The world is in a tricky spot. It is becoming more obvious day by day that we will soon face challenges we hoped never to face again. The threats to the freedom of all Australians are rising and multiplying. Successive Australian governments have failed adequately to prepare for them.
Governments across the world have failed to respond to what Sir David Omand, former director of Government Communications Headquarters and Intelligence and National Security Coordinator for the British Government, calls “slow burn crises”. These crises are ones you can anticipate, but they are so far off in the future they are easy to ignore.
International Threats
The Australian’s Defending Australia Summit highlighted the problem we are facing thanks to decades of complacency, underinvestment, and under-appreciation of the determination of our adversaries.
The best defence is a good offence and, in strategic terms, the best defence is good deterrence. But good deterrence requires ongoing investment and continual awareness. A theme we have covered frequently here in News Weekly.
Australia simply lacks the capacity to build up a modern conventional defence force in the timeframe we will likely need to use it.
Global trade has undoubtedly brought about tremendous improvements in standards of living and quality of life around the world. However, global-trade regimes exist to support the objectives of the governments that sign up for them.
The People’s Republic of China uses trade as a way of hollowing out competitor nations’ industrial capacity, thereby increasing their dependence on Beijing’s decision-making.
Personal Responsibility
Freedom is one of the most important things we can fight for. What has distinguished The Movement from its fellows in the fight for freedom since World War II is a pragmatic acceptance that not every push for freedom – be it economic, social, or intellectual – will actually result in greater freedom. This is because our real adversaries are ideologies and their followers that use aspects of our freedom against us.
With classic liberals and libertarians, we believe the government should enable people to act in their own interests, not restrict them under overwhelming regulation. We agree with G.K. Chesterton’s observation that the problem we experience with capitalism is there are too few with capital, too many dependent on wages alone.
We believe democracy relies on all of us being involved and being able to be involved. And we have opposed overly broad and restrictive government action. Despite being the preeminent anti-communist group in the country, we opposed banning the Communist Party because it was undemocratic and would have opened up another front for communist subversion.
This is why we run programs like YPAT (June 25–July 1). We get leading authorities in their field explaining what is going on so attendees can discuss, debate, and explore the key issues of our time. Over the last few years, we have been privileged to have some of the most experienced national-security experts taking students through the Indo-Pacific situation and what it means for Australia.
Please support YPAT. Our attendees need your financial support to participate. These are the leaders of tomorrow. Help us help them.
