Brianna McKee contextualises and disseminates the findings of the the IPA’s research into freedom of speech on Australian university campuses, conducted as part of the IPA’s Foundations of Western Civilisation Program.
It has been republished on the IPA website with permission. The views expressed are those of the author alone.
Alexandra Marshall:
Finally, here tonight on Spectator TV, we are joined by Brianna McKee from the Institute of Public Affairs. Brianna, welcome to the show.
Brianna McKee:
Thanks so much for having me.
Alexandra Marshall:
And of course, it was lovely to meet you at CPAC along with everybody else over the weekend. But Brianna, you had two excellent pieces in print recently. Now we’re going to discuss both of them, but first you borrowed from Donald Trump’s marketing slogan, Make America Great Again, and called on Australian society to make motherhood great again. Do you believe there might be a connection between Australia’s falling fertility rates and the way our culture views mothers?
Brianna McKee:
Well, yes, absolutely. There’s a clear connection between these two things. What we’ve seen is there’s been a rise in a mindset in society that is hostile to motherhood, families, and children. And this has been reinforced by political messaging. Increasingly, politicians measure a woman’s contribution in terms of her contribution to the national GDP, and we see this with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese emphasising basically a woman’s success in terms of financial terms. And he frames this when he looks at the gender pay gap. And increasingly, what we’ve seen is terms like a penalty or caring responsibilities. And these terms are used by politicians when they talk about motherhood, and what they actually mean is a penalty on the national GDP and unpaid taxes. And basically, this feeds into the narrative where employment is about empowerment and mothers have a second rate role in society. So when I say we need to make motherhood great again, I’m saying we need to make the status of mothers equal to the career woman if we want to see birth rates rise.
Alexandra Marshall:
Well, some politicians have been floating the idea that a four-day work week will improve parenting. But I have to say, I’m yet to meet anyone for various reasons who agree with that. Most of them are horrified if you suggest something like that. How much does the cost of raising children impact the way our society has evolved as far as parenting goes?
Brianna McKee:
Cost is a massive, massive barrier. We’ve seen skyrocketing housing prices, rising cost of living. Even education costs a lot more these days. And some research shows that to raise a child, it costs about 100,000 to $300,000, and that equates to about $700 a month. So there are these underlying issues that need to be addressed, and they’re cultural in terms of the hostility towards motherhood, but they’re also economic. Families require two incomes in order to survive. So if politicians want to see the birth rates go up, they have to address these financial barriers.
Alexandra Marshall:
Well, I believe Hungary has been relatively successful in turning their birth rate around. What was their secret?
Brianna McKee:
Hungary is a really interesting case study, and they have had some success in addressing demographic decline. And that’s interesting because they put about 5% of GDP towards family policy. And to put that in perspective, most countries only put less than 2% towards security. So if you look at some of their policies, they have a baby bonus. They have mortgage loans, which they’ll give to families but forgive if the family has four children. They’ve got a great tax policy for mothers. So if a mother has four children, then she never has to pay income tax again in her life. There’s also flexible family leave arrangements, and this can be used by the mother, the father, and even the grandparents. And for mothers who’ve studied, their loans are completely forgiven after the fourth child. So Hungary has a very multifaceted approach, and Australia can definitely learn a lot from it.
Alexandra Marshall:
It sounds like Hungary’s decided how many children they need to have per family, and then they start rewarding the mothers if they reach that goal that society has set out for them. But look, you write that children are a public good. The Greens and environmental rhetoric tells all the young parents that their kids are going to kill the world. Does the whole climate alarmist movement shoulder any of the blame for a declining birth rates in the West?
Brianna McKee:
Well, this is the stated aim of the climate alarmist movement. They want population reduction. They’re quite happy to say it. And we have seen the rise of eco-anxiety among young children, and we’ve seen this among young adults as well. They’re saying they don’t want to have kids because they’re worried the world is going to end. So the climate alarmist movement certainly bears some responsibility. And there’s also our cultural institutions that are all in on this and promoting this message, and these are our schools, our universities, big government, the media, and also the political class.
Alexandra Marshall:
Well, let’s move on to your other article because I want to get to that. It was excellent. You drew in the readers with your headline in the magazine that said they’re a weird mob at Melbourne Uni. And I don’t believe anyone actually disagreed with you about that, but the article’s even more fascinating. Australia has long been a story of migrant success, but you say the University of Melbourne’s Australian Centre doesn’t really like the migrant story of hard work and success because it plays into the, what is it, the narrative that leads to problematic entitled sense of belonging. I don’t know, with all mumbo jumbo, what was going on there, Brianna?
Brianna McKee:
No, that’s right. So what we’ve seen is the academic class increasingly are attacking Australian history, our values, and our way of life. And they’re not trying to hide this. It’s no secret. They’re very open about it. They’re teaching students about white supremacy, white privilege, the evils of colonialism, structural racism. I’ve been looking at Melbourne University’s Australian Centre for a few years now, and basically their recent research looks at the migrant trope of hard work and success. And they say this is a big problem. And that’s because, as you said, it plays into an assimilationist narrative and it gives these migrants an entitled sense of belonging. That’s what they say. But the issue here for the Australian Centre is it relieves these migrants and it relieves Australians of a sense of guilt. And this sense of guilt is what pervades the whole research. They need people to feel guilty in order to justify the complete restructuring of Australian society. And that’s what this research is all about.
Alexandra Marshall:
It’s very difficult. You read it. You’ve quoted what they’ve said there. I read it, and I still can’t believe that any public money was spent on this. The research conducted under redefining belonging in the so-called Australia seems to be actively looking for ways to undermine older migrants who succeeded without the welfare state, which has become the whole crutch of the new migration movement to the aggravation of pretty much everyone. Now, indeed, welfare is the dividing line between old migrants from Europe and new migrants from the Third World. Now, Labour and the Greens both know that this social problem divides their voting base. Is the role of universities, Brianna, to sit there and undermine migrant culture? Because it seems to me a terrible idea.
Brianna McKee:
Well, the role of university is to pursue truth and to tell the truth about Australian history, to hone the mind, and to acquire knowledge. But what the Australian Centre is doing is it’s trying to rewrite history and teach history through the prism of class, race, and gender. And so they’re not celebrating the creation of Australia and democracy and freedom. The migrant success story, all of these are great things. They should be praised and celebrated, but instead the Australian Centre is just trying to tear them down.
Alexandra Marshall:
Well, look, I think migrants should be very angry with Melbourne University and their research groups involved in this because they’re a treasured part of Australian society and they’re basically being told that they have to be guilty for succeeding, which is just crazy. But look, unfortunately, that’s all we’ve got time for today. Thank you so much for joining us here today on Spectator TV.
Brianna McKee:
Thanks for having me.
Alexandra Marshall:
And that’s all from us tonight.
This transcript of Brianna Mckee talking Spectator TV from 11 October 2024 has been edited for clarity.
