Speech by
Dr David Watson MLA
Leader of the Liberal Party
to
Ipswich Branch - Liberal Party
22 April 1999
"The Relevance of Liberalism in the New Millennium"
In looking at the topic "The relevance of Liberalism in the new millennium" the first question that has to be asked is - are the ideas and ideals espoused by a man born at the end of the 19th century able to serve us well in the 21st century?
Considering that the ideals of another man born in the first century have guided us well for two thousand years, the answer to that question should be obvious.
But many people today are questioning the relevance of mayor party ideals in a fast changing world. So tonight, I thought I would look at two of the basic beliefs of the Liberal Party first espoused over 50 years ago and see if they are relevant to us today.
The party of which I am proud to be the Parliamentary leader in Queensland was founded in 1944 by Robert Gordon Menzies. Two years before that, Menzies made a famous speech broadcast on radio 2UE in Sydney titled "The Forgotten People."
The two points I want to take from that speech and examine tonight are - the way we see our role in society and the importance of the family.
Most of you would be familiar with that famous line spoken by John F.Kennedy in his inaugural address as President of the United States in 1960. JFK spoke the immortal words - Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country?
Well, JFK stole that sentiment from Bob Menzies ! Because that philosophy is basic Liberalism. In his Forgotten People speech in 1942, Menzies, talking about the importance of education said this:
"The great question is, ‘How can I qualify my son to help society?’ Not, as we have so frequently thought, ‘How can I qualify society to help my son?’"
In the 21st century we only need to change one word of that to make it totally relevant - son to child. The Liberal philosophy always has been and still is - How can I qualify my child to help society? On the other hand, the Labor philosophy appears to be more and more - How can I qualify society to help my child?
This country is still suffering from a belief that first flourished under Whitlam in 1972 but was really allowed to become endemic under Hawke and Keating from 1983 to 1996.
And that is that the government owes you a living.
When I was the Minister responsible for Public Housing, I came into contact with a lot of people who believed the Government owed them a house. But what really concerned me was the increasing number of people I met who believed the Government should "guarantee" them a profit. Everyday, I saw the effect that 13 years of a Federal Labor Government and 6 years of a State Labor Government had on people.
The "Government owes me a living" mentality has spread to the wider community. Even some business people have told me that the government should guarantee them long term profits. The reliance on Government is not the attitude that built this great country.
Australia was not tamed, farmed, mined and developed by people who waited for Government guarantees. It was developed by people who took risks.
And people who took responsibility for themselves. The Liberal party believes that this county will only be better off if more people take responsibility for themselves.
On the other hand, Labor's electoral success relies on them creating a bigger pool of people who don’t take responsibility for themselves…people who want to be carried by the rest of us.
All those years under Labor have created a mind set where everyone seems to know their rights ... but less and less know their responsibilities.
As we look ahead to the new century, we need to decide what sort of approach we are going to take to the world.
Are we going to be risk takers or just takers? The number of Australian and Queensland companies who become big players in the 21st century will depend on how we answer one big philosophical question.
That question is this – are we content to be part of the food-chain of skills, merely licensing US technology and hosting overseas companies who want to use us only as a staging post into Asia?
Or, are we prepared to use our intellectual capital, our skills and our creativity to become a main player who develops our own complete value-added, high-tech, bio-tech industries?
In other words are we going to be imitators or innovators?
In the last twenty years, there have been major changes in the composition of our exports.
Primary products have become much less dominant. The biggest percentage increase has been in ETMs - elaborately transformed manufactured goods.
If we are to be a success in the 21st century, it is the ETM piece of the pie which must keep getting bigger and bigger.
To achieve that requires a real commitment to Research and Development by both government and private sectors.
Some of our older citizens have trouble with ATMs. But all of our citizens will be in trouble if we don’t have policies which promote ETMs.
Ipswich as a city is to be congratulated for the foresight you have shown in recognising that we must expand ETMs. With the establishment of your Global Info Links Centre, which was ahead of its time and now your Global Arts Link Centre, you are already travelling down the ETM path.
With the University of Queensland expanding to Ipswich and its emphasis on information technology, Ipswich is well positioned to take advantage of ETMs.
Thankfully, the people entrusted with the future of Ipswich adopted the philosophy "Ask not what your country can do for your city, but what your city can do for your country."
You are to be commended. The only way Australia and Queensland and Ipswich can be successful is if more people, not less, adopt the Liberal philosophy.
As Menzies said in 1942, "for a generation we have been busy getting ourselves on to the list of beneficiaries and removing ourselves from the list of contributors, as if somewhere there was somebody else's wealth and somebody else's effort on which we could thrive."
As Australia turns the corner into a new millennium, we must all face the reality - it is only by our effort and our wealth that we will thrive. If we don’t want to lose our shirts, we have to get more people to roll up their sleeves.
