My Reflections From London

Posted by on July 01, 2026

Why the "Age of Construction" matters here in WA

This past week I had the privilege of attending the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) Conference in London. The conference brought together more than 4,500 leaders from over 80 countries, from politics, business, academia, faith and the arts.

I would like to share a few reflections, because what we discussed there is directly relevant to the work I do on your behalf here in Western Australia.

This year's theme was "The Age of Reconstruction." For decades now, we have watched the steady deconstruction of Western society: a project led by intellectual elites, mainly of the Left, who have weaponised and amplified, for their own ends, every weakness or failing within our institutions, no matter how small or inconsequential.

The family, the workplace, our systems of government, our churches and community organisations are each held up, picked apart, and found wanting against impossibly shifting standards. Even the very concepts of liberty, personal responsibility, and duty, once held in the Western tradition to be sacrosanct, are pulled apart and discarded.

The purpose of this action is not repair, instead it is replacement.

Every existing structure and every inherited value is to be torn down and rebuilt in the image of a utopia of their own design. Along the way, dissent is eliminated, competition is silenced and people are “cancelled”. They will side with anyone or any ideology that helps undermine the resistance of a free-thinking, tolerant people and a truly representative government.

Our Nation’s founding faith and institutions along with the family - the key pillars that form citizens capable of standing on their own - are the principal targets.

You need not look to London for the pattern. Just over a week ago, Labor's Member for Bassendean, Dave Kelly, flagged the idea of removing the Lord's Prayer from the daily opening of the Legislative Assembly, calling a tradition in place since the 1890s "no longer appropriate." While this may seem, for some, a small change, this is exactly the method: chip away at the acknowledgements of the faith and heritage that shaped our institutions, until one day the foundations are gone. In their place the goal is not merely nothing but an alternative religion of the state and of political power.

However, despite this, the conference's answer was not one of despair. As one of the ARC founders put it, the movement exists for builders rather than critics. The task is to restore confidence in our heritage, renew our social fabric, and rebuild the moral foundations that underpin our prosperity.

As your representative in the Legislative Council, my job is not simply to identify what is broken, but to defend what works and help rebuild what has been weakened: strong families, safe communities, free markets and prosperous people.

There is real work ahead, and I am more determined than ever to get on with it.