Many years ago George Brandis and I were part of a committee to re-write the Liberal Party’s ‘We Believe’ statement, first published in 1954. Despite trying to keep it to ‘broad church’ motherhood statements the committee found it difficult to win support for its efforts. But I thought Brandis’s contributions were really good, including some elegant drafting (I don’t think many of his words are in the version on the Party’s website, which reads like it was written by – sigh – a committee).
Without the deadening effects of writing and editing by committee, he wrote an excellent chapter on John Howard in last year’s book on the Liberal Party’s future.
And I expect he will again produce a very interesting analysis for this year’s Alfred Deakin Lecture (I am a member of the Alfred Deakin Lecture Trust).
His topic “We Believe: The Liberal Party and the Liberal Cause”.
Venue: JH Mitchell Theatre, Richard Berry Building, University of Melbourne (the maths building near the main Swanston St tram stop, map here)
Date: Thursday 22 October 2009.
Time: 6:30pm
Andrew Norton 
Are bookings required?
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Leon – No.
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Perhaps he should invite Julie Bishop if she isn’t going to retire soon.
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“We believe in government that nurtures and encourages its citizens through incentive, rather than putting limits on people through the punishing disincentives of burdensome taxes and the stifling structures of Labor’s corporate state and bureaucratic red tape.”
That is the Liberal party’s second common belief in the list. What memorably bad writing! To me it just sounds awful to mention opposition to Labor explicitly when talking about one’s grand aspirations.
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