Alex Antic (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak in relation to the worrying trend of incursions into common sense, values and decency at state level across our nation. On occasion I'm asked what drew me into public life, and it's a question I presume is asked of most parliamentarians. For me, the answer is simple. I was tired of watching the political class, including some polyester conservatives, allow the tide of cultural Marxism to wash over us. I wanted to be a voice for common sense and a voice for decency, and I wanted to play a small part in retrieving politics in this country from the political elites.

Ours is a country founded on Judaeo-Christian values—values which have served us over the centuries, values which have stood the test of time, values which are under attack and values which are being forfeited day by day. The radical Left, through their political wings—the Australian Greens and the Australian Labor Party—are determined to cleanse the public narrative of family values. We've been watching this for decades. But what's more troubling is the extent to which these incursions are being ignored at state level. The radical Left has become emboldened, and these trends are not corrected by pandering. State parliaments are being weak. The assaults on religious liberty creatively known as 'conversion therapy bills' which have been moved in Victoria, Queensland and the ACT provide a perfect example. The Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill passed in Victoria two weeks ago is a bill which criminalises the truth, and it passed, 27 for and nine against. In 2021 South Australia will see its own conversion therapy bill and a further euthanasia bill, appropriately dressed in the Left's Trojan Horse language of 'voluntary assisted dying'. There have also been euthanasia bills introduced in Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and Western Australia. Last year in my home state of South Australia, parliament defeated yet another prostitution bill, only to see it rise again later this year. This week the South Australian state parliament is debating the Termination of Pregnancy Bill, a bill which would allow abortion till the moment of birth. South Australians have told me they reject this bill, with survey results showing that 63 per cent of South Australians oppose late-term abortion and only 20 per cent support it.

Two weeks ago I attended the Walk for Life, on a rainy day, with 5,000 South Australians who, like me, oppose this bill. Last weekend a pro-late-term abortion gathering—it really wasn't a rally—unsurprisingly attracted a mere 300 people, on a beautiful sunny day. With this much public support for decency, why is the political narrative so slanted? Why are our state parliaments even debating such matters when Australians have not given them a mandate to do so? It's because conservatives have vacated the field, and radical dogma is filling the void. The proponents of these matters don't give up. They don't walk away. They seek fleeting glory from a small but vocal minority. They seek to wear you down and they have time and energy on their side. A small but vocal cross-section of society is now in control of the narrative. We can't allow our state parliaments to continue being weak, to continue being compliant and to continue waving the white flag to a vocal mob. Ask yourself: why are your rights being eroded? Is your member of parliament protecting your values or is he or she hiding behind platitudes and false intellectualism? Is your member of parliament firm in their beliefs or are they scared of the activist media, scared of a corporate standover, scared of the mob?

George Orwell once said, 'The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.' Conservatives need to fight back. They need to become loud and they need to get more involved in the machinery of politics. Common sense, decency and values need you; they need your family and they need your friends. They need you to be heard before the mob cancels you and cancels your way of life.