Australia’s prosperity has been built on the values of liberalism, and it is for these values that the Liberal Party must make a stand. The recent federal election result has shown us that the Liberal Party has some serious work to do to improve its standing with the Australian electorate. But before we can remind Australians more broadly of these values and the successes they have brought, we have to remind ourselves as Liberals of these values and why we have taken our party name from them.
In June 1829, a colony of free settlers arrived in what would become my home state of Western Australia. The Swan River Colony was not as a prison colony but a daring experiment in freedom and open land for free people built on the principles of self-determination, individual initiative, and private property.
No one told these settlers what to do. They just got on and did it. They overcame challenges. They adapted. All across Australia, our pioneers and settlers did not ask for comfort and certainty; they sought only liberty and the chance to forge their own destiny.
The values of liberalism were so precious to Australians that many of them, our Anzacs, returned to Europe to fight and die for them. Voluntarily. Twice.
When Robert Menzies created the Liberal Party in 1944, he sought to give Australians not collectivism, but confidence that prosperity and fairness comes from empowering individuals. Menzies, and the great leaders of the Liberal Party after him, unleashed the potential of Australia’s ‘Forgotten People’ by giving them the freedom to use their own sense of self-belief to build a good life.
That meant reducing the burdens of government, but it also meant not leaving anyone behind. It was Liberals who extended voting rights to Indigenous Australians in 1962. It was Liberals who created the Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme to break the privilege barrier to tertiary education. It was Liberals who established the Australian Human Rights Commission. It was Liberals who created Legal Aid, ensuring all Australians had access to the basic requirement of legal representation required for our judicial system to operate effectively and fairly. And it was Liberals who advocated for a free and independent Timor, standing for self-determination and liberty abroad.
We have faltered only when we have forgotten our history and turned away from our liberal values, thinking that government knows better and government can do better.
These values are deeply personal to me. I came into politics recently after a long career, first in the military and then in business. I have seen firsthand the sacrifices generations of Australians have made to preserve our freedoms and our way of life. I have seen firsthand the dignity that comes with free enterprise and the courage of the small-business owner to have a go.
Small business owners across Australia mortgage their homes, as I did, to build their dreams and to have the chance to create a better life for their families. This is going all-in. And, respectfully, it is not the same as being a director or an advisor working in private business.
There is not only a deep sense of ownership, but plenty of skin in the game when you put your house and your family’s security on the line to start a business. It is a heavy burden, and it is a very big price to pay, but thousands upon thousands of Australians do this every year.
Unfortunately, today, many young Australians are not able to take this chance because they are not able to afford to buy a home. If we want to continue to be a nation of small business owning, risk-taking, value creators who believe in smaller government, then we need to ensure that the dream of homeownership becomes a reality for as many young Australians as we can.
Being a business owner means confronting reality each and every day. You often have to face up to problems with no one else to turn to, solve them yourself, and just keep going. The pioneering spirit that founded this great country lives on in our small business owners.
What do you do when a backup of putrid brown sewerage, which had been treated on Saturday, suddenly unblocks at on Monday, rushes down 35 floors and comes up onto the floor of your Croissant Express shop in Allendale Square as people are coming in for lunch? It was three inches deep. What do you do? Do you call the government? Do you call a board meeting? No. It is up to you to sort it out.
Countless Australians relate to this kind of story. But unfortunately, too many in our Parliaments, and indeed even too many in the Liberal Party, do not. Our party has let itself down in recent years, but as one of our newest elected members in the West Australian Parliament that things must change.
The time for timidity is over. Let us raise up the individual, unleash the entrepreneur, trust the family, and reassert the primacy of the citizen over the state. Let us show the world that freedom still burns brightly here.
It is worth asking ourselves: What kind of society do we want to have? What do we want to leave behind? Our paths should be guarded in the future by the liberal values that we believe, that our party was founded for, written by men and women who understand that freedom is not a gift from government, but the birthright of every person.
We believe in Australia’s place in the world as a beacon of democracy; as an upholder of the rules-based international order, and as a reliable trading partner for our long-term allies, investors, and customers across the seas.
We believe in smaller and less burdensome government. We believe in ensuring that the rules of the game are set, certain, and fair. But we believe in government as an umpire when required, not as the pervasive coach micromanaging all the players.
Let us stand together for freedom, for prosperity, for opportunity. For an Australia worthy of its history and destiny.
Jonathan Huston was recently elected as the Liberal member for Nedlands in the WA Parliament.
