Australian values take their lead from the Christian Bible

While NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes is correct to argue schools must teach Australian values there is nothing new is what he proposes. John Howard when prime minister raised the issue and millions were spent on the ‘‘national framework for values education in Australian schools’’.

Introduced when David Kemp was the federal education minister, the ‘‘discovering democracy’’ program also spent millions developing materials and resources to teach the values associated with Western democracy and our way of life.

And in the 2014 review of the national curriculum final report, a recommendation was made to better teach the values and institutions associated with Western civilisation, especially Judeo-Christianity.

It’s also the case in England, as a result of a number of Islamic schools in Birmingham preaching Islamic fundamentalism, that then prime minister David Cameron argued all who lived in Britain must acknowledge and abide by British values.

What Stokes should also realise is that getting students to acknowledge and appreciate Australian values is not easy or straightforward.

The first problem is that Australia’s cultural-left academics, professional bodies and curriculum writers argue all cultures must be treated equally.

Western culture is simply one culture among many and students are taught to embrace diversity and difference (the new code for multiculturalism).

More extreme advocates also argue that Western values are xenophobic, oppressive and inequitable, proven by our racist, misogynist and imperialist past.

A second problem, even when there is agreement on what constitutes Australian or Western values, is that the list is so vacuous and all-embracing that it’s impossible to identify what makes such values special or unique.

The usual list includes tolerance and inclusion, respecting another person’s point of view and doing your best.

Rarely, if ever, is there any attempt to identify what underlines and reinforces such values and why not all are equally beneficial.

Not all points of view are valid and tolerating the intolerable denies the fact that some thoughts and actions are immoral and dangerous. Aspects of the Koran, such as undertaking a fatwa against the nonbelievers, sharia law and establishing a caliphate, will always be antithetical to our way of life.

As detailed by Cameron when he argued that Britain is a Christian nation, there is an alternative. Cultural relativism is self-destructive and the reality is that the Westminster parliamentary and the common law systems, as well as guaranteeing liberty and freedom, are historically and culturally specific.

Values such as the inherent dignity of the person, freedom of expression and the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness can be understood only in the context of the Bible, especially the New Testament, and historical events such as the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Enlightenment.

Teaching such values should also be embedded in subjects such as history, literature, art and music instead of being yet another addition in what is already a superficial and crowded curriculum.

Kevin Donnelly is a senior research fellow at the Australian Catholic University and author of The Culture of Freedom.