Australian Family Party

Family Matters

Australian Character

SPECIAL ELECTION EDITION!

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J is for …

how-to-voteIn Hebrew it is the “hameat hamachazik et hamerube” – ‘the little that holds a lot’.

It is referring to the 10th letter of the Hebrew alphabet: ‘yud’, the most important of all the letters. The name of God starts with a yud – YHWH – Jehovah in English. It is also the smallest letter in the alphabet – the size of a small comma – and yet every letter in Hebrew contains a yud, because the moment the pen touches the paper, there it is.

In English, yud is the equivalent of our letter ‘J’, which is also the 10th letter of our alphabet. The number 10 is very profound in Scripture. From the first chapter of Genesis in which God creates 10 things – light, sky, land, sea, plants, sun, moon, stars, living creatures and finally humans – to the 10 plagues of Egypt; to the commandment to give a tenth of one’s income (the tithe); to Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year – the 10th day of the 10th month; to Abraham’s 10 tests; and, of course, the 10 Commandments.

At this election, every voter is asked to cast two ballots – one on a small green ballot paper for the House of Assembly (the Lower House) and the other on a very large white ballot paper for the Legislative Council (the Upper House).

The House of Assembly ballot paper is quite straightforward – simply number the candidates (usually around five or six of them) in your order of preference.

The Legislative Council ballot paper however, is not so straightforward.

For a start, it is nearly a metre long and contains 19 registered political parties or groups above the red line and over 50 individual candidates below the red line.

Voters can choose whether to vote above the line or below the line, but not both. Voters can also choose whether to number any amount of boxes above the line – from just one box to all 19 of them. If voting below the line, a voter must number a minimum of 12 boxes.

The Australian Family Party has drawn box J on the white ballot paper. Box No 10. How’s that for divine providence! J for Jehovah, J for Jerusalem, J for Joshua, J for Joseph, J for Joanna, J for Judges and, of course, J for Jesus.

We are recommending voters vote above line and follow our how-to-vote card by placing a 1 in the box marked J, then a 2 in the box marked M for One Nation, and then a 3 in the box marked A for the Liberal Democrats. Both One Nation, led in South Australia by the phenomenal Jennifer Game and the Liberal Democrats’ highly respected leader Kenelm Tonkin have conducted themselves impeccably throughout this election period. Their pro-life, pro-family, pro-freedom stance has been exemplary, and I cannot speak highly enough of both of them.

Click here to view seat by seat how-to-vote cards.

All we need now are a few more V for volunteers to hand out the how-to-vote cards and we’re done.

Authorized by Bob Day Australian Family Party 17 Beulah Road, Norwood SA 5067

Till Death Us Do Part

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seesaw-politics-deathThe ancient story is told of a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to the market. After a short while the servant came back white and trembling. “Master”, he said, “just now when I was in the market, I was jostled by someone in the crowd, but when I turned, I saw it was death who jostled me. Death looked me in the face and made a threatening gesture toward me and I ran. So please, lend me your horse so I can ride away and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and hide.” The merchant lent him his horse and off he rode as fast as he could. The merchant then went to the market himself and saw death standing in the crowd. “Why did you make a threatening gesture toward my servant when you saw him this morning?” the merchant asked. “That was not a threatening gesture”, death replied, “I was just surprised to see him here in Baghdad as I have an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.”

Politics is the ultimate near-death experience. Especially for political leaders. You can run but you can’t hide.

For major-party leaders, there is always a conga-line of would-be successors just waiting for an opportunity to pounce. Not all are qualified to take on the top job.

I once commented to a political colleague about an over-ambitious politician, “He thinks he’s going to be Prime Minister one day”, I said somewhat uncharitably. “Bob, they all do”, he replied.

So much time and effort are taken up in major parties with this sort of stop-at-nothing ambition. As a result, the welfare of the nation takes a back seat. The public recognizes this and is constantly looking for credible alternatives.

In a recent major analysis of voting trends, The Australian newspaper reported, “Support for minor parties and independents has reached its highest level in four years.”

The time is right.

People see the political seesaw in operation, with one of the major parties permanently Araldited onto one end of the political seesaw and the other major party permanently Araldited on the other. They yearn for a sensible, balance-of-power party to stand in the middle of the seesaw, leaning one way when one of the majors gets out of control and leaning the other way when the other does the same.

