Believe it or not, there’s still hope for Australia’s youth. 

Although their schoolteachers, university professors and social media idols shove anti-Australian ideas down their throats on a daily basis, the vast majority of young Aussies are still patriots. 

In a poll commissioned by the Institute of Public Affairs, 82 per cent of Australians between the ages of 18-24 agreed “I am proud to be an Australian”. 

52 per cent of Australians between the age of 18-24 years agreed “Australia has a history to be proud of”, with 22 per cent disagreeing (25 per cent were on the fence). 

All up 47 per cent of young Australians agreed “Australia Day should be celebrated on 26 January” – 25 per cent disagreed and 28 per cent neither agreed or disagreed. 

The numbers get even better when the polls account for Australians of all ages. 

Only 15 per cent of the population want to change the date of Australia Day. Only 14 per cent of the population believes Australia doesn’t have a history to be proud of. And only 5 per cent of the population aren’t proud to be Australian. 

Well done, Australia! 

This is brilliant news for mainstream Aussies and a kick in the guts to the critical race theorists and neo-Marxists who dominate the airwaves when it comes to education and the media.

The majority of Australians refuse to spend the rest of our lives apologising for the wrongs of our distant ancestors who were frontiersmen in a distant, unknown and incredibly dangerous land. 

We will not be bullied into ignoring the fact these pioneering men and women laid the groundwork for one of the greatest nations on Earth – a nation that has prospered for over 120 years thanks to its Anglo-Celtic Christian background; Westminster system of government; rule of law; democracy; respect of individual rights; and appreciation for education, nation-building and industrial development. 

And we entirely dismiss the divisive notion that this country was founded on racism, violent colonialism and white supremacy because from the very beginning we sought to be the very opposite.

The evidence speaks for itself. 

Unlike America, where there was a Declaration of Independence, the establishment of New South Wales by our founding father Governor Arthur Phillip was codified by correspondence between Phillip and the British Home Office.

For example, after Phillip was appointed Governor in 1786, he wrote up a manifesto detailing his plans for his new colony, in which he declared:

“The laws of this country [England] will, of course, be introduced in [New] South Wales, and there is one that I would wish to take place from the moment his Majesty’s forces take possession of the country: That there can be no slavery in a free land, and consequently no slaves”.

Phillip’s objection to slavery was well ahead of his time. It was radical.

While he established New South Wales as a settlement without slavery, the merchant fleets of Liverpool were transporting slaves to the Americas, Britain’s Caribbean colonies were dependent on slave labour, and slavery was rife in the Raj.

Even more impressive is how Philip wrote his anti-slavery proclamation eight months before the leader of the British abolitionist movement William Wilberforce even took up the issue.

It doesn’t stop there. 

After Phillip was ordered by King George III to “endeavour, by every possible means, to open an intercourse with the natives, and to conciliate their affections, enjoining all subjects to live in amity and kindness with them”, he announced that “any Man who takes the life of a Native, will be put on his Trial the same as if he had kill’d one of the Garrison.”

And even when speared through the shoulder by an Aboriginal warrior at Manly Cove in September 1790, Phillip refused to retaliate, resulting in the re-establishment of good relations, with Bennelong coming to Sydney with his wife in November 1790.

Governor Phillip’s legacy still continues today. 

Australia has the highest human development index in the world outside of Europe. 

Our government spends more than double the amount of money on our Indigenous population than our non-Indigenous population. 

We have one of the highest per capita immigration intakes in the world after the Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland. 

Our life expectancy ranks 7th highest in the world thanks to our generous public healthcare system which even international visitors have access to.

And our young men have fought – and given their lives - in every major conflict since the Boer War which began in 1899 even though our shores were only rarely directly threatened.

What is there not to be proud of! 

As Director of the Western Civilisation Program at the IPA, Bella D’Abrera said, “26 January marks the foundation of modern Australia, and the freedoms that go with it”.  

“Modern Australia is defined by freedoms which are enjoyed equally by all Australians,” she said.

“This is something that should be celebrated, not denigrated.”