The Institute of Public Affairs has today announced that the 28^th Prime Minister of Australia, the Hon Tony Abbott will join the IPA as a Distinguished Fellow. Mr Abbott will be working with the IPA in the fight for mainstream Australian values.

“I can think of no-one better to join with in this effort than Tony Abbott,” said John Roskam, Executive Director of the IPA.

“Mr Abbott has consistently defended mainstream Australian values, often in the face of tremendous hostility, and his 2013 election victory was a watershed that foreshadowed the cultural and political realignment seen around the Western world in recent years.”

Mr Abbott said, “I am delighted to join the IPA as their Distinguished Fellow at this critical moment in Australian history.”

“For 78 years the IPA has been at the forefront of striving to defend and extend the freedoms we enjoy as Australians. The IPA is the voice of mainstream Australians,” said Mr Abbott.

The appointment comes as today the IPA released a new report, ‘The Fair Go – Going, Gone:  The decline of the Australian Way of Life, 2000 to 2020, which finds that the quality of the Australian way of life is has declined by nearly 30 percent in less than a generation.

The report combines 25 representative measures across five key areas of Australia’s culture and economy: home, work, enterprise, governance, and lifestyle. 23 of the 25 measures have declined since 2000.

“The Australian way of life is under pressure because our political and cultural institutions have abandoned the values that made our country great,” said Mr Roskam.

“In place of values like freedom, equality, and democracy, we now increasingly have censorship, identity politics, and the sway of unelected bureaucrats.”

“Australia is now in a cultural cold war where the elites are pushing divisive and alien ideologies onto mainstream Australians who are without a voice and without institutional power,” said Mr Roskam.

Mr Abbott added, “In 2020 we saw an unprecedented suspension of our liberties. We have to ensure – in 2021– that this doesn’t become the new normal.”

Download the research report here.

Click here to view the video announcing Mr Abbott’s appointment.

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