Matthew Abraham, who has been covering SA politics for a very long time, last year said he could see no ideological differences between Liberal and Labor. “Steven Marshall is now essentially a Labor premier”, he said. In 2017, Christopher Pyne, leader of the Liberal Party’s left-leaning, progressive faction and mentor to Steven Marshall said the Liberal progressives were winning the internal battle against the Party’s conservatives. “We’re in the winning circle”, he said. Liberal and Labor: two peas in a pod.

Fiercely independent, the aim of the Australian Family Party is to bring out the best and subdue the worst in our political system. To stand on the seesaw and watch and lean.

There is much that can be done – in both social and economic terms – to reduce the pressure on families including income splitting for taxation purposes, subsidies for grandparents who look after grandchildren, putting an end to price-gouging by state governments of water and power costs, and much more.

Power prices, house prices, water prices. Family budgets and family businesses – family farms, family shops, trade contractors, are all under siege. The unbearable cost of energy, regulation and taxation is sending family businesses to the wall.

The Australia we once knew is disappearing before our very eyes.

In 2013, David Flint and Jai Martinkovits wrote a book called, ‘Give Us Back Our Country’. In the nine years since they wrote that book, it is clear we are not getting our country back any time soon. If anything, more of our country and our freedoms have been taken from us. In a recent article Flint no longer called for our country to be ‘given’ back, but rather for us to take it back.

 

 

 

 

Leaders are Readers

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“If you want to get anywhere in life, you have to read a lot of books.” – Roald Dahl

leaders are readersI was fortunate to have not one, but two mentors in my life – Ray Evans and Bert Kelly. Both were iconoclasts – people who challenge the accepted wisdom and sacred cows of their day. Ray and Bert exposed with great effect the myth that government knows what’s best. “Never let the government help you”, was one of Bert’s favourite sayings.

Both Ray (pictured) and Bert were great readers.

Mark Twain said reading, like travel, was ‘fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrowmindedness. Broad, wholesome, charitable views cannot be acquired by vegetating in one’s own world’.

GK Chesterton wrote of ‘telescope people’ and ‘microscope people’ – telescope people who study large objects and live in a small world, and microscope people who study small objects and live in a big world. Think about that for a while.

And Rudyard Kipling who wrote of the importance to society of discipline, courage and valour, and of the dangers of societies becoming luxurious and feeble. As the general courage of a community declines, he wrote, people become timid.

For a nation or society to function properly it needs leaders who are readers.

‘Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world’, said Napoléon.

 ‘There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island,’ quipped Walt Disney.

Shortly after World War II, George Orwell published his novel ‘1984’. The story was set in a country ruled by ‘Big Brother’, a supreme dictator in an all-powerful, one-party state. The central character, Winston Smith, whose job it was to re-write the nation’s history books to fit the current narrative of the state, was continually tormented by his task. The department in which he works is called ‘The Ministry of Truth’. Orwell’s novel exposed the true nature of authoritarian governments which cling to power by generating fear, distorting facts and censoring alternative views. For a book published in 1949, his description of surveillance technology to track and trace its citizens is downright spooky – think facial biometric scanning and GPS tracking used by the South Australian government during Covid.

What we learn from books such as ‘1984’ and Orwell’s other great novel Animal Farm, is that there is nothing new under the sun and that lurking in every society are men and women with authoritarian tendencies who are ever ready to ‘generate fear, distort facts, and censor alternative views’.

As well as books like ‘1984’ and Animal Farm which issue dire warnings, there are books which impart knowledge, explain how the world works, record history, and enlighten us about religion, art and sport. And there are, of course, books which simply entertain.

‘Without books’, wrote Ron Manners in his Foreword to the IPA’s 100 Great Books of Liberty, ‘I would not have heard of HL Mencken or his comment about the 1930s Roosevelt New Deal dividing America into “those who work for a living, and those who vote for a living”.’

Top of the list of books that have changed the world, is of course, the Bible. From the story of Nimrod, the world’s first tyrant who was bent on world domination, to life-changing stories of the prodigal son, the good Samaritan, David and Goliath, Daniel and the lions’ den, Moses and the ten commandments, and of course the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. For those seeking hope and inner peace about what is happening in the world, the Bible is the great refuge.

After the Bible, one cannot go past Shakespeare. Hamlet, the Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, and for sheer intrigue and ambition, best of all, Macbeth.

And the number three book that has changed the world has to be Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations and the concept of letting individuals set prices which suit them, rather than ‘markets’ which can get distorted by a perverse range of agendas.

