Published in The Australian — It says something about the mindset of the modern Labor Party that not a single federal Labor MP turned up at the weekend’s 70th anniversary celebration of our largest gas exporter. Gas is our second-largest export earner, the essential feedstock for the fertiliser and chemical industries absolutely needed for modern…
Originally published in the National Post. E&OE — When Australia, Britain and the US recently came together in a trilateral defence and security agreement, there was one conspicuous absentee: Canada, the country that had had the world’s third largest navy and fourth largest airforce at the end of the Second World War; and which, as…
15 June 2024 ADDRESS TO THE BLACK SEA SECURITY FORUM Given in Odesa, Ukraine E&OE Amended version published in The Australian —— Ladies and gentlemen, it is an honour to be here. Even though Australia is a far away country, but I will take every chance I can, to be here in Ukraine, to show…
SYMPOSIUM ADDRESS, WIN OR LOSE: THE STRANGE SURVIVAL OF CONSERVATISM 10 June 2024 Originally published in The Times. Given at The In and Out Naval and Military Club, London E&OE —— Whatever this election’s ultimate result, it won’t be improved by defeatism and declinism about the Conservative Party and about Britain itself. Sure, it’s a…
10 June 2024 ADDRESS to FRIENDS OF CANZUK The Carlton Club, London E&OE As any battlefield pilgrim would tell, there have been no closer comrades-in-arms than the soldiers of Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. When the Great War broke out, the three dominions all pledged to stand behind the mother country, in Australia’s case,…
27 May 2024 The Danube Institute, Budapest, Hungary E&OE —— In simpler times, at least in the leading democracies, it was the government that ran the country, the parliament that made the laws, and the courts that decided what was illegal. And yes, in Westminster systems, the executive was formed in the legislature and generally…
25 April 2024 Budapest, Hungary E&OE —— The new conservatism is intensely patriotic, economically pragmatic, and deeply respectful of tradition. As leader, I often said of my party in Australia, historically a blend of conservatism and liberalism: “we want lower taxes, smaller government and greater freedom, as liberals; we support the family, small business and…
This was originally given as a paper to the Danube Institute in Budapest E&OE —— Just over six months on, it’s clear that the Voice vote in Australia was both encouraging and discouraging. Encouraging, in that it was the first time anywhere in the world that an issue of identity politics was put to the…
ADDRESS TO JOINT QUADRANT & DANUBE INSTITUTE EVENING: THE POPULIST MOMENT 8 April 2024 The Fullerton Hotel, Sydney E&OE —— Now, whether it’s steadily growing support for minor parties and independents here, now routinely a third of the electorate; the presidential re-run now on offer in the US; the likely obliteration of the British Tory…
The National Symposium for Classical Education Phoenix, Arizona E&OE —— Years ago, I was still playing rugby football, in Oxford England, and there were line-out calls, requiring the recognition of particular letters. If the captain called a word starting with the letter “t”, the ball went to the front of the line-out. But if he called a word…