There are mounting threats to the Australia I have known and loved throughout my 96 years – a milestone I reached last week. They come not only from potential foreign enemies, but from a growing internal rejection of the very foundations of Western civilisation on which Australia has thrived, reinforced by similar movements across other democracies. Unless that trend is reversed, my grandchildren are likely to inherit a far more authoritarian, government-regulated Australia than the freedom-loving nation I have enjoyed.

For almost two-thirds of my life (having survived so long with the help of the consistent medication of good red wine – along with the miracles of modern medicine), I, in varying degrees, welcomed being governed by Liberal-led coalitions, of which, for two decades, I was a member.

Democracy was alive and well in a cohesive society (before multiculturalism became an instrument of division rather than unification), economic reform saw the nation prosper, with equality of opportunity and rewards for aspiration (rather than equality of outcomes) and a needs-based social security system providing a fiscally responsible safety net as coalition governments in particular, campaigned on the basis of not spending beyond their means and accusing Labor of wanting big government, big business and big unions – and big taxes to pay for it all.

Patriotism and pride at living in the best country in the world were considered virtues before our schools taught our children to hate our history, the elites denigrated our achievements and activists progressed their causes not by weight of argument but by strident, disruptive demonstrations and confrontations.

During most of my adulthood, political stability was one of Australia’s greatest strengths. It endured even dramatic changes in government. For more than half of the 61 years of Coalition rule during my lifetime, just four Liberal prime ministers – Menzies (18 years), Howard (11+), Fraser and Lyons (7+) – occupied the Lodge. For Labor, only Bob Hawke (eight years) survived at the top for longer than just two terms. His ‘et tu Brute’ moment in 1991 at the pointy end of Cassius Keating’s political dagger set a precedent for a revolving door of political leadership in both major parties. That instability has contributed to voter disillusionment and declining trust in politicians. After the relaxed and comfortable prime ministership of John Howard, Labor shuffled the pack with Rudd-Gillard-Rudd-Shorten-Albanese in only 16 years while the Liberals switched between Nelson-Turnbull-Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison-Dutton-Ley-Taylor over 18 years.

But this is only a sideshow to the deeper reasons so many Australians, like their counterparts in other western democracies, are losing faith not only in politicians, but the system itself.

The growing mistrust of major parties is undoubtedly linked to an increase in protest votes across the country involving a resurgent One Nation and the rise of community independent MPs as alternatives.

The loss of trust is exacerbated by what a recent academic study described as ‘mutual destruction’ among the major parties, as they focus heavily on accusing each other of being perpetual liars.

That concern is reflected in research by the University of New South Wales, which concluded that: ‘It is not surprising that voters may be losing trust in democracy, especially the younger generations, and that this distrust does more than influence elections; it can shape what democracy is capable of achieving.’

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance has detailed the fragility of democratic systems and the growing influence of authoritarian regimes. Reflecting a global trend, the report notes that only 12 per cent of Australians trust politicians, while 58 per cent regard them as untrustworthy.

The Institute warns that: ‘This crisis of trust poses a fundamental challenge to the functioning of democracies worldwide and when citizens lose faith in their leaders and institutions, political disengagement increases, eroding the foundation upon which democracy rests; it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain a functioning democratic system where government legitimacy is built on trust and public consent…[it] is a dire challenge for the future of democracy.’

For Australia to address these challenges ‘will require a concerted effort to rebuild trust in political institutions, ensure that all citizens feel they have a voice in the democratic process, and promote a more inclusive, accountable form of governance with the future of democracy depending on the willingness of governments to engage with their citizens and restore faith in the political system’.

This is the basic challenge for the Liberal Party whose core principles (revived by new leader Angus Taylor after a 12-year coma) are directly aligned with the individual rights, freedoms, rewards for initiative and equality of opportunity of Western civilisation. The Liberal Party’s need to fight the ideas war for Western civilisation also represents a battle for its own survival.

Seen in that light, last month’s Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (Arc) conference in London – with its ‘hope-filled vision for the future of Western civilisation’ – is highly relevant to Australian politics.

Arc’s mission statement rejects ‘the inevitability of decline’ of Western civilisation and instead seeks to ‘re-lay the foundations of our civilisation’ by drawing on ‘humanity’s highest virtues and extraordinary capacity for innovation and ingenuity… on our moral, cultural, economic, and spiritual foundations’.

Arc was dismissed by the Guardian as a ‘populist and right-wing anti-woke Davos’ but the evidence presented of the threat to Western civilisation was overwhelming.

It concluded that: ‘the West is in the throes of its own self-demolition and is sorely in need of renaissance… (as) generations of Westerners have been taught to hate their own civilisation’ while providing nothing substantive in its place beyond ‘parasitic’ ideologies like critical race theory, net zero, DEI and postcolonialism.

All this applies to Australia from the black-armband distortion of history to the threat of ‘soft despotism’ due to ‘government domination over our lives’ and ‘the trend to further technocratic tyranny’.

The bad news is that Arc’s solutions rest on two unachievable objectives. The first is to re-educate Western democracies on why their system is better than the alternatives. This requires not only mass media but also a heavy concentration on education systems that are effectively dominated by the anti-free-enterprise left.

The second is ‘to reverse the anti-civilisation discourse’ which is driven by ‘unmet, spiritual and psychological needs’ that stem from ‘the decline in Christian faith and the traditional values that once undergirded Western civilisation’. Arc wants to do this by making clear ‘the harms that anti-civilisation policies cause’ and explaining why Western civilisation is ‘the fairest and most humane form of social organisation ever created,’ that has ‘repeatedly earned, and most deserves, our faith’.

Relying on a resurgence of faith is risky when, as Arc acknowledges, Western societies are experiencing a crisis of faith ‘not only in God, but in a sense of individual and collective purpose’ and in the ‘basic goodness of Western civilisation’.

The Liberal party has been the Australian standard-bearer for the values of Western civilisation and its survival as a party depends on their defence. But it will take a lot more than the power of prayer.