For sheer enjoyment, no bookshelf is complete without a few of Jeffrey Archer’s page-turners. Top of my list of Archer novels is Kane & Abel, followed by A Matter of Honour. Agatha Christie’s crime mysteries, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice are absolute delights.

‘I find television very educational’, said Groucho Marx. ‘Every time someone turns on the TV, I go to another room and read a book.’

Essential other reads include Pilgrim’s Progress; Donald Horne’s The Lucky Country; Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life; How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie; JR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings; Exodus by Leon Uris; great Russian writers Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky – War & Peace and Crime & Punishment. Closer to home, anything by Geoffrey Blainey; Greg Sheridan’s God Is Good For You; founder of the China Inland Mission Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret; two of Malcolm Gladwell’s books, Blink and Outliers; John Maxwell’s books on Leadership; Frank Furedi’s book How Fear Works and Bob Buford’s books on Half Time.

…. and Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy.

If you would like to help with the coming election, please make a donation here.

First They Ignore You …

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“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you … then you win” – Mahatma Gandhi

Goldie Mabovitch was just eight years old when her family emigrated to the United States from Ukraine. Her father emigrated first and found work in a Milwaukee rail yard. A year later, his family joined him. A bright child, by the age of ten Goldie was working part-time in a grocery store while attending the local primary school. Immigrant families did it tough in those days. Immigrant families do it tough in these days.

But Goldie ignored the immigrant jokes and slurs and persevered. She studied hard, became active in her community, fought for the underprivileged, and got involved. At first they ignored her, then they ridiculed her, … well, you know the rest.

And then the First World War broke out, making life even harder for the Mabovitch family. But Goldie pressed on believing she was destined for bigger things.

Which she was. She got married and the couple moved to Israel. She changed her name and got involved in politics. She was of course, Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel.

The leader of India’s independence movement Mahatma Gandhi’s famous words, “First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you … then you win” are as relevant today as they were when they were first spoken over 80 years ago.

The Bible says, ‘Do not despise these small beginnings’ (Zech 4:10).

My first foray into politics was somewhat of a mixed bag. But as the old Russian proverb goes, “Perviy Blin Komon – the first pancake is always lumpy.”  You’re not always going to get it right the first time. As we know, we learn more from our mistakes than we do from our successes. Trials do serve their purpose. It’s the same with minor party candidates and independents. As time passes the calibre of those on the crossbench – ie, those who are neither government nor opposition – improves. Importantly, the people continue to have faith in independents and minor parties – as both an alternative to, and a protest against, the major parties.

One often hears people harking back to the good old days under John Howard. But 2022 is not 2002.  You can’t pour new wine into old wine skins.  The country is developing new wine skins.

The internet is driving the biggest change to society since the industrial revolution drew people from the land to the city.  Institutions in business, politics, education, media and entertainment are being marginalised, sidelined and even eliminated.  As TV transformed the world by allowing us to see what was happening in the world, the internet has completed the transformation by allowing us to connect with the rest of the world.

It’s called disruption. Disruptive sharing technology like Airbnb and Uber have disrupted the hotel and taxi industries. Spotify has disrupted the music industry. Netflix the film industry.

Politicians and their advisers don’t know what to do about all this disruption.  The pace of change is outstripping their ability to manage or regulate it.  They simply do not have the skills or experience to make the decisions necessary in today’s world. The truth is, they don’t know what they don’t know.

I was only in parliament five minutes (two and a half years to be precise) but as the old Polish proverb goes, “The guest sees in five minutes what the host doesn’t see in a lifetime”. I saw it all firsthand – up close and personal!

Over the past few decades, major political parties around the world have become top-down production-line party machines – or rather, ‘factories’ – churning out party apparatchiks and career staffers who become Members of Parliament.

Many of them have never had a proper job.  They go to university, get a job working for a politician or a union and then become politicians themselves. They know how politics works but they don’t know how the world works. They suffer from what’s called the ‘Dunning-Kruger effect’, a cognitive bias where people with limited general knowledge or competence greatly overestimate their own ability. The results are there for all to see.

But voters aren’t stupid. They know when they’re being patronised or taken for a ride, and they are responding by voting for someone else.

And that someone else is us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Wisdom of Crowds

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tree-and-axeThe story is told of a forest that was continually shrinking – but the trees kept voting for the axe. The axe, you see, was very clever; it was able to convince the trees that because its handle was made of wood, it was one of them.

In a recent major analysis of voting trends, the Australian newspaper reported, “Support for minor parties and independents has reached its highest level in four years.”

