Australians are a vastly successful people, but what will our children inherit from us?

There are a lot of things to worry about.

Our liberal democracy, apparently, operates by bringing problems to light, complaining about them vigorously, and then rectifying the problem.

There are rules about this which should be tightened up.

The first is more budget discipline. Loose government spending on projects with little or no benefit, apart from rather tedious zeitgeist or fashion, should be lessened.

I am not opposed to the fashion industry, however, which is central to our economic and social life.

Creatives will always be as chaotic and problematic in their ‘interventions’ in political debate as the children’s stories we all read. The Brothers Grimm engaged in all manner of cruelty and pointlessness and should be respected for it. In Hansel and Gretel, the evil stepmother forces the father to send his young children away in the forest on their own to make do or starve. Adventures follow.

The second is our myopic double standards. We are told to ‘respect’ just about everything. I am unconvinced that we respect our own national story, our history, institutions, and economic and social success. We cannot simply regard these things as safely in the bank so we can move on to allegedly pressing moral concerns. That is a lotus land approach to life.

The third is our moral debate. Politics is not just about living standards, although perhaps it should be.

We engage in vigorous moral judgement on all manner of issues, particularly those we have little or no influence over. Some foreign affairs hot-spots and problems have led to violent language and remarkably hostile demonstrations. There are ‘no go’ issues of our internal affairs, which I am unable to mention. By definition. But others should be able to and do so vigorously and accurately.

Our moral issues must be assessed on evidence and civil debate. Many apparently do not agree. That is a problem for our country.

Finally, there are unresolvable geopolitical issues. For the first time since the second world war there is the possibility or reality of a military threat of the most serious kind.

These are unresolved issues we are leaving our children to deal with.

But we leave them with great advantages.

First, our parliamentary democracy works well. Anybody interested in political debate should watch Question Time in the Federal Parliament. The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, summarises the government’s political position repeatedly, while the Opposition leader, Peter Dutton, challenges and provides alternative concepts.

It is gripping, although the ‘Dorothy Dixers’ questions from government backbenchers can be very tedious. Not as tedious as the lengthy, amplified listing of obscure road projects engaged in by one government in the past to torture the Opposition and listeners.

There is not a moment’s doubt that the loser of the next election will resign and the winner will be commissioned to form government. Of course, a hung Parliament will lead to negotiations, but we have negotiated that before.

Second, our economy remains strong. But how did our housing become so expensive, relative to our wages? How is it possible that we may run into difficulties supplying enough energy, when we have untold energy sitting under the earth to be mined? How did we de-link our mining prosperity from the living standards of ordinary Australians, and replace it with endless equity debates?

Third, our education and health systems work comparatively well, with issues. We place a priority on Indigenous issues, Asia, and sustainability, for example, in our education system. Where does that leave teaching children about how our nation was built, our British parliamentary tradition, developing the prosperity of our pastoral industry, and mining industries, the importance of free speech and free endeavour? What about the market economy and democracy?

Fourth, Australians comparatively do not live politics in an ideological fashion. It is fortunately mainly a secondary issue for most of us, although there are now pockets of near fanaticism. The police and courts have a term for it: fixated persons. Fixated persons can do great harm and cannot be appeased.

Every person would have their own list of concerns, but I suspect that much would be common to most parents. Some would nominate the slow death of traditional French culture.

Along with setting children up for life with good health and education, and what financial help we can provide.

A final issue is perhaps our unresolved debate about national identity.

We discuss this while ignoring William Wentworth, the father of Australian self-government, and inadvertently democracy.

Michael Persse wrote that ‘more than any other man he secured our fundamental liberties and nationhood’.

Wentworth wrote a book in 1819 which set out the directions Australia should take, such as self-government and growth of the pastoral industry. He spent his whole life promoting these things, with great success.

Australia ‘rode on the sheep’s back’ until the 1950s.

We gave all men the vote and self-government in 1851-58, and Catherine Helen Spence in South Australia and others extended this to women in 1894-95. Chinese and Aboriginal men were included in the vote, as well as the Germans and others who desperately sought riches in our 1850s goldfields.

Wentworth set about building modern Australia, with great energy and foresight. As an old-fashioned Whig he always had ‘a hatred of anything which would prevent the human mind and spirit from developing their latent powers’, as Persse wrote.

What confounds modern Australia may be his willingness to admire Britain and its traditions, and to write poetry about it:

‘And Australasia float, with flag unfurl’d,

A new Britannia in another world.’

They also may not admire his opposition to the ‘spirit of democracy abroad’, as he called it, during his campaigns for self-government.

But these things were part of Australia’s success in keeping democracy within the constraints of parliament, without revolution or civil war.

There is a current fashion to bogus ‘second name’ capital cities. We should rename Canberra as ‘Wentworth’.