I went to Canberra because I had a meeting with an Old Boy from my school who had promised to give me some support in my campaign to become the next federal MP for Bradfield. That meeting was unremarkable and useless, but I was stuck in that godforsaken left-wing mess of a capital city with nothing to do.
With several hours to go before my flight home, I unwisely decided to 'see the sights'. Someone I know in Canberra (I hesitate to suggest he is anything resembling a 'friend', but we correspond infrequently and I correct his radical leftism) had recommended the 'Museum of Australian Democracy' as an example of a world-class cultural institution. I reluctantly agreed to view it, on the basis that anything was better than standing about in the city's impossibly cold climate.
The 'museum' is located at the foot of Capital Hill, in what is now called Old Parliament House. It is a squalid, tiny, ramshackle building that regardless was home to our greatest democratic institution for sixty years - it is NOT a building befitting such a great bastion of democracy. And it continues that tradition under its new name - by totally failing, in spectacular fashion, to be anything other than a left-wing propaganda machine perpetuating leftist lies and showing 'democracy' as something only the Global Left can call their own, when in truth the Left have no respect or love for democracy. The left value tyranny and statism, while democracy is about freedom. Yet the museum totally fails to acknowledge this.
Any attempt on the leftist historical warriors' part to disguise their agenda as unbiased fact is blown away in the first minute you enter the building. After paying an entrance fee (obviously the museum's clientelle is so marginal that your tax dollars don't cover its costs) you arrive in a large entry foyer, upon which hangs, in prominent place, a large painting of Paul Keating, the socialist Prime Minister whose disrespect for the Queen, the Parliament and the electorate brought shame upon our country. Keating doesn't deserve a portrait at all, let alone one hung in a place that is supposed to be about democracy. But there he is, looking down his elitist nose at everybody else. The only contribution he made to Australian democracy was getting out of office.
The rest of the museum's content is no better, or if you can believe it, even worse. The entire former parliamentary library space has been taken over by a pitiful excuse for 'history'. An exhibition devoted to celebrating Australia's democracy should rightly focus on the contributions made to it by the governments and people who believed in it - people like Robert Menzies, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Henry Bolte and of course John Howard. Instead, it celebrates not only the achievements of people who were not Australian, but the 'achievements' of people who did not care for or nurture democracy in any way.
The entire exhbition reads like a leftist recruitment drive. All the Left's favourite whinging topics are included - republicanism, homosexuality, Aborigines - with no coverage given at all to any alternative views. A short film is shown in which a variety of aboriginal people give thanks to Kevin Rudd for his 'apology' to them but totally ignores the basic facts of aboriginal history - chiefly, that children were taken away from their parents because their parents could not look after them. The film also describes the poor state of aboriginal health and education and suggests greater amounts of welfare be paid to them, ignoring the basic truth that welfare is responsible for their situation in the first place. The Left don't want to know about the truth - they care only about pushing their radical Socialist agenda on the rest of us.
Most offensive of all is the 'museum''s take on the issue of republicanism. The 'museum' shows republicanism to be a symbol of democracy. It takes as its basic premise that until Australia becomes a republic we will not be fully democratic. This is so far from the truth it is almost laughable. Our robust democracy stems from the monarchy - the reason the Radical Left want to abolish the Queen is because she exists as a check on their power. Without the Queen, Australia would become a socialist tyranny.
Yet the 'museum fails to recognise this'. In an interactive display, it asks visitors to vote on whether Australia ought to become a republic and what kind of republic it ought to become. What it does not do is give a balanced argument against a republic. It simply assumes that the radical left's poisonous lies about democracy will be swallowed. The 'museum''s masterminds have also cleverly 'stacked' the results of the voting so that it appears as if a majority of the voters are in favour of a republic, when in fact the 1999 referendum proved the exact opposite. The Radical Left's obsession with republicanism borders on the insane, except that their agenda depends upon it. They demand a republic because without it they cannot do what they wish to do, which is end democracy and capitalism.
The bias continues in the other exhibition, devoted to Australia's Prime Ministers. Here, the leftist historians behind this farce of a 'museum' have ostensibly 'honoured' each of Australia's 26 Prime Ministers. There are so many examples of not just bias but blatant factual errors in this display that one hardly knows how to begin to describe them. Here are just a few that I spotted within five minutes (which is more of my time than this radical propaganda deserved):
- J.B. Chifley's decision to nationalise the banks in 1949 is marked as a 'courageous' decision. It was not 'courageous' - it was foolish and subversive. Chifley showed his, and the Labor Party's, true colours when he attempted to abolish Australia's capitalist economy. But, like the rest of the Radical Left, the museum's curators continue to worship Chifley as some sort of visionary saint when in fact he was a dangerous radical opposed to the very ideals the museum claims to honour.
- The exhibition mentions that Gough Whitlam was dismissed from office in 1975 but fails to mention the circumstances - i.e. that Whitlam had bankrupted the nation with his socialist spending policies.
- The panel devoted to John Howard contains a quote about gun control which the designers clearly chose as part of their anti-American agenda. Their obsession with American gun control laws truly knows no bounds.
- Keating's republicanism is again held up as a noble sentiment rather than a subversive plot.
- Equal space is given to Sir Robert Menzies, who served nearly two decades as Prime Minister, and during that time waged a noble war against Communism, built up the Australian economy to a record peak, firmly stood by decency and morality, upheld traditional values and saw Australia's place move from a small colonial nation to a world power, as to Frank Forde, who held office for one week and did nothing whatsoever. This is clearly again showing a leftist bias, as showing Forde, a Socialist who did nothing as equal to Menzies, a Conservative who did a great deal, implies that one dud Socialist is equal to one long-term conservative.
After this point I had had enough and left the premises. I complained loudly about my findings to one of the 'museum' staff, who wore a ridiculously unfashionable orange polo-neck shirt. He fobbed me off with platitudes about how it was 'only my opinion' - rather than admit the lies and propaganda he represented, he attempted to convince me that I was in the wrong. I stormed out and spent the remainder of my stay in Canberra at the airport, which I greatly preferred. Aeroplanes don't lie.
Canberra is a cesspool. It is filled with radical leftists who permeate every aspect of its culture. It is truly astounding the Howard government managed to govern so well and according to conservative principles when the public service that runs the town is so tainted by radical politics. What sickens me is that this is what children are going to see and what they are going to think is the true story of Australian democracy. Leftist historians, who have likewise infiltrated other cultural institutions like the National Museum, want to use our cultural institutions to indoctrinate not just children, but adults to into participating in their agenda.
Avoid Canberra at all costs. No good can ever come from anything there. The one positive thing I have to say is that the 'Museum of Australian Democracy' is aptly named for the future. With its masterminds' bosom buddy Kevin Rudd in power, soon Australia's democracy will be a museum piece.
