Last week I attended a free speech forum in Queensland. It was organised by a group of young people who are committed to celebrating and defending our freedoms lest they be lost to them and future generations.
The group began to host liberty events in Townsville and are now expanding across Queensland. I hope their movement catches on and is embraced across the land.
Their cause is shared by many but their real message to me that night was one of hope.
It is easy to malign the youth of today as having short attention spans and a lack of commitment. It can be frustrating that they seem more focused on their mobile phones than the world around them. I can’t even pretend to understand their desire to allow people to access almost every aspect of their lives to gain likes and followers but a growing number of them do care about the future and want to do something about it.
They see and experience for themselves that the departure from societal norms is having a huge impact on the world they inherit. They see the dismantling of the social compact, created through thousands of years of lived human experience, as a radical experiment with their future. They notice the steady erosion of their freedoms and want to push back against the nanny state.
The Liberty generation are rising up against the powerful PC intolerance movement and are intent on seizing their birthright – the unalienable rights of life, liberty and personal property rights.
These beacons of hope are working within the Young AC and other organisations to spread the freedom agenda. They are active in events like last week’s and also in campus activities through groups like Generation Liberty.
My interest in encouraging young people to get active in this space began many years ago through my leadership foundation which dedicated itself to inspiring, developing and supporting young people to take leadership roles in business, the media, academia and politics.
Our programs had many notable successes over the ensuing years and I hope will continue to do so for decades to come.
However, the real success is that there are now groups of young people who are seizing the mantle for themselves. They are self-organising and selflessly swimming against the tide of opinion of many of their peers. They are showing strength, resilience and courage in a very hostile environment.
That should give us all hope for the future. It should also inspire us to do everything we can to make their journey a successful one. We can do that by showing them support, offering them guidance and providing good advice when asked to do so.
We can also ‘pave the way’ by demonstrating our own commitment to freedom in the public square. After all, if we aren’t prepared to find our voice how can we expect them to raise theirs.
Cory Bernardi is the author of seven books and has been a member of the Australian rowing team, a publican, an investment portfolio manager and spent nearly 14 years as an Australian Senator.
