Lachlan Murdoch backs Australia’s true blue spirit in IPA speech

Australia’s culture and identity ‘are not, and cannot be frozen in time’, News Corp’s co-chairman says.

Lachlan Murdoch and wife Sarah at Tuesday night’s Institute of Public Affairs event. Picture: Chris Pavlich

The Centre for the Australian Way of Life was launched at the Institute of Public Affairs on Tuesday. Read the full launch speech here.

Australians must embrace and preserve the nation’s inherent rugged optimism, its sense of innate fairness and its commitment to freedom of expression, in order to counter the poisonous counter-narrative being pushed by some politicians and media outlets, News Corporation co-chairman Lachlan Murdoch says.

In a keynote speech delivered at the Institute of Public Affairs on Tuesday night, Mr Murdoch said Australia’s culture and identity “are not, and cannot be frozen in time”.

“We are not who we were 100 years ago, or who we might become 100 years from now,” he said. “Understanding first what characteristics make us unique and what shared values unite us, is essential before we can celebrate the good, reject the bad, and yes, embrace the new.”

Mr Murdoch observed that Australians had an “innate concept of fairness” and a “visceral sense of what we call a “fair go”.

“This is our own idea, an antipodean concept, a deeply rooted understanding that whatever our circumstances, we deserve the same opportunities, the same respect, the same fair go,” he said.

“It is why we welcome immigrants, embrace aspiration, and scoff at class-based deference.”

Mr Murdoch criticised elements of the media, including the ABC, which he said often misrepresents the key traits and outlook of modern Australia.

“To listen to our national broadcaster or much of the media elite is to hear about a uniquely racist, selfish, slavish, and monochromatic country,” he said. “The reality could not be more different – we are one of the most tolerant, generous, independent and multicultural countries in human history. Not without fault, but without peer.”

He said it was vital that younger Australians were armed with all the relevant facts and not undermined by being fed “false ideological narratives”.

“How can we expect people to defend the values, interests and sovereignty of this nation if we teach our children only our faults, and none of our virtues?” he said.

He also said all Australians should cherish – and fight to uphold – their precious rights to freedom of opinion, religion and sexuality, and their capacity to travel, read and watch whatever they choose.

“The way Australians are identified should not be political, nor economic or be determined by class or education, race or sex or whether a person is a new immigrant or members of the nation’s oldest peoples,” he said.

“An Australian identity unites all of us. Together we are strong. Divided we are weak.

“But our national identity and culture are weathering constant attempts to recast Australia as something it isn’t.”

Mr Murdoch discussed the impacts of the Covid pandemic on Australians, including the handling of lockdowns by the different state leaders and harsh measures enforced on millions of Australians.

“We became a victim of our own success, with state leaders thinking they could outdo each other with lockdowns and remain Covid-free forever,” he said.

“The popularity of these approaches no doubt was fuelled by the alarmist language and fear mongering of politicians and much of the media.”

Among those attending the launch of the IPA’s Centre for the Australian Way of Life – which aims to provide cultural and intellectual leadership for the nation – were former prime minister and IPA fellow Tony Abbott, News Corp CEO Robert Thomson, Chairman of Foxtel, Fox Sports, Sky News and News Corp’s group broadcast director Siobhan McKenna, News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller, Sky News Australia CEO Paul Whittaker, Herald and Weekly Times chairman Penny Fowler, CLP Senate candidate Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and IPA executive director John Roskam.

Mr Murdoch highlighted the dangers of suppressing information or “cancelling” someone if their opinion is not shared by others, and referred to the ban video-sharing giant YouTube enforced on Sky News Australia in August last year.

“We must always be wary of the suppression of information,” he said. “The contemporary thrill to ‘cancel’ someone whose opinion you do not share is just the latest insidious form of censorship.

“Infamously, YouTube banned Sky News Australia based on YouTube’s own judgments and changing standards about a handful of pandemic-related videos.

“Initially, YouTube justified this censorship by stating, ‘YouTube does not allow for content that denies the existence of Covid-19’.”

But when YouTube was challenged over it, the digital platform “could not find a single instance of Sky ever denying the existence of Covid-19, so they had to pivot quickly and shift their justifications”, Mr Murdoch said.

He also spoke of the importance of the media pursuing the truth, above all else.

Mr Murdoch made special reference to The Australian’s investigative reporter Sharri Markson’s book, What really happened in Wuhan, published by Harper Collins last year.

“It was a brave and open quest for the truth,” he said. “Had Sharri not written such a compelling and well-sourced book, would the tech companies and media elites eventually have come around and published the facts themselves?” he said. “Presumably only when they could no longer justify hiding obvious truths.

“But that is not brave. That is not journalism.”