Anyone wanting a glimpse of what Family First policy in government might look like should consider the US state of Florida and central Europe’s Hungary.

The things we are fighting for in Australia are not pie in the sky. Our policies are practical and there are working models.

The only barrier is courage and political will.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have enacted unashamedly pro-family policies which are wildly popular with their respective electorates.

The point of this blog is not to endorse everything they do, but to highlight the fact that it is possible to successfully fight for and advance the cause of the natural family in 2023.

While Australia’s Liberal Party leadership warns their MPs to stay away from the culture wars, DeSantis and Orban have taken on the woke with courage and reaped the rewards at the ballot box.

The Australian’s Foreign Editor Greg Sheridan points this out in a feature article in last weekend’s Weekend Australian.

Of DeSantis, Sheridan writes:

“He has made it illegal to teach gender theory to infants and primary school children, a move that has strong public support. And he has made it easier for parents to found independent schools.”

By contrast here in Australia Liberal and Labor politicians have held the gate open for LGBTIQA+ activists to indoctrinate little children into harmful gender fluid ideology.

There is no courage to kick them out of schools, as DeSantis has done.

Our politicians sit by as children indoctrinated at school are funnelled into the child gender clinics for harmful experimental therapies, many of which are irreversible.

Sheridan points out that: “DeSantis is rightly not taking any measure to discriminate against LGBTQ people. But he is refusing to use state resources to promote an associated ideology.”

Like DeSantis, Family First is not looking to discriminate but where the rights of adults clash with those of children, the best interests of the child must always be first in public policy.

Hungary, a country unjustly demonised by the radical left as “extremist” has stood up to the woke demands of the European Union. That's why Hungary has been demonised.

Sheridan reprises former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s praise of Prime Minister Orban.

“Orban has secured Hungary’s borders, massively boosted its prosperity and stood up to the woke EU in support of his country’s cultural priorities. That looks like a pretty successful government and political movement to me. As for the ‘authoritarian’ tag, it’s hard to see the justification given that Hungary has free elections, a free press and an independent judiciary. I suspect he’s only described that way because he’s a successful conservative.”

Sheridan writes:

“The Hungarian government devotes substantial resources to encouraging its citizens to have children. It has succeeded in lifting the birthrate. It in effect pays women money to stay home with their kids. This outrages international feminist consciousness and some versions of liberal capitalism that are determined that every woman should work in paid employment outside the home all the time, whether she wants to or not.”

Family First is committed to ending the discrimination in Australia’s tax and childcare system against families where a parent chooses to work in the home.

Hungary has done some innovative things with tax policy to give families the economic choice to care for their own children.

These should be considered here.

Sheridan also points out that while most Hungarians don’t go to church, “Hungarians celebrate and honour, and wish to preserve, their Christian cultural heritage”.

Hungarians realise there is a problem with the LGBTIQA+ political agenda and its aggressive targeting of childen.

Sheridan again:

“Perhaps the most controversial law is one that forbids pro-LGBTQ advocacy in schools and restricts explicit LGBTQ content from TV during the day. It also restricts corporations from donating corporate money to support LGBTQ advocacy. It doesn’t restrict individuals, including wealthy corporate leaders, from using their own money to support LGBTQ causes and advocacy. There is room to disagree with the balance Hungary has struck. It is not remotely a serious breach of human rights. You might compare it with forcing professional rugby league players to wear on their own bodies jerseys that proclaim an ideology at odds with their personal beliefs.”

Orban’s Fidez party has been in power more or less since 2010 and Ron DeSantis was elected to a second term as Florida governor in a landslide.

“Florida is where woke goes to die”, he famously said.

There are no leaders in Labor, Liberal or the Nationals who have the courage of a Orban or DeSantis.

That is why Family First is building fast.

Someone must show leadership and over the next few years we aim to have parliamentarians in Parliaments around our nation who will fight for the family in the way DeSantis and Orban do.