By Gina Rinehart AO
Australia Day is a day to refresh our national pride and to recognise the many good things about Australia, while acknowledging the hard-working pioneers who had it tough and struggled day after day to help build our country. They faced more than isolation, they faced hardship every day, yet through hard work, determination, courage, incredible persistence, and lack of bureaucracy and government tape, they laid the foundations of prosperity for our nation. Even pregnant women were photographed manually tilling the soil, and cutting down huge trees with a hand held not electric, saw! One person holding the saw at each end. Children would spend hour after hour, milking cows twice a day, turning handles to separate milk from cream, and then, turning More handles to make butter from the cream, collecting firewood, water, and helping with many other tasks. These are the same ancestors who then rushed to join our defence forces when our country needed.
Australia has become one of the most fortunate countries in the world. We are rich in natural resources, from abundant minerals that underpin modern life to fertile land, fish, pearls, clean water, homes that still have backyards, and a quality of life that millions around the world would like to be able to aspire to. Many people from other countries would love to have this!
Isn’t it wonderful to see our young generation want to celebrate Australia Day, despite all the negative propaganda they get in schools, a recent poll showed that 89 per cent of those aged 18-24 said they were proud to be Australian and support Australia Day.
And isn’t it telling those left woke corporates, usually the ones who misuse shareholders money for their annual luxury trips to the left woke Davos, too woke to endorse our country’s national day, have yet again been shown to be out of touch with Australians. I refer to the recent polling concerning alternate holiday dates, only 7 percent think ok for the Australia Day holiday to be used for another date.
For me, Australia Day also needs to be a day to call for truth, and a day to inspire action. It is a time to encourage more people to give their time and energy to stand up for our country and help save Australia. A time to recognise that we are already in record debt, facing approx. $50 billion in annual interest repayments. Interest equivalent to our total Defence budget, twice what is spent on policing and justice, a quarter of what government spends on health and hospital funding, just over half of what is spent on schooling, and nearly 160 times what the Federal Government provides the arts sector.
And that continued excessive government spending will saddle our next generations with high taxes for the rest of their lives. Plus assuming high taxes passed to businesses too, adding more business failures to our already record business failures, which will limit job opportunities for the next generations, and help to continue to lower living standards. To save Australia we need people to drive policies that truthfully reward hard work, encourage investment, keep energy affordable and reliable, without hidden taxpayer funded arrangements, and not harm the prosperity that underpins our standard of living.
Division strikes at the heart of who we are and what Australia Day represents. Hard left, pro-terrorist organisation propaganda, spreading division and helping to cause hatred and harm to fellow Australians, should have been prevented by bravely addressing and not ignoring the causes. Obvious steps such as terming organisations recognised as terrorist organisations overseas, terrorist organisations here, so that it is a criminal offence to provide funding to them, plus, stopping the drain on taxpayers funding to academia and media who have given their support to anti Jew pro terrorist organisations, and further, limiting immigration numbers, so that proper vetting can occur, are all steps that should have been taken preferably prior to the Bondi killings, but at the very least, immediately after.
I think our national treasure and multi gold winning Olympian, Dawn Fraser summed it up well when she said:
“In the 88 years of my life, living, loving, and representing this truly great country, I have NEVER seen so much hate and division, and this breaks my heart.
“People of all nationalities chose and still choose to come to this country to make a better home for themselves and their families, and we as a nation have accepted nationalities with open arms and hearts in the past, like the Italians, the Greeks, and the Jewish people, and they came to this country to start a new life with their families and they give back, they work hard, they love this country. They don’t demonstrate, they don’t hate, but only respect and love for this great country. All they asked for was to live in peace, with acceptance.
“This is not a gun problem, this is not a one-off problem, this is an antisemitism problem and it has been building and building, and our leaders have sat on their hands too scared to say anything or do ANYTHING because, heaven forbid, they might be called racists, but it’s not racism when you’re doing the right thing to protect your country, and yes, sometimes the hard decisions have to be made for the better of this country.
“I once made a comment about “go back to where you came from.” Well, listen to me: if you don’t love this country, abide by our laws, and you think it’s okay to insult our people and bring harm to this great country and its citizens, then yes, you should leave because no one has the right to go to anyone’s home to bring hate and disrespect.
“Many years ago, I competed for this country, and every time I stood on that dais and listened to my national anthem and saw my country’s flag being raised up, nothing made me more proud than to do it for my country. The country I have never stopped loving or fighting for, and when I see people with such disrespect burning our flag that I competed under, that soldiers fought under, and many that lost their lives under, you can be damn sure I’ll speak up because these people don’t deserve to live in this great country, because to live in this country is a privilege for me and everyone else who calls Australia home. We don’t want the haters; we don’t deserve the haters, and we shouldn’t tolerate the haters.
“I will stand with anyone that loves my country, that respects my country, that wants to see my country prosper.
“I will also call out people that have done the wrong thing and who have not stood up for this great country. And to you, Anthony Albanese, Tony Burke, Penny Wong, come down off your high horse and stop trying to run for cover.
“I have heard of way too many women being killed because certain men think it’s their right to control, and we enable all this behaviour because we have weak leaders in all sectors of the community that won’t call the bad behaviour out. I don’t care what your background is; if you harm someone or their property, there needs to be consequences.
“There was a time when people would take accountability, accept their mistakes, and apologise, but that has gone. Well, we need to go back to that, so I’m starting here and now. To the Jewish people, I am so very sorry for what you have endured.”
Dawns words are a beautiful reminder that love of country is not something to be mocked or diminished, but something to be respected, defended and passed on to future generations. Dawns words call upon us to remember the fine Australians we were and to return to a culture we can be proud of.
Let us warmly thank our veterans, those currently serving in our defence forces, and our police, RFDS, emergency and essential services for their service and sacrifice in keeping Australians safe.
And, let us commit to protecting our nation and making it stronger, more united and more prosperous, because the future of Australia and the generations following depend on the decisions we make and path we take today!
Happy Australia Day!
