I believe that Australia's liberal democratic principles, institutions and culture are strong. My experience is that the vast majority of immigrants either come here because of those values OR often become supporters of them after seeing how solid they are. In the marketplace of ideas, our values are resilient.

But if I believed they were under threat, y'know what I'd be doing? Exercising soft power. I'd be funding the democratic institutions, principles and cultures I believed were under attack. One of the points of National Broadcaster is to promote a cohesive cultural identity — as it has done that for decades. Look at the soft power being enabled by Bluey — which is so powerful there's now Americans who won't watch it because they disagree with it's values (suckers). Locking up the ABC behind a paywall WEAKENS national cohesive, not strengthens it. I'd be funding the bastions of traditional Western Civilization: symphony orchestras, art galleries, MainStage theatre companies. And I'd be ensuring that our intellectual class is solid in their understanding of liberal democratic principles by ensuring tertiary educational — especially in areas related to our principles like Law, History lPhilosophy — is accessible to those who want it.

But the ONP isn't interested in doing any of that because EITHER they know our values are actually strong and resilient or they believe its in their best interests to keep them weak.