Menzies House

The Foundations of Successful Conservative Policy

Senator The Hon Eric Abetz discusses the underlying principles that lay the foundation for conservative public policy:

‘…the wise man built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall because it had its foundations on the rock…

 

The foolish man … built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell with a great crash."

 

In that parable given to us in the gospel of Matthew Chapter 7, we are taught a valuable lesson. We were taught that the foundations of a house are vital to its capacity to withstand storms.

 

The parable is equally applicable to those of us involved in politics.

 

A firm foundation is ultimately everything – for a home as well as for our personal lives and political pursuits.

 

A firm foundation as the parable tells us will not allow you to escape the storms and the floods. They will come our way no matter what.

 

The difference is – in the shape you are in after the storm has passed.

 

I hope we can be agreed that foundations are vital.

 

It is the strength of our foundations that has seen conservatism continue despite the on-going onslaughts.

 

The lack of a substantive foundation has seen the demise of national socialism, communism and all sorts of other ‘isms’. In historical terms many a political fad has come along but like with many a fad it succumbs to the letter ‘e’. The fad begins to fade.

 

By its very nature conservatism is not fad driven.

 

Conservative policy is driven by the enduring qualities of amongst other things, logic, objective truth, belief in the rule of law and the inherent value of human life from beginning to end. Well – that is how we argue our case.

 

But on what do our arguments, our advocacy rest?

 

We need to answer that question.

 

We need to grapple and wrestle with it. To fail to do so would in the terms of the parable put us into the ‘foolish’ category – a description from which we all would shy.

 

So let’s get down to what logically are the undisputed building blocks of law making.

 

Albeit, I will deal with them in reverse order.

 

Law-making is largely designed to influence behaviour in society. Laws are deigned to either encourage ‘good’ behaviour or discourage ‘bad’ behaviour.

 

I accept some laws are simply designed to help order our society and have no real moral element to them.

 

Take for example the side of the road on which we drive. I am sure there is no moral superiority in determining Australians will drive on the left hand side of the road in comparison to those countries where they drive on the right hand side.

 

But such examples aside, our laws are largely designed to encourage good and discourage bad behaviours.

 

So what determines what is ‘good’ and what is ‘bad’? Ultimately those are value judgments which are based on our moral framework.

 

Our moral framework is built on our world view or religious view.

 

And in this context one’s religious view can be devoid of a ‘god’. But make no mistake everyone has a world or religious view on which they base their morality – to which they seek to give expression through law-making.

Why We (Conservatives) Suck

When you get down to it, all Progressive criticism of Conservatives comes down to "YOU SUCK!" And they're right! Watch the video to find out why.

  

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When Did Fiscal Conservatism Die?

Keith Topolski examines how the world's longest serving conservative government has sold out-or been bought out.

With a provincial election looming by 31 May, Albertans are faced with a unique question: Will the Alberta Government become the longest serving democratically elected government in history?

The ruling Progressive Conservative party has ruled Alberta since 1971, and its predecessor, the conservative Social Credit Party, reigned from 1935.

Not for 77 years has Alberta been faced with a government that is not of a conservative persuasion.

But is that last statement actually true?

How Did The Political Left Get It So Wrong?

Senator Cory Bernardi discusses how the left have been proven wrong on every single issue:

At some point in the past few decades, the word ‘conservative’ became a pejorative slur. That’s because the few conservatives prepared to identify as such in public refused to bow down to the new orthodoxy of the left.

Now it seems that almost every one of the left’s sacred cows is being slaughtered on the altar of common sense.

Consider some of the hardest fought battles over the past 30 years: climate change, big government, welfare dependency and multiculturalism. Then reflect on the left’s arrogance in dismissing any challenge or warning about the possible negative implications of their world view.

Every passing day provides further evidence of the folly of the left policy agenda and the falsehoods it is built upon.

