When Captain Arthur Philip planted the British flag for King George III to establish the first British settlement at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788, he did so under an edict the colony was to be free, without slaves. All would be equal before the law, guaranteeing liberties embedded in the 1215 Magna Carta.

After early struggles, convicts eventually granted freedom generally prospered far better than they would have in the unfavourable circumstances of their origins.

Liberty seeded on that first day has evolved into a thriving, if imperfect democracy, now facing challenges from within and without.

Global Contest

Whether we are aware of it or not, a global contest is being waged between democracy and autocracy as a way of governance, and between nationalism and globalism. Both threaten our sovereignty and way of life we celebrate on Australia Day.

Despite Communism’s history of failure with death of millions, Xi Jinping of China is determined to dominate global governance and financial currency markets, taking over from the US dollar. Renminbi anyone? Xi’s Belt and Road initiative, his takeover of Tibet, Hong Kong,  LAC India, South China Sea and his intention to take over Taiwan threatens. Silent immersion of China’s influence in western democratic countries is clearly outlined by Clive Hamilton in his book, Hidden Hand. Peter Schweizer’s just released book Red Handed, details how the elites get rich helping China win. Schweizer believes such concentration of power is evil.

Globalism isbeing driven by people such as Charles Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, together with the cohort of elites pushing The Great Reset for global utopia run by unelected bureaucrats and corporate leaders. Joe Biden, President of the USA has signed up. That the ideas have been tried before by Stalin, and failed drastically, hardly penetrates the consciousness of the privileged, yet stupid elite, who think they know what’s best for us. For instance, aren’t we all sick of hearing from these elite unelected organisations how badly Australia is on meeting emission targets and managing the Great Barrier Reef, when nothing could be further from reality? Power trumps facts.

Democracy and its challenges

Peace and progress in our democracy is founded on several key elements now being threatened: unbiased media; separation of powers between elected officials and the law, adhered to and administered equally; integrity of elections; and free speech. None of these elements is present in socialist/communist countries (Russia, China, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela). In fact, their people are locked in, unable to leave and there is no rush by immigrants to enter, as there is into more democratic countries. Freedom and opportunity matter to the human spirit.

In the great struggle now being contested between socialism and democracy, three fundamentals of democracy are under heavy attack: faith, family and culture. Destruction of these strengths of democracy make all else problematic. President Xi of China believes implicitly his way of ruling is superior and intends imposing it upon us all.

Within Australia

According to the Edelham Trust Barometer[i], people have lost trust in the Media, down to 43% from 51%. Trust in government and non-government agencies has also plummeted, from a sense of having been misled.

ABC falsely trashing the person and careers of conservatives Christian Porter, Andrew Laming and George Pell and being found out in court, with costs, demonstrates extreme bias, diminishing trust worthy of democracy. Lunatics at the ABC should buy the asylum and spare taxpayers the cost.

Instead of analysing the origins of COVID, monitoring effectiveness of vaccines, lockdowns, masks and mandates that would serve people’s interests in democracy, media has been complicit in diminishing healthy debate by:

• Orchestrating fear instead of investigating scientific truth; and
• Silencing alternative opinions outside the narrative, cancelling dissent

Authoritarianism and overreach counter to democracy has been evident in:

• Extended emergency powers without accountability
• Unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats determining COVID policies
• Failure to follow the science. Now clearly evident: cloth masks have limited value; 1.5m distance has no basis; lockdowns of all people are more damaging than the virus, especially for children; those who have recovered from COVID have stronger immunity than vaccination; and therapeutics help speedy recovery
• Extraordinary influence of elites, especially big Pharma and Big Tech
• Universities and corporations speaking the China narratives against Australia’s interests

Politicised police and unequal application of the law, is evidenced in:

• Arrest of anti vax-mandate protesters, though not BLM protesters and young black rioters destroying property
• Victorian Labor using red shirts brigade paid for out of public funds to run their election campaigns
• Anastasia Palaszczuk spending big on surveys to determine COVID and campaign policy, not science, damaging so many livelihoods, businesses and families
• Using police to control state borders and people walking in the park
• Violent arrest of protesters, in their kitchen, on the streets, in cafes
• The whole sorry saga of Cardinal Pell so politically motivated to attack the Catholic Church – police canvassing for complaints, charges, trials, jail, ultimately overthrown by the High Court as being implausible.

Destruction of history and culture evident in an education system resulting in 30% functional illiteracy, yet focused on climate change, COVID fear, gender fluidity, all in defiance of science. Being able to write legibly a properly structured sentence with punctuation and capitals would be a start.

Beyond our borders

The USA has gone from being a bastion of democracy to becoming a country under threat, as globalism subsumes nationalism.

A sovereign nation controls its borders and faithfully administers its laws. Yet, against the law, in one year alone, President Joe Biden has allowed two million people from 140 nations and dubious health condition to cross the southern border, dispersing them in the middle of the night to destinations unnamed. More will have escaped notice. In New York, unregistered aliens will be allowed to vote. Democrat of course!

At the same time, Americans remain constricted by vaccination mandates and failure to concede the science that those who have recovered from the virus carry higher immunity and longer than any vaccination. Many who laboured through the crisis and recovered from COVID have lost their jobs: truckers, nurses, doctors, first responders and essential workers. Yet controls on who can enter an enclosed space, restaurant or service, still apply. While two million aliens (so far) roam free.

Crime has escalated as Soros funded District Attorneys in Democrat states like New York and California apply catch and release policies to be kinder to criminals. As a result of not enforcing the law crime has increased exponentially.

Marxist Black Lives Matter riots, burning and murders led to defunding and demoralising the police for doing their job.

Politicising government investigative agencies, the CIA and FBI to hound Trump and his associates, based on a fake dossier, now extended to people in Washington on January 6, and parents protesting at school board meetings about teaching their children Critical Race Theory, gender fluidity, and destruction of American history and literature, shows how separation of powers is now blurred, spoiling democracy.

Trust in governance diminishes as laws governing real crime are trivialised, while political crime of having a different point of view is investigated and punished severely. Adding racial discrimination to the mix further undermines respect for the law and those exercising it – very STASI like.

Many factors softening the USA for capitulation to China are not unlike what’s happening in our own country: the breakdown of law, order, institutions and borders in the USA (Tony Abbott dealt with that one); the infiltration of China into Big Tech, corporations, universities and governments, especially the Democratic Party; the woke-isation of the military; capture of children to false indoctrination; complicity of the media in the going narrative rather than investigative rigor; attacks on our Judeo-Christian heritage from which democracy derives; decline in search for truth in science in deference to money for the going narrative; and loss of freedoms – of movement, speech and religion.

The Marxist handbook requires destruction of the culture, institutions and families of a country in order to implement control over the people, much like we’ve had during COVID. How we recover will be critical, especially in the face of looming international threats from Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.

Challenges to democracy and our way of life are heightened in the year 2022. We will need courage, fortitude and strategic intelligence of Captain Cook to resolve our position and strengthen the way of life we celebrated on 26 January.

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[i] Cited by Jennifer Oriel, Ground Control We have a Problem, The Australian, 1 February, 2022.