a clarity of mind and purpose.

And so I implore all conservatives, now is the time, as Shakespeare said so eloquently, ‘Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.’

/15 Comments/by

Government wastes $27 million on one piece of land

,

Transcript

[Marcus] Yes look I mentioned that story about Australia Post just a moment or two ago. I mean those ridiculous costings being discussed in Senate estimates and Malcolm Roberts is also involved in all of this. He joins us on the programme, hello Malcolm.

[Malcolm] Good morning Marcus, how are you mate?

[Marcus] I’m okay, busy time in Canberra at the moment, with these estimates going on.

[Malcolm] Yes it is we’re doing a combination of written submissions, written questions on notice, as well as personal appearances. So there’s a lot on–

[Marcus] Good.

[Malcolm] In Senate estimates. It’s a matter of making the best use of the time.

[Marcus] All right good work, because we need questions to be asked about really important issues, like why the government paid $30 million for the land that was later valued at just under $3 million. The previous owner now leasing back the land at a value of $1 million.

The land was owned by the Liberal Party donors, Tony and Ron Perich’s Leppington Pastoral company. What can you tell me, about this so-called Golden Leppington Triangle? Well there must be There must be gold in them there hills, there has to be. I mean I’d love to have my, any asset that I have. I’d love somebody to pay me 10 times what it’s worth.

[Malcolm] It’s more than 10 times, in overall I guess, yeah 10 times, but yeah, it’s just staggering. The land was valued without even entering the site. It just displays typical poor governance from government and federally. You know, the federal government is far too big.

It needs to get back to handing back most of its responsibilities back to the States, because they stolen from the state. And you’re not going to get accountability in government like this. And you know what’s happening Marcus, is that we’ve seen a disregard of taxpayer’s money and a bypassing of data, making decisions based upon what looks to be like mate’s needs. And we know we need an ICAC, Federal Government ICAC. The attorney general has promised one two years ago, draft bill–

[Marcus] Yup, yup.

[Malcolm] Since December, 2019, but it’s just a weak, toothless proposal. We need real governance, we need real accountability. And we need above all, a restoration of government’s primary responsibility which is to serve the people not steal from the people.

[Marcus] Yeah I mean Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, you support a federal independent commission against corruption, we absolutely 100% need one. I mean how? Look at this for poor governance. I mean, it’s typical, a disregard for taxpayers money and bypassing data.

I know you love using data, but I mean how on earth can this land be valued without anybody even entering the site for goodness sake?

[Malcolm] Well you’re absolutely correct. And you know this is big as it is. It’s tiny compared to what is going on, say in the rorting of our energy, which is destroying jobs, exporting jobs overseas. That’s why we want to chase the CSIRO, yet again in Senate estimates and I’ll be holding them accountable.

I’ve written a letter ahead of time to make the best use my time saying I want certain questions answered. This will be the fifth opportunity for the CSIRO to produce evidence that climate policies are needed. And without that, we need to scrap these policies. Why hasn’t the government done it’s due diligence at the site where the land transaction–

[Marcus] Yup.

[Malcolm] Took place, why hasn’t the government done its due diligence on the CSIRO? We’ve given the CSIRO four opportunities, this will be the fifth, they have not come up with the goods we’re destroying not $30 million worth of wealth. We’re destroying trillions of dollars worth of wealth–

[Marcus] Yup.

[Malcolm] In this state, in this country because of these climate policies that have got no basis in science. So we’re giving the CSIRO yet another attempt, a fifth opportunity to provide the evidence.

[Marcus] All right, well, as I’ve discussed with you before, I mean, in order for our economy to continue for all, in order for investment to take place whether it’s in renewables, whether it’s in nuclear, whether it’s you know in coal or anything. There needs to be something on the table from the government.

There needs to be direction right now it’s a rudderless ship and we need, you know, if you want to attract investment into any energy source, renewable or otherwise, you need to let those who may be willing to invest in our energy needs. You need to let them know a roadmap, what’s happening. There’s nothing going on at the moment.

[Malcolm] Exactly and you know the reason why Marcus? Is because there’s no basis in fact, or science or data for their climate policies, there is none at all. The CSIRO has never proven that four times to us, because they’ve failed four times. And that’s the reason why there’s so many rudderless moves, so many rudderless direction’s going on or lack of direction going on in this state–

[Marcus] Yup.

[Malcolm] In this country, because there is lack of data underpinning the policies. And therefore people just get pulled from one side to the other in parliament. They don’t know where they’re going. They’re lost, they’re in a fog. Canberra is the most destructive city in the country. And I mean that sincerely.

[Marcus] Okay.

[Malcolm] Because they’re paid enormously and they add no value. The fastest growing income in the country is in Canberra. The fastest growing population of a city is in Canberra.

[Marcus] Yes.

[Malcolm] And the lack of accountability is there. And when government, federal government is the source of your growth, then you’re on a really downward slide slope into oblivion as far as this country is concerned. It’s just ridiculous because there’s nothing there that drives this, and this state, as in the state government, the government.

[Marcus] Yup.

[Malcolm] Is out of control.

[Marcus] All right, let’s just move on to youth crime, if we can now, now there’s been some suggestions that if the opposition in Queensland get in, they’ll put a curfew on youth up there in Townsville, and also in Cairns. I mean, what has led an increase in youth crime?

And that’s your neck of the woods up there in Queensland, I mean, what’s going on here? Is it poor parenting, high unemployment, lack of maybe consequences, you know, revolving door through courts, what is it? All of that?

