A key creator of the Safe-Schools program Roz Ward was a speaker at the recent Socialism Conference held in late August in Sydney.

A former advisor to the Victorian Government and La Trobe University researcher, Ms Ward was suspended and then reinstated for her Facebook post calling for the removal of the “racist” Australian Flag on top of the Victorian Parliament building and suggesting her work would not be done until a Communist flag was there instead.

Gerard Benedet, National Director of Advance Australia, was not surprised by the news. “This just goes to show who’s creating the curriculum for our students and what their true motivation is,” Mr Benedet said. “We should be teaching kids Maths, Science, History and English, not radical left-wing politics.” 

The Socialism Conference, which boasted such talks as “Marxism 101” and “Rebuilding radical unionism today”, saw a few hundred people descend on the University of Sydney to rubbish capitalism, the economic system that gave them their iPhones, public transport and generously funded universities, in favour of revolutionary Marxism.

The treatment and attention this conference garnered was much different to the inaugural CPAC Australia Conference which occurred a few weeks beforehand. CPAC is the Conservative Political Action Conference and was founded in the USA in 1973. CPAC Australia was the first time a conference had been held outside the USA, with Japanese and Brazilian versions to be held later this year.

CPAC Australia, which showcased speakers like former Labor Leader Mark Latham, Brexit architect Nigel Farage, the IPA’s Janet Albrechtsen, former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, former Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson and Warren Mundine amongst others, was much derided by media pundits, politicians and left-wing activists alike. Slurs were hurled at speakers and attendees of the conference like ‘racists’, ‘Nazis’ and everything in between.

The difference between the reception for this conference and the Socialism Conference was startling. People at the Marxist conference were able to talk freely about their views without fear of reprisal or being called disgraceful names. Left-wing activists like to talk a lot about “equality, diversity and tolerance”, while mainstream Australians put talk into action and are very committed to “diversity of opinion” and free speech.

For those who were actually at CPAC Australia, the conference was a chance for everyday people to meet, talk and listen to great Australian and international figures about politics and our nation’s future. There was impassioned and intelligent discussion on topics such as freedom of speech and religion, industrial-relations reform, the rise of political correctness and campaigning tactics.

Far away from this conventional gathering, the Socialist conference saw talks about overthrowing our political system, reversing support for the state of Israel, prison abolition, radical gender theory, democratic socialism: an easier method of change and mass civil-disobedience. These extremist views, coupled with the fact that Marxist and Socialist leaders have been responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people worldwide, suggests that perhaps the furore from Labor’s Kristina Keneally, the literati and the political classes against CPAC Australia was widely misplaced.

“Just maybe, Labor Senator Kristina Keneally's silence about the Socialist Conference was because a Board Member from the radical left-wing activist organisation GetUp!, Sara Saleh was a guest speaker – we all know how close Labor and GetUp! are.”

Mr Benedet said, “We think everyone should be free to express their opinion, however wrong they may be. But it’s grossly unfair to spend weeks attacking a mainstream conference and its attendees and then stay silent on a revolutionary Socialist conference.”

“If there is to be such indignation, then it might be better directed at left-wing radicals who seek to change our way of life, instead of hounding mainstream Australians with mainstream values.”

End.