The price of freedom--2003.(Defence)

WE APE at a watershed in our national security policy and in need of a deep sense of perspective on it. Bob Santamaria's book of essays and addresses, The Price of Freedom, first published by the Campion Press in Melbourne in 1964, provided an integrated view of Australia's national security from the point of view of The Movement, better known as the National Civic Council. However much one might disagree with a number of his opinions, that view, looked back on after almost forty years of extraordinary changes, seems to me to offer a useful foil to the thinking we need to do as we enter a new epoch.

The very title The Price of Freedom is evocative. From Santamaria's point of view, writing as far back as 1959, Australia was under threat of seeing the whole of Asia overrun by Chinese-inspired communism and of having its own liberties extinguished by the determined sedition of the Australian communists. No one fears such things in 2003. Yet we are again confronted by the sense that our tenure on freedom and the future of global security are problematic. I think it is instructive to ponder the differences between Santamaria's fears in the early 1960s and our present circumstances, in order to get a deeper perspective on both.

Santamaria was also deeply concerned about citizenship and the formation of young people for public life. He believed, of course, in a very particular approach to both of these things, but at least he addressed them and integrated them into his reflections on where the country was heading and what we needed to do, if we were to take responsibility for our future and, to the greatest extent possible, take command of our own destiny. This is the second reason why I have chosen to reflect on The Price of Freedom.

There is a third reason, though, why I have chosen to reflect on The Price of Freedom and it is somewhat more personal. I grew up in an NCC household, in which Santamaria's ideas were ever present. My father had worked closely with Santamaria in the 1950s and early 1960s, at the time The Price of Freedom was being written and published. He subscribed to the NCC's journal, News Weekly, throughout my childhood and adolescence, so it was always around the house. Santamaria's weekly television program Point of View was a fixture in the family week.

In addressing Santamaria's worldview and concerns for this country's future, therefore, I am also coming to terms with my own upbringing as both a Catholic and an Australian citizen. Above all, though, I am seeking to define the terms of debate for an integrated sense of national security now and in the future.

Not communism but terrorism is the threat now most evident. Not revolution but anarchy, not totalitarianism but state failure; not Chinese Maoism but Chinese hegemonism looms over the horizon. Yet within Australia the challenge now, as then, has to do, first and foremost, with the nature of our internal political culture and strategic thinking. These were at the heart of Santamaria's concerns. They are also at the heart of my own.

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM