Time to stand up for this country

Finally, a group to fight GetUp

At last, an organisation has been formed to stand up to bullies like GetUp and the Left (“GetUp faces conservative challenge”, 20/11). Advance Australia includes former ABC chairman and Macquarie University chancellor Maurice Newman, who tells The Australian, “We are in the position of the battle of Stalingrad ... we have retreated to such an extent we need to hold our ground somewhere and start to push back. We have to put our hand up and say we believe in this country.”

Those of us who believe in freedom of thought and speech, who object to CFMEU-backed outfits like GetUp imposing their will upon the rest of us, and who are prepared to put up our hand, should get behind this fledgling organisation. With enough support, Advance Australia will give us our best shot at repelling the nefarious interlopers operating in this country.

Dale Ellis, Innisfail, Qld

The most objectionable thing about GetUp are its operatives at polling booths telling voters that they are not recommending a vote for any party. They then say “put the Liberal candidate last”, which makes the vote effectively one for Labor. Honesty is apparently not for them the best policy.

David Morrison, Springwood, NSW

Maurice Newman’s analogy with the battle of Stalingrad is confusing. Does he see GetUp as the Axis powers and his new Advance Australia group as the Russians in that horrific campaign of 1942-43, or the other way around?

Stalingrad was a conflict that lasted more than five months in which both sides could be said to have “held their ground” until the German 6th Army was surrounded, cut off and finally surrendered. Up to 2 million soldiers and civilians were killed or wounded.

Let’s hope that if Newman’s centre-right group ever becomes a reality, it manages to do so with a little less bloodshed.

David Salter, Hunter’s Hill, NSW

A former prime minister, a former SAS captain, a former policemen — a high-calibre trio now doing well regarded, worthy work for their electorates in Warringah, Canning and Dickson respectively. Also doing worthy work for their party too having just saved it (and us) from Malcolm Turnbull’s turgid NEG. Yet they are under constant attack from GetUp. But not for long. Good on the newly formed Advance Australia group, it’s about time GetUp got some opposition. And got on the defensive.

Mandy Macmillan, Singleton, NSW

While the organisers of Advance Australia will be able to raise a lot of cash, what they lack is the number of enthusiastic young people who make GetUp so effective. Like the Liberal Party at election time, they rely on an ageing demographic compared to GetUp and they will probably just rely on expensive ads rather than the creative imagination and energy of youth.

Peter D. Jones, Lenah Valley, Tas

Kevin Donnelly’s timely article regarding the social suppressing of Western culture (“Ignorance and Islamism our greatest threats”, 20/11) reminded me of a compelling interview I recently saw with American conservative political commentator and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza.

When asked about whether it is possible for other religions to co-exist truly harmoniously within a Christianised nation such as the US, D’Souza replied that it is, but the host culture must be resolutely stronger than all other competing creeds.

Whether we are proud or ashamed of the fact, the Bible created the soul of our Western civilisation, through such values as the dignity of the individual, the practise of both justice and mercy, the furthering of human creativity, a special concern for the poor and vulnerable, and the intentional betterment of society’s standards.

In Australia, this is where the Left consistently drops the ball. Its almost slavish pursuit of cultural relativism, underplaying of all things that might reek of white settlement and apologising for the supposed sins of the West, guarantees that when faced with a vital opportunity to indeed be stronger, it will instead capitulate and make some mumbled assertion about diversity being our strength.

Robert Menzies’s civil quip from 1948 is indeed still pertinent: “We cannot hack away at the foundations and then express surprise when some day the house falls.”

Peter Waterhouse, Craigieburn, Vic