Former British prime minister and RT Honorary Elizabeth Truss has given Campion College students an insight into her 2022 term and ultimate resignation, and explained how both Australia and Britain must return to its conservative foundations.
Truss spoke in Campion’s grand hall on Thursday 10 October while in Sydney promoting her book, Ten years to save the West, about her experience in government and the political parallels she sees between countries like Britain, Australia, the United States and “what we need to do differently to change the trajectory we’re currently on.”
The former prime minister worries young people are decreasingly “likely to be in favour of democracy than older generations” and warned the “forces of socialism” are finding new ways to dominate the political narrative.
“We have eco-fanatics who say oil and gas is a bad thing, the transgender ideologues arguing that it is possible that if you’re born male to become female or vice versa, the anti-colonialists who are saying that something fundamentally wrong with the way that the United Kingdom or the United States or Australia made their way in the world,” Truss said.
“The point about transgender ideology is questioning human biology, which is questioning facts and truth—it is all about seeking to undermine our way of life and the society we live in.”
Campion College is coming of age.
Less than twelve months since the prestigious university brought pro-life Hungarian president Katalin Novák to Australian shores, the college has now also hosted former British prime minister and RT Honourable Elizabeth Truss.
In her brief visit Truss gave students an insight into her 2022 term and ultimate resignation, and explained how both Australia and Britain must return to its conservative foundations.
Truss spoke in Campion’s grand hall on Thursday 10 October while in Sydney promoting her book, “Ten years to save the West,” about her experience in government and the political parallels she sees between countries like Britain, Australia, the United States and “what we need to do differently to change the trajectory we’re currently on.”
The former prime minister worries young people are decreasingly “likely to be in favour of democracy than older generations” and warned the “forces of socialism” are finding new ways to dominate the political narrative.
“We have eco-fanatics who say oil and gas is a bad thing, the transgender ideologues arguing that it is possible that if you’re born male to become female or vice versa, the anti-colonialists who are saying that something’s fundamentally wrong with the way that the United Kingdom or the United States or Australia made their way in the world,” Truss said.
“The point about transgender ideology is questioning human biology, which is questioning facts and truth—it is all about seeking to undermine our way of life and the society we live in.”
Campion is steadily attracting more high-profile guest speakers like Truss hoping to impart their experiences and knowledge to the next generation of students.
Truss’s book describes her years as a government minister fighting these ideas and while Britain held a conservative government in her time, “we were swimming against the tide.”
Truss entered Parliament in 2010 and held appointments including Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice and Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
She was educated at Merton College, Oxford and in 2022 was the last Prime Minister to be appointed by Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away two days later.
Upon election as prime minster, Truss was concerned Britain had the highest taxes in 70 years, was spending 45 per cent of GDP, had not controlled illegal immigration, and sought to take a tougher stance on gender ideology, campaigning to return to conservative values “which is what most people in Britain actually think.”
But before implementing the new policies, the Bank of England announced the sale of 40 billion pounds worth of government gilts and bonds, sending the market into a frenzy when British pension funds invested in liability driven investments (LDI’s) became affected by rising interest rates.
Truss, now unable to pursue the policies, was forced to step down.
“That was a very painful experience, but it made me think about how our country is run and why it is that after 14 years of conservative government, we hadn’t been able to implement the conservative policies that the public had actually voted for,” she said.
Truss argued that moving forward in 2024, conservative politicians in Britain and Australia, need to argue for “wholesale change.”
“Otherwise, we have this situation where politicians have responsibility but no power, and that simply doesn’t work.
“To my mind, if we carry on the trajectory the west is going, weakening our societies from within with poor economic policies, damaging the family, damaging individual responsibility through ideas like transgender ideology, damaging our industry through unmitigated net zero policies, I think we are in a very worrying situation.
“But the positive I take, and this is true of the Voice referendum in Australia as it is true of the Brexit referendum in Britain, is I think the public are on our side.
“What we need to do is find ways of galvanising them, motivating them so that we can get conservative governments in power, in Britain, in the United States, in Australia, who are actually capable of making the changes that the west needs.”
Campion president Dr Paul Morrissey said he and the college were “privileged to hear the first person, personal, heartfelt account of an extraordinary moment in British history and some of the real challenges that elected officials face.”