Two things are abundantly clear from the overwhelming response to last week’s email on leadership:
1. We have a lot of life experience on this network.
2. People are hungry for principled and honest political leadership.
From the top, I thank you for taking the time to write back to me—some of you at length—and I do appreciate the careful consideration of your responses.
The main themes were honesty—we need leaders unafraid to speak the truth; integrity—a willingness to stand up for what you know is right; commitment—to representation and to values.
The key attributes of a leader that you identified are: courage, compassion, strength of conviction, being able to articulate a clear vision, trust, honour, a willingness to be accountable, resilience, strong values, an ability to engage in constructive debates, along with strong physical and mental well-being.
And here are some standout reflections from our network:
“What I’m looking for is leadership that will rise above the untruths and the noisy minority. One that will strive in every decision and every action to make Australia more prosperous, more competitive and will provide more opportunities for its citizens." Peter
“Courage, character, clarity, clout—in that order. Without courage, the rest won’t come to the fore anyway!” Sophie
“I believe we simply want honesty and accountability in our politicians! Do your best, tell the truth and admit when you get it wrong.” Karyn
It’s been an ugly week in Canberra, and I don’t intend to dwell on it.
But after reading your reflections on leadership, I broke my silence on the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR).
It’s an issue that is close to many of your hearts.
I wanted to reach as many Australians as possible with my message. My message is one of principle.
My two main takeaways are:
1.Australia needs the SASR to remain an elite fighting force. As I told the ABC “...the Regiment has demonstrated it's got a moral pulse, it can self-correct, and now the question is, what do we do from here?
"How do we move forward? And how do we rebuild trust with the Australian people? We need men who are prepared to run to the sound of the guns and prepared to take on the most dangerous, risky missions that the Australian people ask of them.
"There are evil people out there and Australians of all political persuasions need a group of people who are willing to take on the toughest missions.”
2.The SASR must be accountable to the Australian people. This damaging episode is “...not about Left or Right, it's not about woke or un-woke, it's not about one media corporation versus another, it's not about toxic masculinity.
"In the end, it's a simple question of morality. It's right versus wrong, it's the rule of law versus the rule of the jungle.
“To put it very simply, Australian soldiers do not execute non-combatants who have been taken as prisoners.”
You can watch my full interview here.
Regards
Andrew Hastie
http://www.andrewhastie.com.au/ABC Interview
This week I was interviewed by the ABC's political editor, Andrew Probyn.
Click on the image above to watch the interview in full.
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That's why I serve in Parliament, and why we must work together under one flag to defend the things we love.
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