We Believe

 

A statement of Liberal Beliefs issued in Canberra, on November 9, 1954, by the parliamentary leader (the Right Hon. R. G. Menzies) and the Federal President of the Liberal Party of Australia (Mr. W. H Anderson) on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the formation of the Liberal Party.

  1. WE BELIEVE IN THE CROWN as the enduring embodiment of our national unity and as the symbol of that unity and as the symbol of that other unity that exists between all nations of the British Commonwealth.

  2. WE BELIEVE IN AUSTRALIA, her courage, her capacity, her future and her national sovereignty, exercised through Parliaments deriving their authority from the people by free and open elections. 

  3. WE BELIEVE IN THE INDIVIDUAL. We stand positively for the freeman, his initiative, individuality, and acceptance of responsibility. 

  4.  WE BELIEVE IN THE RULE OF LAW. Under it, there is freedom for the nation and for all men and women. Democracy depends upon self-discipline, obedience to the law, the honest administration of the law. 

  5. WE BELIEVE IN THE SPIRIT OF THE VOLUNTEER. This does not mean that we reject compulsion in matters in which a uniform obedience is needed by the community. But it does mean that the greatest community efforts can be made only when voluntary cooperation and self-sacrifice come in aid of and lend character to the performance of legal duties. 

  6.  WE BELIEVE THAT RIGHTS CONNOTE DUTIES, and that sectional and selfish policies are destructive of good citizenship. 

  7. WE BELIEVE THAT IT IS THE SUPREME FUNCTION OF GOVERNMENT TO ASSIST IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY; that today’s dogma may turn out to be tomorrow’s error; and that in consequence, the interests of all legitimate minorities must be protected. 

  8.  WE BELIEVE IN LIBERTY; not anarchy, but an individual and social liberty based upon and limited by civilised conception of social justice. 

  9.  WE BELIEVE THAT THE ‘CLASS WAR’ IS A FALSE WAR. The real conflicts of our time is not between ‘classes’ in the old sense, but between the iron discipline of autocracy - whether Communist or Fascist - and the self-imposed discipline of the free man. The spirit of man must prevail. 

  10.  WE BELIEVE THAT LIBERALISM MEANS FLEXIBILITY AND PROGRESS. Its principles and its spiritual and intellectual approach enable it to meet and deal with new changing social and economic circumstances. By elevating the individual it meets and defeats the terrible doctrine of the all-powerful state. 

  11. WE BELIEVE THAT IMPROVED LIVING STANDARDS DEPEND UPON HIGH PRODUCTIVITY AND EFFICIENT SERVICE; and that these vital elements can be achieved only by free and competitive enterprise. 

  12.  WE BELIEVE THAT NATIONAL FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC POWER AND POLICY ARE NOT TO BE DESIGNED TO CONTROL MEN’S LIVES, but to create a climate in which men may be enabled to work out their own salvation in their own way. 

  13.  WE BELIEVE IN THE GREAT HUMAN FREEDOMS; to worship; to think; to speak; to choose; to be ambitious; to be independent; to be industrious, to acquire skill, to seek and earn reward.

  14.  WE BELIEVE IN SOCIAL JUSTICE; in encouraging the strong and protecting the weak; in widening opportunities for education; in the preservation of family; in good homes owned by those who live in them. 

  15.  WE BELIEVE IN RELIGIOUS AND RACIAL TOLERANCE AMONG OUR CITIZENS

  16. WE BELIEVE THAT ALL FORMS OF INDUSTRY, PRIMARY OR SECONDARY OR OTHERWISE, DEPEND ONE UPON THE OTHER, and that their community of interest will be the guarantee of the nation’s growth. 

  17.  WE BELIEVE that, under the blessing of Divine Providence, and given goodwill, mutual tolerance and understanding, energy, and an individual sense of purpose, there is no task which Australia cannot perform and no difficulty which she cannot overcome.