Liberty Fest in the West

The Duxton Hotel Perth might have at one time been an Australian Tax Office and Treasury Building outpost, but no longer. This prestigious hotel complex was, for a week in March, filled with a wide variety of liberty and freedom loving people who had all gathered to enjoy all things liberty and individual rights related. Liberty Works’ founder, Andrew Cooper, one of Australia’s most recognisable and well-respected voices on liberty certainly smashed this event well out of the park. Bettina Arndt, Tom Switzer, Senator Linda Reynolds (WA), Steve Baxter Anthony Dillon and Dave Pellowe, the Hon. Aaron Stonehouse MLC and Nick Cater were just a few of the big standout names to give speeches and sit on panels.

Bettina Arndt was a standout speaker. Her speech was entitled “The Wicked Witches are Winning: Campus rape scare campaigns and other feminist success stories” which amongst other things, highlighted the absolute destructive nature of the leftist, anti-male feminist agenda. She demonstrated a long list of evidence concerning how a destructive precedent is now being built into the trust systems at universities and institutions across the country. She argued that women at large are being trusted by institutional and bureaucratic power and valued over men’s voices in almost all areas in a destructive way. Bettina elegantly demonstrated that in some cases men’s lives have been fundamentally destroyed, their jobs lost, suicides have occurred, and traps were set up by women to ensure that men are denied their rights and liberty concerning their children, causing disruptions to fundamental family access.   

Another standout speaker was Tom Switzer, who’s speech on “The Rise of the Millennial Socialist” elegantly opened up the debate on the growing anti-capitalist attitudes that are alarmingly on the rise within the Millennial generation. It’s a global phenomenon, not just in Australia are black armed band hordes roaming the streets with signs like “Down with Capitalism”, but certainly in the United States as well. The Millennial generation encouraged by communist sympathizers such as Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont USA) and socialist agitators such as the United Kingdom’s Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn or here in Austraila by Greens leader Richard Di Natale.

The VIP Luncheon was given over to Senator Linda Reynolds (WA), who spoke of the foundations of the Liberal Party and the strength that is embedded within our Australian democracy. She also passed on a solid message that democracy is also the “job of all citizens”, not just the sole burden of the elected officials. Although she did underline the point that elected officials have their tasks to represent the people, society is a construct made up of the responsibility of all individual action in which we should be proud of.

 Steve Baxter is well known for being one of the “sharks” on the hit Australian television series Shark Tank. Mr. Baxter is known as one of Australia’s most successful tech entrepreneurs. He is involved in a countless number of investments and projects. He gave a compelling speech entitled “Down with Regulation”, where he outlined a case that regulation is strangling all sorts of innovation.

“A Voice for Whitefellas, a Voice for Everyone & Free Speech” was hosted by Dr. Anthony Dillon and Christian advocate Dave Pellowe. Dr. Dillon highlighted the fact that white Australians have the right to be heard on political and social debates concerning aboriginal issues. Dr. Dillon spoke of how white and Aboriginal Australian’s alike need to have a voice on issues that concern them both, and that the shouting down of debate by the hard-left needs to end.  Dave Pellowe gave a speech highlighting his adventures with Melbourne when he bought into the country, Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern. Mr. Pellowe argued that freedom of speech is a fundamental right no matter what we say.

The final panel was hosted by Andrew Cooper, integrating the panellists with the question “Is Taxation Theft?”. On this panel was the Hon. Aaron Stonehouse MLC, Chris Berg, Nick Cater and Andrew Reynolds. The panel came to a mixed conclusion with the round about answer coming out with morally “yes taxation is theft”, but with the social observation that sometimes taxation is necessary to support shared services, not for profit enterprises and to enable laws in civil society.

Overall this event was action packed, exciting and liberating. We suggest anyone who cares about liberty, self autonomy and freedom get their hands on a ticket.

Keep your eye on the website Liberty Fest, because they will be heading back to Brisbane for at a date currently unannounced. 

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Steele Archer

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