The rejection of traditional values and principles has led to the embrace of big government to solve all of society’s problems, says former Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson.

The formal Nationals leader, who served in the Howard ministry from 1999 to 2005, said a consequence of this phenomenon is an increasing lack of confidence in democracy and for the younger generations, some of the highest rates of depression ever.

“We are losing trust in the institutions of freedom,” the now-host of a popular podcast series said in an address to the Church and State conference in Brisbane on March 4.

“We know that from the surveys of young Australians—and it’s replicated across the West—we think perhaps socialism would be better. We’re losing trust in the institutions such as our schools, churches, even family,” he added. “We’re losing trust in our driving ideas. That’s why it’s a ‘civilisational moment.'”

“We’ve never seen a pandemic of loneliness nor levels of depression, and anxiety, and self-harm amongst our young people, as we’re now seeing in the midst of our prosperity and our freedom. This is deeply worrying.”

In fact, according to the most recent Census in 2021, over 2.2 million Australians (one in nine of the population) reported a mental health condition. While 12 percent of 20 to 24, and 25- to 29-year-olds reported a chronic mental health condition.

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The data reflects a wider trend in Western societies with the General Social Survey conducted by the University of Chicago, which is carried out every two years, revealing that in the United States, levels of happiness have been on a downward spiral since the 1980s despite the overall improvement in quality of life.

In Australia, the Melbourne Institute found happiness also tracking south, notably since 2009.

Some studies infer that the decline is due to the pandemic, a lack of awareness of how much society has developed, or simply a lack of financial security.

Yet Anderson says Australian society now lacks the moral core it used to have—a crucial ingredient for building the nation.

“It’s really important that we understand what is happening; we are reversing the proper order of democracy. In my view, we are making ourselves ‘vassals’ of the state. Every problem that exists, we say the government’s got to fix it,” he said.

Anderson cautioned that those involved in the architecture of government “love taking on your problems” and there was now a “terrible tendency to bow before the ‘expertocracy'”—a veiled reference to COVID-19 pandemic policy.

“One of the remarkable things with the collapse of principle in our society, the collapse of commitment to great ideas, the collapsing of truth is that the substitute becomes the accumulation of power,” he said.

“When principles no longer drive the idea of what’s right and wrong, power starts to,” he added, saying that the decline of vibrant citizenship and governance was now being replaced in Western societies by the “ugly, raw, naked grab for power.”

“You hear it in the language: ’empowerment, pride.’ And we translate this into, ‘We are competing with you for your rights,'” Anderson said in reference to cancel culture and excessive pushes for equality. “Has it ever occurred to you that it’s a strange thing [to hear] we compete with Australians for our rights?”

He also pointed to the same-sex marriage debate that former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull initiated, noting that the then-prime minister did emphasise that the right to religious freedom was even more important.

Audience member Bob McCoskrie, who flew from New Zealand to attend, said Christian values still had a role to play in society.

“I think the tactics of the secular culture has been to say that Christianity is no longer relevant, and if anybody does speak out, then they are immediately labelled as some form of phobic or bigot,” he told The Epoch Times. “That whole tactic is designed to shut us up, and it’s worked.”

“It’s time for us to get beyond the labels and to actually get some backbone and speak on these debates,” he said. “We need to speak the truth with grace, we don’t want to be noisy, aggressive, or cause friction.

“But we need to speak the truth, especially as our culture is losing its way and can no longer define the truth—[it] can’t even define what a woman is.”

McCoskrie’s comments come in response to the former deputy prime minister’s advice on how to help younger people in a society grappling with critical race theory.

“How might you tackle a young person concerned about racism?” he asked. “Absolutely, you should be concerned about it. But have you considered that the greatest human rights movement was when a bunch of old white Christian wealthy men and women tackled the Atlantic slave trade?”

Anderson said the then-British Empire sent the Royal Navy, as well as “white sailors,” to enforce a ban on slavery across the high seas—sometimes at a cost to their own lives. William Wilberforce (1759-1833), who initiated the movement to ban slavery, also had to overcome great societal pressure to outlaw the practice.

“We need to learn to gently ask questions that get people to understand the logical outcomes of their decisions. So, keep it polite. Keep engaged. Make sure you’re well informed and remember that in the end, the only answer to cancel culture is ‘courage culture.'”

Church and State is an annual conference series that discusses cultural and political issues impacting Christians in Australia.