Scott Morrison must have taken leave of his senses. His change to the national anthem, to delete ‘we are young and free’ and replace it with ‘we are one and free’, was wrong in every way. The change was presumably made because Morrison thought that making such a token gesture would make him popular with the lefties. Anyone with an ounce of political sense could have told him that this would not happen and of course it has not happened, for the simple reason that those who want these so-called reforms that are on the Left’s agenda are never satisfied with token gestures and always want more, with a greed that would make OIiver Twist blush. If they do not keep asking for more, their cause will wither and die. So, they have to make increasingly extreme demands to keep their pathetic issues alive.

The last thing the Left wants is for any of its campaigns to succeed. Success would mean the issue has been solved and that would mean an end to their cushy government jobs, handouts, trips to UN conferences, appearances on pathetic ABC panel shows, and all the rest of it. But failure breeds success, because failure keeps the cause alive. It is the same as the latest PC nonsense from the USA: the removal of the statue of Abraham Lincoln with an African kneeling beneath him and shaking free the chains of slavery. Obviously, the woke Left would never accept such a monument, even if Lincoln and the slave were at the same height. The black would have to tower over Lincoln for such a statue to be accepted, because that is the whole objective of de-platforming and cancel-culture, based as they now are on race.

So, naturally, Morrison’s change to the anthem has earned him no praise and nothing but accusations of tokenism. Worse, it has generated more fire and fury from the Left who want more than a change or two to the national anthem. They have now moved on with renewed enthusiasm to the campaigns for the Voice to Parliament and a Treaty, because that is what will divide the country and give them what they really want. So, Morrison’s real achievement has been to re-charge a campaign against himself on these two issues. It has also put new life into the refugee cause. Already, the Age letter-writing squad has whipped itself into a state of ecstasy. How can Morrison say, they ask, that Australia is one and free, when we have the gall to say who can come into this country and keep in detention those who think they have a right to come here if the mood takes them?

Anyway, there was nothing wrong in saying that Australia is ‘young’; it meant we are a fresh, young country that can build a great future for itself; well, at least we used to be. Nor was there anything wrong with the previous version of the anthem that hailed ‘Australia’s sons’; it did not mean Australia’s sons but not her daughters; it meant everyone, in a time long ago when we were united and before governments started to break us up into tribes, as we now are.

Finally, it was wrong to change the national anthem without asking the people whether they wanted a change or not and, if so, what change. These national symbols are important and ordinary people have as much right to them as our politicians and as much right to say whether they should be changed. But the people were given no say in Morrison’s change to the anthem. It has just been imposed on them, without a vote in the parliament and, understandably a lot of us object to this dictatorship, for that is what it is.

Fortunately, Morrison cannot use his usual sleight of hand to change the national flag, which will be the next woke campaign and probably the next little trick he has up his sleeve: he has already been stymied on this because some of us had the foresight to legislate that the Australian flag cannot be changed without a majority of electors agreeing to the change. Of course, you can always change the Act that requires this to be done but no political party would be so brazen as to take away the peoples’ vote, except perhaps the Liberal party. This whole episode confirms my worst fear; that the Liberal party now stands for nothing and believes in nothing. It will go along with any and every passing fad and fetish and at the same time abandon all our well-established principles and institutions for what it thinks is short-term popularity.

On another subject, I would like to remind you of a prediction I made some years ago. We will know in a few days if I was right, although the die may have been cast by the time of writing. Anyway, I thought I should give you fair warning, so that you can check up on me, although I think I will be vindicated. My prediction was that Julian Assange will never be extradited to the United States and I am still convinced that this will be the end result of the latest round of legal manoeuvring. Why? Because I have felt for a long time that Western countries have given up on the fight to protect themselves against those who want to destroy them from within by, among other things, leaking security and intelligence secrets. So I expect that the judge in London who will deliver the verdict on whether Assange is to be extradited will say ‘No’. Even if she says ‘Yes’, Assange will appeal. We will then have another few years of suspense, so I will still be in the contest. The verdict will be promoted by Assange’s supporters up as victory for freedom of the press, another human right taking precedence over national security and safety. Which would you prefer to triumph?