If only the USA could wise up and follow Australia’s example
. . .
Thank You, Australia by
Daniel Hannan
Tony Abbott Elected Prime Minister Because Australians Trust
Him
People of his sort are not supposed to win elections. Abbott
believes in God, supports free speech, wants to crack down on illegal
immigration and once called global warming "crap". He opposes
same-sex marriage, though in courteous and temperate language (his sister, who
is gay, campaigned for him). He has no time for the notion, favoured by some
Melbourne cleverdicks, that Australia is an Asian power. His country's
alliances with Britain, the United States and the other Anglophone democracies
are central to his world-view.
How did he do it? One word: integrity. Of all the insults
hurled at Abbott by his opponents, one which you almost never hear is
"liar". His beliefs are not everyone's cup of tea. Indeed, his
paternalistic social conservatism is a long way from my own brand of
free-trade, small-government Whiggery. But people trust him to deliver what he
promises, and with reason.
If you followed the Australian election, however cursorily,
you'll almost certainly have picked up the idea that Abbott was sexist. What
Abbott's detractors really mean by "sexist" is that he is Roman
Catholic and opposes abortion. Not that he plans to ban or restrict it – he did
neither as health minister – but that is personal views are somehow
unacceptable. There is a hint of anti-Catholicism here, of the Richard Dawkins
kind: how, we are invited to ask, can we elect someone who believes in
fairy-tales?
It is
here that bien pensant commentators make their error. Few
Australians share Abbott's strong religious convictions. But – and this is the
point they miss – you don't have to be a Christian to see the use of Christian
politicians. Voltaire, who loathed the Catholic church, once remarked that he
wanted his cook, his accountant and his barber to be Catholics: that way, he said,
he'd be less likely to be poisoned or robbed or have his throat cut. The same
applies in spades to prime ministers. Plenty of committed atheists can see the
benefits of putting people in government who believe that they are answerable
to a higher power.
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