Peta Credlin: Scott Morrison is right to put Australia first
After the global pile-on we’ve copped on border protection and climate change, Scott Morrison’s latest speech is a long overdue reinforcement of Australia’s number one priority — us, writes Peta Credlin.
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It was the bold speech that many of us have wanted to hear from an Australian prime minister for some time.
Here was an elected political leader, pushing back against the unelected bureaucrats of the UN whose longer term aim is to diminish the sovereignty of nations and create a world of open borders where they set the agenda.
Here was our PM rebuking the globalists on behalf of the Australian voters who should be supreme in our democracy.
We’re one of the founding nations of the UN. For over 70 years, Australia has more than pulled its weight, with contributions to peacekeeping missions, support of sound global initiatives (like anti-nuclear proliferation); and we’ve paid billions into the UN’s financial coffers.
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What started as a body born out of the chaos of the second world war to preserve peace has today morphed into a quasi-world government that thinks it’s superior to our own democratically elected leaders.
I’m not surprised at Scott Morrison’s tough speech this week, after being at the UN last week, because walking the halls at the UN’s headquarters in New York, even some years back, you could sense the ego, posturing and celebrity that’s infected an organisation that once had the highest of ideals; then there’s the scandalous waste, corruption, and appalling failures like inaction in the face of the Rwandan genocide.
In his speech to the Lowy Institute, he articulated a hard-headed view of where Australia sits in the global order and was unapologetic in his “Australia first” positioning. Putting “Australia first” — a more polite version of Trump’s “America first” doctrine does not mean, “Australia only” — as the globalists claim it must — but it does recognise that people’s principal attachments are to family, to community and to country rather than to mankind in general.
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In a blunt warning to climate crusaders and to the open borders brigade, Morrison rejected appeals to some “ill-defined, borderless global community”, and rejected demands for conformity from any “unaccountable international bureaucracy” in favour of “independent co-operation” between sovereign states.
This was a speech by our prime minister that affirmed the primacy of the nation-state and after the global pile-on we’ve copped on border protection and climate change, it was overdue and welcome.
As Australians, we should never forget our successes where the rest of the world has failed — like stopping the boats while, at the same time, being one of only 27 nations in the world to offer a home, and new life to refugees who come the right way. For all their moral posturing, over 160 other nations do not.
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Economically, we should be proud that our resource exports build and power the world. We’re the 12th largest economy, even with our small population, with a well-funded military to match, and we’re an important source of food security to our region, and beyond.
To my mind, three aspects of the PM’s speech were especially worth noting.
While the Prime Minister acknowledged China’s importance as a trading partner and paid a justified tribute to China’s economic miracle and its benefits to the wider world, including Australia, he also made it crystal clear that America is our most important relationship. The American alliance is Australia’s “past, present and future” he said.
It was an important reminder to the business leaders and to the university vice chancellors who still look at China with dollar signs in their eyes, that it’s in Australia’s long term national interest, to uphold our values as well as just boost our trade.
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Then, there was the PM’s emphasis on our growing relationship with India — which, let’s face it, is the world’s emerging democratic superpower. He noted the elevation of the so-called quadrilateral security dialogue between America, Japan, India and Australia — the Indo-Pacific’s key democracies — to ministerial level. And in a message that could hardly have been missed in Beijing, he described India as our “natural partner” to be elevated into the “top tier” of Australia’s friends.
And finally, there was Morrison’s welcome affirmation of the primacy of the nation-state.
In practice, what the Prime Minister’s comments mean for us, is stronger-than-ever partnerships with like-minded allies, more trade deals (especially with a post-Brexit Britain), and a determination for Australia not to get caught up in any more one-sided international treaties, which are all-burden for countries like us, and all-benefit for countries that don’t share our values.
At one level, Morrison’s speech was an orthodox reiteration of standard Australian positions. But given the China bandwagon, and all the politically correct deference to global bodies like the UN, it was a brave, and necessary statement of important truths. Don’t underestimate how much Morrison’s message will resonate with everyday Australians even if the establishment feel he’s punched them on the nose.
Watch Peta Credlin on Sky News, weeknights from 6pm.
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