Alex Antic (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

History tells us that civilisations and empires are transitory. There are increasing signs now that Western culture has reached a tipping point. Left-wing activism supposedly based on equity, diversity and inclusion uses its allies in the media, the corporate sector and politics to prohibit any views it disapproves of. Too many of our modern leaders are not across this threat. They seem to think that defending our values is beneath them and that we have time on our side. We do not. Suicide and depression rates in our young people continue to skyrocket. We've failed to instil in them a sense of meaning and purpose, replacing it with empty modern ideologies like climate alarmism. On leaving school, young adults have little knowledge of history, the result of a curriculum denuded of Western history, replaced by critical race theory and a sense of victimhood.

Sadly, too many have cowered before these ideologies, afraid of being called the various isms and phobias, and they're wreaking havoc across the West. If a principled defence of liberty was ever needed in this country, it was over the past 2½ years, yet we were told that those concerned with freedom were dangerous extremists. We need more brave men and women to stand up for future generations of Australians and hand them a culture that is greater than the one left to us. The relative prosperity and peace we've enjoyed have allowed us to become complacent, thinking that such a decline couldn't happen here, but the time has come for our leaders to stand up for what is right. Without urgent, strong leadership the West is doomed.