The corollary of that of course is ‘support for major parties is at its lowest level in four years!’

Australia has economic and social problems that it wants to solve – employment uncertainty, high mortgages (which force both parents out to work), high cost of educating and raising children, high power prices, high water prices, social ills caused by the rupturing of family relationships, addiction to alcohol, gambling, drugs and pornography, and suicide. Our politicians however, do not appear to be able to solve these. Watching Question Time should give us some clue as to why not.

As William F. Buckley once said, “We’d be better governed by the first 100 people in the phone book than by the stereotype politicians we are asked to vote for today.”

Hence the rise of minor parties and independents.

In his excellent book, ‘The Wisdom of Crowds’, author James Surowiecki describes how large groups of ordinary people are collectively smarter than so-called experts when it comes to problem-solving, decision-making, innovating, and predicting. The reason why, he explains, is that individual ‘experts’ are inherently biased. They are part of a club, whereas the knowledge and common-sense of the ‘crowd’ eliminates the bias and produces a clearer and more coherent result.

Take one example. The Australia Council gives taxpayer-funded grants to the arts. Dr Bella d’Abrera, Director of the Foundations of Western Civilisation Program at the Institute of Public Affairs, has brought to our attention a couple of these grants. One was an $80,000 grant to a cabaret singer whose performance involved writing abuse about Prime Minister Scott Morrison on her naked bottom. The other $80,000 grant was to a ‘poet’ who argues that ‘bowel movements are perhaps innately connected to the art of creative writing’. If this is what passes for art, then we’re in trouble. The real problem however, is that our hard-earned money is being used to pay for it. As John Roskam from the Institute says, “Don’t force me to pay for this sort of thing when there’s real suffering and real pain being experienced by business owners who are losing their businesses, their marriages, and their families because they have been shut down. There are a million better ways for the government to spend $160,000 – like for example mental health services for children who have been locked up for two years. That’s how I feel and that’s how a lot of Australians feel”.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Which is where the Australian Family Party’s authentic, local candidates come to the fore. Our candidates understand their local communities – their crowd. They are part of the wisdom of their crowds. Which makes them far better representatives than the major-party nominees who go along with all that Australia Council nonsense as they work their way up the party ladder.

At this forthcoming State election, our candidates need to replace these major-party apparatchiks. But they need your support – by word-of-mouth, by volunteering on election day to give out their how-vote-cards and of course, financial support to pay for the how-to-vote cards. If you would like to help them, please make a donation here.

We have a great team of candidates, let’s get behind them. Otherwise, there’ll be nothing left of the forest we call Australia.

Dances With Wolves

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wolvesSome time ago a friend of mine wandered into a tattoo shop in Sydney.  As you’d expect, on the walls were all manner of tattoos – animals, cars, people and of course a whole range of  words and slogans. One slogan in particular caught his eye.  It said, “BORN TO LOSE.”

My friend asked the tattooist, “Does anyone ever ask for that tattoo there, ‘BORN TO LOSE’?”  “Yes, sometimes,” said the tattooist.

“Why on earth would anyone want ‘BORN TO LOSE’ tattooed on their body?”  my friend asked.

The tattooist replied, “I only tattoo on their body what’s already tattooed on their mind.”

The Roman Stoic philosopher Lucius Seneca warned his critics, “Throw me to the wolves, and I will return leading the pack”.

Such contrasting outlooks on life.

Let’s ask ourselves this question, ‘what are we tattooing on impressionable young minds?’

Stoicism? Or surrender? Resilience? Or resignation?

Author Os Guiness once said, “It’s not the wolves at the door that’s the problem, it’s the termites in the floor.”  It’s not the external threats on our borders, it’s the rot within.

My first job after leaving school was with the South Australian State Government. I was there about six years, and I must confess the public sector didn’t suit me all that well.  I remember a guy there called Nigel who was very unhappy in his job and would complain almost daily.  It used to drive me nuts. So, one day I plucked up the courage and said to him, “Nigel, you’re obviously not happy working here, why don’t you leave and do something else?”  He replied, “What’s the point? I’m going to be retired in 17 years.”

On a remote dirt road in the northwest territories of Canada there’s a large sign which says, “Be careful which rut you choose – you’ll be in it for the next 50 miles”.  We often hear people say that their lives are in a rut. Like the old farmer out in the paddock holding a piece of rope and scratching his head, not sure whether he’s lost a cow or found a rope.  Or the cat that sat on the hot stove. If a cat sits on a hot stove, what can you be sure of? – He’ll never sit on a hot stove again. But then he’ll never sit on a cold one either. He’s ‘overlearned’ from his experience. Nigel was all those things.

