Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The course of human progress is driven by empowered individuals, not acceptance by group identity. In 1853, abolitionist pastor Theodore Parker identified the necessity of perspective against the background of frustration in pursuit of a just cause, with this sermon:

I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.

Parker saw the practical effect of dehumanising people into classifications over their common inherent individual dignity. Sadly, it is a lesson that much of humanity has failed to heed as it continues to learn. As political practitioners, our role is to grasp the compounded weight of history to lead to a better future. As Friedrich Hayek argued, all political ideologies have one thing in common—to empower central authorities to impose for rationalised conformity except one, liberalism. Only liberalism differs because it absorbed the lessons of lived history to understand that progress depends on empowering people. Each generation must rediscover these values, even when they've become unfashionable as a society and as an economy's default setting.

Populism is merely politics without principle. Popularity has no integrity when it lacks a moral purpose. That is why it is so refreshing to hear the Prime Minister recently rebuke the populism of identity politics, stating:

You are more than your gender, you are more than your race, you are more than your sexuality, you are more than your ethnicity, you are more than your religion, your language group, your age.

There is more weight in this statement than superficiality. The contest to respect people for their individuality or identity is a contest between conformity and diversity. The foundation of our equality is limiting our conformity to respect for our common humanity. Thereafter, tolerance is respecting people's diversity, whereas imposing acceptance based on group identity extends a person's worth based on the sanction of others. It is ultimately a pathway to dehumanisation, as the Prime Minister rightly argued. We then define each other, if we go down that other path, by the boxes we tick or don't tick, rather than by our qualities, skills and character, and we fail to see the value that other people hold as individuals, with real agency and responsibility. That is the divide that rests between the two sides of this chamber. Politics is about power and, critically, who is empowered to take responsibility. To define people by groups is to empower those that claim leadership through the disempowerment of others, whereas to respect agency and responsibility empowers individuals and the organic institutions that they form—family, community and enterprise.

As Liberals we want Australians to determine their own future and have the freedom to secure reward through risk and responsibility. We empower Australians to form the organic institution of family as the building block of society because we know it is the greatest form of social welfare across all stages of life. We empower Australians through voluntary community organisations as the first stitches in our broader social fabric, because we know ownership is the best means to encourage action today and to conserve its benefits for tomorrow. We empower Australians to own their home as the foundation of their economic security in their working life and retirement because we know that you can save for retirement after you own a home but you can't save for a home in retirement. We seek to empower Australians to pursue enterprise to drive innovation, growth and opportunity for themselves and as a pathway for employment for others, because there is no greater selfishness than dependence on others when you can stand and help others, too. The extent that we seek to empower central government is to ensure these ends, because we believe the strength of our nation is built from the citizen up, the community up and commerce up, not from the Commonwealth or state capitals down. But it all depends on a simple truth, as articulated by the Prime Minister:

We must never surrender the truth that the experience and value of every human being is unique and personal.

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You are more, we are more, individually, more than the things others try to identify us by, you by, in this age of identity politics.

It is that, our common humanity, not identity, which defines our worth and individuality and is the foundation of our nation's success. Thank you.