Australia is still the best country in the world to live in – it’s time to show it

The Federal Government doesn’t seem to understand that pride in our country matters – and with that should go a willingness to stand up for our values, writes Peta Credlin.

Let’s hope there are massive crowds out and about this Friday on Australia Day to celebrate the country we love but our Government doesn’t. It was, of course, the Albanese Government that changed the rules to allow councils to refuse to hold citizenship ceremonies on our national day; rules which at least 80 of them have now exploited, citing shame over Indigenous dispossession.

It goes without saying that Australia is still the best country in the world to live in. It’s just that too many people who should know better are taking that for granted; and our Government, frankly, doesn’t seem to understand that pride in our country matters; and with that should go a willingness to stand up for our values.

If there was one image from Australia that went viral worldwide last year it was the angry crowds in the Sydney Opera House forecourt shouting “gas the Jews” while police stood by, taking no action whatsoever. And, since then, there’s been plenty to suggest that we’re not quite the country we were or the country we should be.

Celebrate Australia Day on January 26.

Before Christmas, the Albanese Government refused to provide a frigate to help prevent terrorist attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea. This is the first time in many decades that Australia has refused an American request for military support and was all the more remarkable because of the escalating threats to world peace, and our own need for American and British help to obtain the nuclear submarines needed to guarantee our long term security. We can’t have a defence policy built on help from others if we’re not willing to pull our weight when asked!

Palestinians break into the Israeli side of Israel-Gaza border fence after gunmen infiltrated areas of southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Picture: Reuters/Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa

As well, the Albanese Government has so far failed formally to declare the October 7 Hamas atrocity a “terrorist event”; it voted in favour of a UN resolution calling for an immediate Gaza ceasefire that could only benefit Hamas; and it’s refused to take a position against South Africa’s bid to have Israel found guilty of genocide. Honestly, what is wrong with this Government that it can’t declare the mass murder of women, children and even babies a terrorist act and can’t differentiate between real genocide (which is a Nazi-like deliberate extermination of a whole people) and prosecuting a war in which innocent people often get hurt, especially when their terrorist masters use them as human shields?

During her trip last week, Foreign Minister Penny Wong handed over $21 million in aid to Gaza, including $6 million to a UN agency with a history of funding anti-Semitic schools and indirectly funding Hamas – yet thinks she’s covered herself by warning the Palestinian Authority not to do it again. As anyone who has followed this conflict can see, very little aid money ends up with the people who need it and every reason to think these millions will end up in the hands of terrorists.

Then there’s the utterly inexplicable decision to dismantle and bury (in the ground) our Taipan helicopters despite a request from Ukraine to use them there to help with med-evacuating their wounded.

An Australian Army MRH90 Taipan. Picture: Cameron Bates

This is a Government that won’t join our allies in combating maritime terrorism, won’t officially condemn the worst terrorist act since 9/11, and can’t bring itself to give further meaningful help to a country that’s fighting for its life against a nuclear-armed dictator. What’s more, last week, it washed its hands of any ability to stop Nauru accepting a reported $100 million-a-year bribe to snuggle up to Beijing rather than Taipei, even though we are already giving Nauru $350 million a year to keep open an immigration detention that currently has no inmates.

And when questioned about any of this, the PM couldn’t give a straight answer – either he’s evasive or he’s not across the detail. Insiders say it’s probably a bit of both but, whichever it is, it’s not leadership.

Every bit as bad has been its inaction in the face of the vicious anti-Semitism repeatedly in evidence at mosques in the electorates of cabinet ministers such as Tony Burke and Chris Bowen, where the Arab vote is increasingly powerful inside Labor.

This goes beyond mere weakness to the lack of a functioning moral compass. It’s not just poor judgment and indecision but a shameful absence of character from our leaders. And it’s not who we are as Australians; certainly, it’s not what we’ve always been as a nation.

While my pride in Australia is utterly undimmed, it’s hard to have much respect for a Government that is starting to look unworthy of the country it leads.

But a Government that’s not proud of our country and its values just makes it more important that the rest of us are, so let’s make this Australia Day count.

WOOLIES’ GREAT SPECIAL ON VIRTUE-SIGNALLING IS OUT OF DATE

You’d think a 60 per cent vote against Indigenous separatism at last year’s referendum would have caused at least some soul-searching in Australia’s woke boardrooms.

But definitely not at Woolworths, perhaps our most politically correct business, now seemingly trying to out-woke Tennis Australia that’s got a First Nations Day, an All-Abilities Day, a Pride Day, and three days of “Glam Slam” in its current Open program – but nothing for Australia Day itself. Despite it being the home of woke, imagine a US sports festival that didn’t feature the Stars and Stripes if it fell on the Fourth of July!

Woolies first gave $1.5 million to the failed Yes campaign last year and then announced that it wouldn’t stock Australia Day items, citing a “broader discussion” about our national day and “what it means to different parts of the community”.

If Woolies wants to help Indigenous people, it should do more than fly the Aboriginal flag.

Woolies has now announced that it’s going to fly the Indigenous flag at key locations as part of its Reconciliation Action Plan, a 39-page document prepared by its in-house General Manager of Indigenous Affairs and Strategy.

Members of Woolies’ nine-person board are also directors of companies that donated a further $4.87 million (that’s on the public record) to the Yes case. As well, Woolies’ director of “Government Relations” is a former Albanese staffer who has previously supported social media posts that claim that “the Australian dream is rooted in racism”.

If Woolies really wants to help Aboriginal people, it could start by employing more of them. People who identify as Indigenous make up almost 4 per cent off the current population but only 2.6 per cent of Woolies staff and even the reconciliation plan only aims to get this to 3.2 per cent by the end of next year.

Hard to avoid the conclusion, isn’t it, that this is as much about looking good as doing good.

Watch Peta on Credlin on Sky News, weeknights at 6pm