[Malcolm] There’s a really positive story here Marcus, a wonderful story. There are community groups now in Townsville who are so concerned about the crime, that’s gone out of control in Townsville. It’s similar in Ipswich, in Caboolture and in Logan. These areas that have been traditional Labor Party Strongholds, Labor Party’s taken for granted and neglected them.

But the really positive sign is that there’s a group of, they’re actually a couple of groups in Townsville. They’re coming together now, both indigenous people and European descent. One for example is called One Community One Standard. And they’re saying, ‘We’ve had enough.

You people in government are not doing your job in the state government under the Labor Party machine. And we want to make sure that we put in place active community responses to the crime.’ And they’re not just saying let’s punish kids, because a lot of this is crime from juveniles.

They’re saying, let’s look at the root causes of this. Let’s get parents to stand up and say, we’ve got to look after the kids, learn and teach them responsibility which means parents have to take responsibility.

Let’s get energy policies correct, So that we get a return to cheap energy, which means more jobs instead of exporting jobs to China and having our kids on drugs and out of control on the streets, let’s give them work something meaningful.

And there are also some wonderful people up there who are Jeff Adams for example and Ross Butler, who has, coming up with juvenile boot camps that have been proven over many many years. And the government is just sitting on his hands. You know what the first initiative these people want Marcus?

They want a simple, confidential survey of all the people involved with these kids because the state government won’t let them speak. They can’t get the facts out. So government is now not only actively condoning this violence and this crime, they’re encouraging it by suppressing any doubt on it, again government just wanting to abandon people for the sake of political correctness and looking good rather than doing good.

This is a really positive story coming up in Townsville

[Marcus] All right.

[Malcolm] Because, One Community, One Standard.

[Marcus] But look Jacinta Pryce will be speaking more and Mundine. Yes tell me about this CPAC, that’s the U-S election day. Tell me about yeah okay, tell me about CPAC.

[Malcolm] CPAC stands, the philosophy is basically conservatism is the political philosophy which States that sovereignty resides in the person. It’s about restoring freedom in our country.

[Marcus] Yup.

[Malcolm] I spoke there last year.

[Marcus] Okay.

[Malcolm] It’s a wonderful gathering. I spoke there last year, I shared the stage with Jim Molan.

And it’s on this year, just one day this year, for Wednesday, the 4th of November, hopefully to celebrate Trump’s re-election, but they’ll also be handing out the CPAC Keneally Cup, which will be presented by Craig Kelly, because Christina Keneally won it last year for trying to stop this going ahead because Christina Keneally is one of the controls of politics and she wanted to stop free debate, stop free speech.

And she got so much publicity for CPAC, that CPAC was sold out. So I really strongly recommend anyone in Sydney to go there. But I can’t go this year because of the border closures

[Marcus] Sure.

[Malcolm] But it’s a wonderful display, wonderful forum.

[Marcus] So just on this, I, this is going to be cheeky. So the 2020 picks for this so-called Christina Keneally Cup will be what, Kevin Rudd, why? I mean, all he wants is for Murdoch not to control all of the newspapers up there in Queensland. Come on you’ve got to agree with that surely Malcolm

[Malcolm] Look and that’s Kevin Rudd just wanting to intimidate free press–

[Marcus] No he’s not.

[Malcolm] By promoting Royal commission to . We don’t need that, we just better a marketplace. If people don’t need Murdoch papers, they just don’t have to buy it.

[Marcus] Yeah but hang on, that note, Malcolm we’re going to have our first disagreement and you know how much I respect and admire you, but come on if Murdoch owns all of the papers in Queensland, what other choice do they have? There’s no other choice.

[Malcolm] Well, there are plenty of choices because we’ve never, it’s like the ABC up in the Pilbara Marcus.

[Marcus] No don’t try the ABC in Pilbara at me. I’m talking about Queensland, stop distracting. I thought you were better than that Malcolm.

[Malcolm] No what I’m saying is in the eighties, they only had the ABC and the–

[Marcus] Now he’s going back to the eighties, here we go.

[Malcolm] But hang on, hang on, give me a go.

[Marcus] All right.

[Malcolm] What’s What’s happening is that we’ve now got media from all over the world. You can get it on the internet. You don’t have to watch Murdoch. You don’t have to watch the ABC.

[Marcus] Yeah but now I know that. And people yeah that’s true, and hopefully they do, but people, you know, a lot of people aren’t as savvy as you they are stuck in their ways, older people and they buy newspapers. That’s what they’ve done all their lives. And a lot of them aren’t on the internet, funnily enough Malcolm.

And what they’re getting is the one source of news in the sunshine state. And I just, Malcolm I like you, but I can’t agree with you on this.

[Malcolm] We’ll agree to disagree.

[Marcus] All right then.

[Malcolm] I don’t see that we have to buy anything from Murdoch it’s up to people to choose whatever they want. Most of Murdoch’s stuff is on the net now. He publishes hardly any regional papers because they’re just not viable. So, you know, if you can get him on the internet, you can get anyone else on the internet too. So, you know, if you don’t like Murdoch, go elsewhere.

[Marcus] It’s not about not liking Murdoch. It’s about having a variety of sources in which to get your news and information all right mate. But anyway, we’ll talk more about this. We’ll have another disagreement but I do appreciate you coming on the programme mate. Thank you so much.

[Malcolm] You’re welcome, pleasure to be here, Marcus.

[Marcus] Talk soon, there he is.

/by