Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

It's not just the aqueducts but everything else. You would think when the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation was offering our universities scholarships and the opportunity to support courses in Western civilisation that they would be supported but, no. The National Tertiary Education Union calls Western civilisation courses 'narrow', 'radical', 'promulgating the alleged superiority of Western culture and civilisation'. The National University Student Association calls it a 'rhetorical tool to continue the racist prioritisation of Western history and other cultures'. How can it be racist to teach about the rule of law? How can it be racist to teach about freedom of speech? How can it be racist to teach about democracy? How can it be radical to promote academic freedom?

I tell you what is radical: the member for Melbourne's PhD thesis at one of our universities. It was titled: Work to Rule: Rethinking Marx. Obviously Marx was too conservative. It is hoped that those on that side of the House will get behind the Centre for Western civilisation—a bit like Kim Beazley, who's a board member on the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation. It's time that all sides of this House—Liberal, National, and Labor—got behind the Centre for Western Civilisation, condemned the unions and reminded the Australian people everything that Western civilisation has done for our humanity and for our society.

See this speech in context