As we know, it’s not what you’re good at in school that matters but what you’re good at in life.

Let’s teach our young people to be ‘better at life’. To let them know that through trials and difficulties we discover the treasure.

And where best to teach this? In the home, in the family.

Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

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african childrenThe story is told of two people chatting one day, “You know, if I ever get to meet God, I’m going to ask him straight out why he let all those children in Africa starve to death?”  The other person responds, “What a coincidence, because he’s going to ask you the same question.

It is one of the most profound questions mankind ever asks, “If there’s a God, why do bad things happen to good people?”

It was famously asked by Gideon three thousand years ago.

In the Gideon story, the archangel Gabriel meets the young Gideon in a forest and greets him as if he were a 5-star General – “Hail thou mighty Man of Valour!” says the archangel, “The Lord is with you.”  At this stage, Gideon was a nobody – “… my family is poor and I am the least in my father’s house”, Gideon responds. I’m sure if someone had told Gideon or his family that he would one day lead the armies of Israel or that a worldwide organisation would be named after him – Gideons International – they wouldn’t have believed it!

“Hail though mighty Man of Valour!  The Lord is with you.” Now Gideon doesn’t take this lying down but responds with that most profound of statements – “If God is with us, why do the Midianites do these terrible things to us?”  In other words, “If there’s a God, why do all these bad things happen?

The Midianites were a ferocious race of people. They swarmed around the Middle East like locusts raping and pillaging wherever they went. They were not merchants, they were not farmers, they were not traders, they were warriors.  And the archangel answers Gideon the same way we are called to respond to poverty and injustice – “Go and do something about it!”  So Gideon did – and in no uncertain terms – eventually defeating the Midianites.

In the Old Testament book of 1st Chronicles, King David spoke of ‘The people of Issachar’, people who “understood the times and what needed to be done”. In 2022 we need modern-day ‘people of Issachar’. People who understand the times and what needs to be done.

At the Australian Family Party, we believe we know what needs to be done. We talked about it a fortnight ago:

More: Respect, courtesy, courage. Honesty, humility, tolerance. Generosity, compassion, discernment, common sense. Marriage, children, adoption and income-splitting for stay-at-home parents. More pro-family policy. More recognition of Australia’s Judeo-Christian heritage. More patriotism and support for our armed forces. More self-reliance and personal responsibility. More freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of religion. More doctor-training, palliative care, affordable housing, support for grandparents. More roads, ports, reservoirs, independent schools. More property rights, small businesses, and funding the ‘user’ of services such as aged care, child care, disability care, energy, housing, superannuation, pharmaceuticals, education and public transport – instead of the ‘provider’ of those services.

Less: Gambling ads, alcohol consumption, poker machines, tax. Divorce, suicide, loneliness, fatherless households, crime, prostitution. Less hubris. Less abrogating responsibility to un-elected bureaucrats and the duplication of Federal and State functions – health and education in particular. Fewer cost of living rises – food, petrol, childcare, mobile phone and internet costs. Less rules that apply to some but not to others. Less government spending and fewer international treaties. And less factional politics, social media and government surveillance.

Get rid of: Fearmongering and the weaponization of issues such as climate and covid. Price-gouging and profiteering from climate and covid. Wastefulness, hypocrisy, double standards. Barriers to home ownership and the distortion of Australia’s history. Pornography, abortion and euthanasia. And let’s get rid of vaccine mandates, vaccine passports, social distancing, masks, perspex screens, lockdowns, dobbing in your neighbours, discrimination based on medical status, QR codes and the testing and quarantining of healthy people.

This would certainly be a good start.

The Three Russians

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three-russiansIt’s time to bring the famous Russian brothers to Australia. We desperately need to apply them to legislation, to politicians and to Australia’s citizens. The three Russians are Morov, Lessov and Ridov – what should we have ‘more of’, what should we have ‘less of’ and what should we get ‘rid of’!

Let’s start with some personal character traits applicable both to politicians and citizens alike:

Morov: Respect, courtesy, courage. Honesty, humility, tolerance. Generosity, discernment, common sense. Marriage, children, adoption and income-splitting for stay-at-home parents. More pro-family policy. More recognition of Australia’s Judeo-Christian heritage. More patriotism and support for our armed forces. More self-reliance and personal responsibility. More freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of religion. More doctor-training, palliative care, affordable housing, support for grandparents. More roads, ports, reservoirs, independent schools. More property rights, small businesses, and funding the ‘user’ of services such as aged care, child care, disability care, energy, housing, superannuation, pharmaceuticals, education and public transport – instead of the ‘provider’ of those services.

