Page 26 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 9 December 2008
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we must do all that we can to support and encourage families and the important role they play in our society.
My career to date has included working for three organisations that each represent much that is great about Australia. The first, Young Achievement Australia, gives young Australians business experience through hands-on enterprise programs. It wasn’t started by government, but by individuals who thought that young Australians should have the opportunity to get more business experience under their belts than was provided in the education system.
The second, the Australian Homeland Security Research Centre, is a private think-tank that produces publications, runs courses and adds to the debate on national security issues. Despite being a small private operation, the centre punches above its weight in informing and stimulating public debate on what are increasingly pressing matters of national and international concern.
The third organisation I have worked for is the national headquarters of the Returned and Services League of Australia, where I was the national research adviser. Since 1916, the RSL has been a champion of Australian values and ensuring that programs are in place for the wellbeing, care, compensation and commemoration of serving and ex-service Defence Force members and their dependants.
What the RSL, the Australian Homeland Security Research Centre and Young Achievement Australia prove is that government is not the sole repository of wisdom on matters of public policy and the provision of advice and support for others. In these examples, whether it be enterprise education, veterans’ welfare or national security research, the private sector has an important role to play and government can learn much from such innovative businesses. The tradition that these organisations represent is the active involvement of individuals to make their communities better. They do not do so by coercive legislation, physical force, or even expectation, but they volunteer their energies and resources out of their sense of duty.
It is at this point that it is appropriate to lay out what it is that I believe, and why I am here today. I am proud to be a member of the Liberal Party in the ACT Assembly. After joining the party in 2000, I became a member of the ACT Young Liberals—an organisation of which I remain a proud and committed member today. The Liberal Party has a great tradition in Australia, and especially here in Canberra. Many of the great landmarks, great developments and great decisions in this city were made in the Menzies era or in other Liberal governments that followed.
The Liberal Party was founded on the principles of freedom, limited government and the integrity of the individual. These are also my own principles, and I will do my utmost to uphold them and ensure that the Canberra Liberals will always continue to hold them.
I believe all people in Australia are privileged to live in a country with the immense freedoms which we all enjoy. Australia is a wonderful nation with a proud history, with great resources, an entrepreneurial people and Judeo-Christian principles forming the foundation of our modern society. It is this heritage which has brought about so much of our success as a nation.
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