(Please see below for copyright details of the above work called “Freedom”)

Prayer For A New Mother: “The things she knew, let her forget again-/The voices in the sky, the fear, the cold ….. Let her have laughter with her little one/Teach her the endless, tuneless songs to sing,” – Dorothy Parker, born on this day, August 22, in 1893

What follows is my slightly poeticised, partially rewritten, version of highlights of Moira Deeming’s maiden speech to the Victorian Parliament. (To read the original click here.)

“Under God I stand, a proud Australian Maori woman and thank my people of Western Melbourne.

I pay tribute to my husband, a humble man, a relentless force for good, the man I admire most in this world and a healing, wise and loving father to our kids.

I thank those four children who turned all my fears about motherhood upside down. These last seven years, when I was able to stay home with them almost full-time, have been the greatest, the most meaningful and the most joy-filled years of my life. My children showed me that there is no career, no cause, no adventure that could ever be as inspiring or as satisfying as the simple, ordinary days that I spent at home being their mum. As Robert Menzies said, our real lives are found “in the homes of people who ….. see in their children their greatest contribution …..”

Labor views the people I represent as their territory and so those human beings have become the forgotten people of Victoria.

As a teenager I witnessed firsthand the corruption and the brutal, coordinated bullying of anyone who does not think and act in unity with the left.  Unity’s real name is in fact ‘Liberty’.

Overbearing Unity’s chains of oppression are the best illustration I can think of for the dangers of left-wing ideology. I turn away from it. Because individual rights and liberties must never be sacrificed for coerced unity. 

I believe that every individual is unique, endowed with human dignity and worthy of our care and respect. Too often Labor has chosen to sacrifice individual human rights to chase collective goals. They argue that the end justifies the means, but as a Liberal, I believe that only by just means can we achieve a just outcome. That is why I believe in the freedom to worship, to think and, as my dear friend Abdullah put it, the right to disagree well forever.

I believe in freedom from compelled speech, the freedom to travel outside my own suburb, the freedom to meet and embrace my family members and the freedom to accept or refuse medical treatment. These freedoms are under threat today, and as these last few years have proven, if we do not cherish them, if we do not fight for them, they will be taken away.

Rights and liberties must systematically constrain governments, not the other way around.

I was a teacher before attacks on freedom chased me into politics. Now students in our schools are required to affirm and celebrate beliefs that they just do not share. Perfectly reasonable moral and religious differences are called discriminatory and intolerant, and a people are grouped as allies or enemies.

One of my students had escaped to Australia from a war-torn country only to be told repeatedly by his teachers that Australia and Australians were racist, and this poor boy of 13 or 14 actually believed them. Here he was, safe in Australia, welcomed, happy in the classroom, unable to concentrate on his work, though, because he was scared of supposed systemic racial violence. No child should be told that they are hated. 

Women and girls are suffering in Victoria.

This government cannot or will not define what a female is.

As a result every woman and every girl in Victoria has lost the right to enjoy female-only spaces and activities.

What most women would consider to be sexual harassment and indecent exposure is now legal in Victoria.

This government has made it legal to have children present inside brothels in Victoria.

Devastated police officer friends of mine have told me that Victoria will now inevitably become the child rape capital of Australia.

In this age of self-righteous hive mind politics, I thank all those who have defended me from slander. “

Moira Deeming speaks now as a woman for everybody.

And the freedom of her smile is one of the most beautiful sights in Australian politics

Geoff Fox, former Registered Midwife, August 22nd, Melbourne, Australia

PS the word art at the top of this page is a new work of art authored by me from a photo autored by The Unshackled. It si called Freedom. It is published under a  Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. Anyone is free to both A. share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work and B. remix – to adapt the work but only ander the following conditions: C. attribution – they must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. They may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses them or their use.