Lessov: Gambling ads, alcohol consumption, poker machines, tax. Divorce, suicide, loneliness, fatherless households, crime, prostitution. Less hubris. Less abrogating responsibility to un-elected bureaucrats and the duplication of Federal and State functions – health and education in particular. Less rules that apply to some but not to others. Less government spending and fewer international treaties. And less factional politics, social media and government surveillance.

Ridov: Fearmongering and the weaponization of issues such as climate and covid. Price-gouging and profiteering from climate and covid. Wastefulness, hypocrisy, double standards. Barriers to home ownership and the distortion of Australia’s history. Pornography, abortion and euthanasia. And let’s be rid of vaccine mandates, vaccine passports, social distancing, masks, perspex screens, lockdowns, dobbing in your neighbours, discrimination based on medical status, QR codes and the testing and quarantining of healthy people.

Of all the above however, the worst is fearmongering. What politicians, health officials and the mainstream media have done to this country over the past two years is unforgivable.

Australians were a united, fun-loving, irreverent, tough-minded, down-to-earth people. Now look at us.

In his book ‘How Fear Works’, Frank Furedi writes: “The most effective way to counter the perspective of fear is with values that offer people the meaning and hope they need to effectively engage with uncertainty. The problem is not fear as such but society’s difficulty in cultivating values that can guide it to manage uncertainty and the threats it faces.”

UK Bishop N.T. (Tom) Wright commented in similar terms: “Do you know what the most frequent command in the Bible is? What instruction is given, again and again, by God, by angels, by Jesus, by prophets and by the apostles? Is it ‘be good’? ‘Is it be holy’? Is it ‘don’t sin’? No, the most frequent command in the Bible is, ‘Don’t be afraid’.”

We want our lives back. We want politicians and bureaucrats to stop watching us and to get off our backs and out of our pockets.

Perhaps 16th Century Swedish Statesman Axel Oxenstierna put it best when he said, “Behold my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed.”

The Unmasking of Australia

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unmasking-muriel-bill“I love acting, it’s so much more real than life”, quipped Oscar Wilde 150 years ago.

“Give a man a mask and he’ll say what he really thinks”.

He could have been talking about trolls. In fact, he was talking about trolls. 150 years on, social media has given the world a mask to say anything. To say what it really thinks.

Has Covid unmasked Australia?

Mateship, egalitarianism, tolerance, toughness, the fair go, down-to-earthness (if that’s even a word) …. for over 100 years Australia has defined itself by these admirable qualities. Crocodile Dundee, The Dish, Muriel’s Wedding and, of course, The Castle.

Are we still Crocodile Dundee? Are we still The Dish? Do we still have ‘the vibe’? Are we Muriel? Or are we more like Muriel’s father Bill?

Let’s be honest with ourselves – what does lie beneath?

There’s an old communist joke, “Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything”. In other words, it’s not the rules that matter but the ones who apply the rules. As pointed out before, the very word ‘bureaucracy’ gives the game away. Bureaucracy is derived from two words – ‘bureau’ from the French word for ‘desk’ and ‘kratos’ from the Greek word for power, hence ‘bureau-krat’, ‘desk-power’.

And there’s the problem. Authoritarian governments are very open about this, they don’t try to ‘hide the ball’ as the Americans say, but democracies like ours are a lot more squeamish so they try to sugar-coat their authoritarianism with lines such as ‘we’re all in this together’.

There is no doubt Australia is becoming more divided.  Are you vaxxed or vax-free? No-one ‘agrees to disagree’ anymore. Patriotism – the love of one’s country, used to be a no-brainer. Seventeen-year-olds lied about their age in order to enlist so they could fight in World War I.

Everyone was proud to be Australian. Football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars. From the time you could talk, dobbing was considered the most un-Australian thing you could do. Police Commissioners now tell people to dob in their neighbours.

Around the time of Oscar Wilde, but across the Channel in France, the cartoon character Monsieur Prudhomme was rapidly becoming a social phenomenon. M Prudhomme carried a large two-edged sword – one edge of the sword to defend his country against its enemies, the other edge of the sword to attack his country if it stepped out of line!

This is needed today as much as it was then.

We are being tested. Will we be found wanting?