The Growing Problem In Our Midst

It’s fascinating to watch the reaction of people when their world view comes crashing down around them. Suddenly they feel very vulnerable because their protective cloak of self-righteous belief no longer masks their failures of logic.

We have seen many examples of it this past week surrounding two key issues that I have been involved in.

The first is my support for removing the words ‘insult’ and ‘offend’ from section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA). Frankly I find it preposterous that anyone can be taken to court on the basis of having offended or insulted someone else.

This is a direct restriction on our freedom of speech and making these minor modifications to section 18C of the RDA has met with a broad cross section of support. People like Julian Burnside QC and David Marr have joined with conservatives like Andrew Bolt and John Roskam in supporting change.

Indeed, it was a long-standing election commitment from the Coalition to introduce such change. Unfortunately that commitment was abandoned, apparently due to ‘community concerns’.

However, I am now one of four senators who have co-sponsored a Bill to amend the RDA to ensure freedom of speech is strengthened in this country.

In doing so, many media commentators have been critical of this ‘rogue liberal’ for daring to advance a logical and principled argument at such a sensitive time. Of course, the sensitive time they refer to is the heightened tension surrounding acts of terror at home and abroad.

On one hand, these commentators say we should never give in to the terrorists but then maintain we shouldn’t pursue important legislative changes designed to strengthen our freedoms because of the acts of a barbaric few.

It’s a similar issue with my security concerns about identity concealing garments being worn within Parliament House. It’s entirely logical that in a time of hightened security alerts we should be able to identify those people who enter one of our most important public buildings.

Once again, I am attacked for the lack of sensitivity in raising this matter ‘at this time’. Incredibly, when I raised it over three years ago I was told it wasn’t the right time then either as there was no security risk attached to people hiding their faces in public.

It makes one wonder why we bother to have all the CCTV cameras if we can’t identify the people they capture!

Which brings me back to these critics’ ‘world view’.

These individuals have subscribed to the world of political correctness for such a long time that when the obvious cracks in their theories become public they do whatever they can to protect their position.

I mean, it must be soul destroying to have clung to failed ideals for 30 plus years only to be proved so wrong. How can one then explain away such a lack of foresight?

The answer is that you don’t. Instead, you dismiss your opponents by calling them names and never responding to their reasoned arguments.

In the past week, I have been attacked by commentators like Niki Savva for my ‘unhelpful insensitivity’ and listened to panellists on the Project dismiss legitimate security concerns. Even the diminished figure of Bill Shorten failed to reach his own low standards by resorting to name calling rather than standing up for Australia.

And yet, not a single one of them acknowledged that the reason we are in this mess today is because of their (and others) long-standing denial that there has been a growing problem in our midst.

For too long, too many people like those mentioned above have ignored practices and actions that have undermined our social cohesion and cultural mores in the name of diversity and tolerance. They have steadfastly refused to heed the experience of other Western nations who failed to arrest the changes occurring in their society.

Instead, they have chosen to personally attack the few who dared to break the silence and tell it how it is.

That all came crashing down last week when a plot to behead strangers in the middle of Sydney was exposed by our security agencies. This was shortly followed by an attempt to kill two police officers which left the failed murderer shot dead.

While the barbaric plots were a huge concern to mainstream Australia, a section of our community chose to blame the rest of us for creating this situation. Whilst I don’t agree with their reasoning, I do agree we have made this rod for our own back.

For too long our tolerance and our freedoms have been used to challenge our social mores. Moral relativism has been forced down our throats since the 1970s and has left us vulnerable to subversive elements within.

The product of that thinking was seen last week and no matter how much the proponents try to dismiss their failure by attacking others, the Australian people know better.

They know there is something amiss within our community that too few in the public square dare to discuss. And yet, the danger of not discussing it almost inevitably leads to even greater anger and resentment.

In other lands, such sentiments have resulted in an aggressive and sometimes violent counter reaction all of its own. This is the scenario I hope our country can avoid.

However, it will only occur if we can all commit to having the courage to speak about the facts at hand and the freedom to do so without the pejorative slurs of those whose ideas have helped get us into these problems in the first place.

Our future depends on it.