In respect to climate change, the planet stubbornly refuses to warm, the polar bears are inconveniently (for the eco-zealots) still with us and the green jobs have failed to materialise. The government funded computer models predicting apocalypse are repeatedly wrong. It is clear they have often been based on doctored data and ‘curve fitted’ to suit the preferred political outcome. Despite this, we are still expected to respect the ‘authority’ of these new style snake oil salesmen purporting to be experts.

Perhaps the worst offenders are the political leaders who use enviro-cred as an excuse to get their hands on more taxpayers’ money. We have been told repeatedly that Spain and California are great examples of economies creating green jobs and are a stunning model of what the new world should be. Both are now effectively broke with Spain recording 23 per cent unemployment and businesses fleeing California in record numbers.

There is a Better Way

Senator Cory Bernardi calls for a return to proven conservative values:

In the face of continued hardship it is easy for individuals to become resigned to their apparent fate. Whether it be financial, familial or career, there are times when the odds of affecting positive change seem insurmountable.

One adage suggests that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the results to be different. That explains why prudent change is the key to altering personal circumstances when the rut sets in.

It isn't very different when it comes to the direction of our nation. When a deep malaise, that stifles optimism and hope within our community, settles over our land due to an incompetent government, we have to be prepared to make changes.

Fortunately, in Australia changing the government is relatively easy, although in the current circumstances many would consider the three years between elections as being far too long.

There is no doubt that there is an expectation of political change at the next election. However, to fully prepare Australia for the long-term challenges we face, it is clear we cannot continue down the same path we are on.

Quite simply, there has to be a better way.

The Return of Treacherous Turnbull: Leave the Scientists Alone

Malcolm Turnbull has urged people to speak out loudly on behalf of the science of climate change.

In a strong assault on sceptics such as Lord Christopher Monckton who attack the science, Mr Turnbull declared: ''We cannot afford to allow the science to become a partisan issue as it is in the United States.''

He said that the CSIRO and other science agencies were listened to with respect on most issues. ''Yet on this issue there appears to be a licence to reject our best scientists … and rely instead on much less reliable views.'' he said. ''Those of us who do not believe the CSIRO is part of an international Green conspiracy to undermine Western civilisation should not be afraid to speak out and loudly, on behalf of the science.''

Mr. Turnbull also said the argument that tackling carbon emissions in Australia was pointless until China and India acted was ‘‘incredibly embarrassing’’.

Mr. Abbott this week said that aiming to reduce carbon emissions by 5 per cent by 2020 - his party’s own policy - was ‘‘crazy" when China was planning to increase its emissions.

But Mr. Turnbull said Chinese emissions per person were a fifth of Australia's and India's less than a tenth.

"Our regular references to their emissions and 'why should we do anything until the Chinese and the Indians do something' - they find those references incredibly galling," he said.

"How incredibly embarrassing statements like that are when you actually confront representatives of those countries."

Again he has failed to stick to talking about his own portfolio and continues to run down his team’s collective position.

That’s sackable offence, especially for a repeat offender like Malcolm Turnbull.

Winning the battle from ‘left field’

Australian conservatives must pursue truly unique policy alternatives in order to win government, writes Paul McCormack.

There are numerous policy areas which can arouse hesitation and reluctance among conservatives. In my opinion, policies affecting Australia’s engagement with Asia, education and nuclear energy have all been accorded less attention by conservative MPs because of a fear that these are natural areas of strength for the left. Conservatives have sometimes lost battles in these areas but still won elections. However, if these policy areas are embraced by the Coalition, the objective of winning government may be achieved sooner rather than later.

Tories might yet please conservatives

James Paterson writes on why the Tories' new direction may bring the conservatives back into the party.

The news this week that Tory Party membership has declined by 30 per cent from over 250,000 to just 177,000 in the five years since Cameron was elected leader suggests many rank-and-file conservatives are not happy with the direction he has taken the party in.

David Cameron as UK opposition leader had no shortage of conservative critics. From his efforts to out-green the Labour Party, to his campaign to rebrand the Conservative Party which resulted in the torch of freedom logo being ditched in favour of a tree, Cameron was derided as left-wing.