On March 17, 2016, the Coalition joined forces with the Greens to amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act and abolish senate group voting tickets (GVTs). GVTs allowed voters to simply put a 1 above the line and let their party of choice distribute their preferences.

Although minor parties differed widely on policy, what they had in common was their dislike of the Greens. Using GVTs, minor parties came to arrangements with each other to combine their votes to get ahead of the Greens. The Coalition-Greens deal ended that. When these new laws were introduced into the Senate, I vigorously opposed them.

Former Prime Minister John Howard also warned that the Coalition’s deal with the Greens could backfire on the Coalition. “The principal beneficiary of these changes will be the Australian Greens,” he said.

He was right. The Greens won six Senate seats at the 2019 election and will almost certainly repeat the result in 2022, giving them a total of 12 senators and the balance of power.

Liberals and Nationals can rail all they like about Adam Bandt and the Greens, but they have only themselves to blame. They have become the Greens’ enablers.

Below is a six-point plan to counter the insidious influence of the Greens and buffer the disappointment many voters feel towards the major parties.

1. Family Resilience

Family has agency. It can do things. Family provides meaning, belonging and security. Strong family relationships reduce depression and anxiety disorders, strengthen the immune system and speed recovery from surgery.

When the family breaks down it is costly. Mental illness costs the economy $180 billion a year. More young men take their own lives than are killed in road accidents. There is also a strong link between the health of the family and crime. Boys raised in fatherless households are more likely to commit suicide, abuse drugs, commit rape, end up in a correctional facility, get divorced, and suffer from loneliness and addiction to alcohol, gambling, drugs and pornography.

Prostitution, abortion, euthanasia, poker machines, higher taxes and more spending, these are all policies promoted by both Labor and Coalition politicians across the country. But there is hope. The family.

2. Family Economics

Power prices, house prices, water prices. Family budgets and family businesses are under siege. The unbearable cost of energy, regulation and taxation is sending family businesses to the wall. Families who rent or cannot afford solar panels are subsidising those who can.

The billions of taxpayer dollars that are spent on childcare subsidies benefit childcare centre owners more than parents. Single-income families who provide child-care at home at no cost to taxpayers are disadvantaged compared with two-income families, which have the benefit of two tax-free thresholds.

In aged care, the Royal Commission into Aged-Care Quality and Safety has said that the sector should be ripped up and started again. Billions of dollars in government subsidies have lined the pockets of aged-care entrepreneurs while nursing-home residents suffer systemic neglect.

3. Family Technology

There is an indisputable link between mental health and social media. Violent computer games affect boys. Cyber-bullying has turned deadly for girls. Sexting is rife.

The internet has become the new Wild West, with power concentrated in the hands of a small number of tech giants who destroy competition and privacy and misuse the information they collect. Any suggestion that these behemoths can reform themselves or be trusted to act fairly is laughable.

The world is changing so profoundly — in social attitudes, world economics, and especially technology — that politicians, public sector bureaucrats and regulators are hopelessly ill equipped to manage it. They are simply outdated and outgunned.

There is only one institution that can combat the lawlessness of the digital jungle and its predators: the family. The family is the best place to learn who to trust and who not to trust; who to communicate with and who not to communicate with.

4. Free to Speak

Freedom of speech is a hallmark of a free society. The Australian people own the language and have not delegated to politicians and bureaucrats the right to decide who should or should not be offended. When I was in Parliament, I tried to amend Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. The Coalition blocked it.

5. Free to Believe

There are some things a free people will not be dictated to or lectured about. One of them is their religion or their morals, particularly what they teach their children. They will certainly not allow themselves to be bullied into submission by being called bigots or “homophobes”.

The left talks endlessly about equality and tolerance but the debate over religious freedom is not about equality and tolerance, it is about discrimination against religious people. The left calls for tolerance but what they really want is for everyone to agree with and endorse — even celebrate — their view of the world. If you don’t, you are a bigot.

6. Free to Work

There has been a dignity and sanctity associated with work since ancient times. The Hebrew word for “work” and “worship” is the same — Avodah. Denying a person the right to work is like denying them the right to worship. “He who builds a factory, builds a temple,” said Calvin Coolidge.

When people, young people in particular, are excluded from full participation in community and working life, the social costs are enormous — drug and alcohol abuse, crime, domestic violence, poor health, depression, frustration, boredom, bikie gang recruitment, civil disorder, teenage pregnancy, even suicide.

The culture wars have always been important. The Greek-Roman wars saw Rome conquer Greece militarily, but the Greeks conquer the Romans philosophically. Rome controlled the territory, but the Greeks controlled the culture. Or as modern-day management would say, “culture eats strategy for breakfast”.

In Australia today, the right controls the territory but the left controls the culture. That culture is dividing us along racial, religious, ethnic, age and gender lines.

The nation has social and economic problems that it wants to solve, and social and economic goals it wants to achieve. However, looking to politicians, bureaucrats and regulators to solve these problems and achieve these goals is not going to work. Society relies on individual conscience and it is the family that nurtures the conscience and teaches self-control.

The state and society owe the family one thing — recognition. We can serve Australia best by putting the family first.

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Originally published in News Weekly.
Photo by Laercio Cavalcanti on Unsplash.