The second point I want to examine from that Menzies speech of over 50 years ago is the relevance of the family. In 1942, Menzies said this:
"The real life of this nation is to be found in the homes of people who are nameless and unadvertised, and who, whatever their individual religious conviction or dogma, see in their children their greatest contribution to the immortality of their race."
He went on to say: "The home is the foundation of sanity and sobriety; it is the indispensable condition of continuity; its health determines the health of society as a whole."
Is that philosophy still relevant? No doubt, many parents today still follow that sentiment of seeing their children as their greatest contribution to the success and immortality of the human race. But sadly, there are other parents who don’t.
That is why I believe the Liberal Party needs to focus on policies which produce responsible individuals - policies which lead to the reward of responsible behaviour and discourage irresponsible behaviour.
The family has never been under more threat than it is now. Some people are even asking if the traditional Mum and Dad family is still relevant? I believe that is like asking - do we still need to breathe air?
Sure, the world may have changed a lot in the last fifty years. Today we can clone humans and a woman has no technical need to have a husband or permanent male partner. And scientific development is such that soon a man may be able to have a baby with no technical need to have a mother for that baby. But humans are not technical creations or merely cells out of a test tube.
We all have a deep emotional need for love. And the simple truth is this - governments or institutions can’t love you. I repeat - governments or institutions can’t love you.
That is what families are for. And specifically, that is what a mother AND a father are for.
Every day in the news, we see what happens to fill the vacuum created when a child lacks the love of a mother and a father. A few weeks ago here in Ipswich you had the tragic death of the 62 year old man after he was allegedly attacked by a gang of youths.
As much as aunties and well-meaning extended families try and do the job of raising children properly, the sad truth is those boys in that gang are the result of poor or non-existent fathering. And fathers don’t have to be absent or poor to be ineffective.
The Columbine High School shooting this week in Colorado was carried out by children from apparently "good" and affluent homes. But something was not good about those homes. Those shooters felt unloved and alienated. So what did they do?
They retreated to their basement and watched violent and pornographic videos and surfed the net and found a site which told them how to make pipe bombs. Where were their parents?
I was alarmed to read this week that in Australia 50% of primary school children have their own television in their room.
I know the time pressures on parents today are enormous. A Morgan and Banks survey found that 74% of Queenslanders are working 5 to 10 hours more than they did just two years ago.
Fathers today work an average of 47 hours a week. Working mothers work a lot more hours than that. And people are spending more time stuck in traffic. Their is little time left for yourself let alone the kids.
But sticking kids in their room with their own TVs and perhaps access to all the bile on the internet is not healthy.
We have to find ways to get families back together and I mean really together. That is why I have been advocating telecommuting or working from home.
Working one or two days a week from home has many benefits. It can raise productivity and lower stress and lower pollution. Less time stuck in traffic means more time for the family. With arguably fifty percent of the Ipswich working population commuting to Brisbane by train or car every day, telecommuting is one idea with great potential for your city.
We have the technology to make telecommuting work, now all we need is the political and business will. If we can help parents find a few more precious hours for their kids, we will all benefit.
Because not only can’t governments love you but they can’t read you a bedtime story either.
And believe me, bedtime stories are a fundamental part of this nation’s future success.
Teachers report that more and more children are arriving at school lacking basic social skills and are far from ready to learn in a structured environment.
I believe that today’s literacy problems have nothing to do with class sizes or teacher skills.
With the obvious exception of learning difficulties like dyslexia, those literacy problems in many cases are caused by the fact that some parents can’t or won’t read to their pre-school children.
No government program can ever replace the magic of a parent reading to a child.
Not only does the child learn language skills but the child learns that they are important enough for the parent to spend time with them and that does wonders for their self-esteem.
There is a line I love in Menzies Forgotten People speech and I think it sums up why the Liberal attitude to strong families is so relevant for today’s society.
In talking about the importance of the home and family, Menzies says: "The instinct to be with them is the great instinct of civilised man; the instinct to give them a chance in life - to make them not leaners but lifters - is a noble instinct."
In conclusion ladies and gentlemen, if I had to sum up in a hundred words or less what Liberalism is, I would say this:
We believe in individual responsibility. We believe the individual’s success is the community’s success. We believe in a free enterprise system which encourages and rewards individual initiative. We believe in strengthening families and promoting responsible parenting. We believe in a tolerant society with equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, religion, sex, age or disability. We believe governments must practice fiscal responsibility, allowing individuals to keep more of the money they earn. And we believe governments should only do the things individuals cannot do.
But if I had to sum up Liberalism in five words, I would simply repeat what Robert Menzies said over 50 years ago.
Make them lifters, not leaners.
Because that philosophy will always be relevant.