“We’re allowing them to kill off Western art and, soon, they’ll blithely push ahead and complete the job by killing off Western civilisation once and for all. It’s happening right before our very eyes ... Being able to see the truth isn’t regarded as important any more.”

Bill Leak

I feel a bit presumptuous and unworthy writing about Bill Leak.  He was a great man.

He was innately talented and learned too, with the discipline to acquire a classical fine arts education.

These portraits of Bill’s two sons say more than I could about his greatness as an artist.

Most of us can only dream of creating things like Bill did.  The art alone marked him out as a very special bloke.

But that doesn’t come close to describing Bill’s contribution to Australia.

I’ve had a few days now to think about Bill and his work.  I believe no Australian this century has made a greater, more important or longer lasting contribution to our country’s character than Bill Leak.

“Political correctness is a poison that attacks the sense of humour. As the senses of humour of people suffering from PC atrophy, their sensitivity to criticism becomes more and more acute until they get to the stage where everything offends them and they lose the ability to laugh, entirely”.

Bill Leak

Bill Leak had his priorities right.  His newspaper, The Australian exists to contribute to the character of our nation.  Of all our national attributes Bill put freedom at the top of the list - and there can be no freedom without freedom of speech.

For most of the 1900s Australia was led by people who knew the value of our freedoms and guarded them like treasure.   The World Wars and the Cold War were living proof that freedom’s not free and that we had a society worth fighting for.

Sometime around Gough and Al Grassby it became fashionable to argue in favour of ceding our freedoms to government and bodies like the UN.  At first it wasn’t too big a worry - but by the time Rudd and Gillard got the reins it was on for young and old.

Orthodoxies like climate change became official policy and people who argued against the policy lost their jobs.  It was more important to speak about the success of multiculturalism and diversity than it was to tell the truth about Islam.  And industries sprang up based on the idea that offending no one was more important than freedom.

“So now there’s a mob that won’t only punish you if your cartoon offends them, they’ll punish you if it’s offended someone else."

“They’re also driven by the same authoritarian impulse to silence, using whatever means they have at their disposal, anyone who transgresses against the unwritten laws of political correctness.

Bill Leak on the HRC

The later Leak oeuvre focusses on threats to free speech.  Islam, the indigenous misery industry, the HRC et al feature prominently.  But it was deadly work and it took its toll.

From about the time of Rudd, to publicly pour scorn on the sacred cows became harder and harder and harder.  To do it with the impact that Bill Leak had and maintain a life in civil society became just about impossible.

I’ve had a few small tastes of what Bill Leak copped writ large.  As Bill put it, I know what it’s like to wake up with a roaring Fatwa after criticising Muhammad of Mecca.  I know the social pressure that taking a contrary line to the government approved orthodoxy brings down.  Bill lived that every day - and kept going regardless.

That’s what marks Bill Leak out for greatness.  His moral, physical and intellectual courage are unique and most Australians will never come close to understanding just how much guts it took to do what Bill did.

There’s lots of ephemera and trendy causes that invite fad coverage and commentary in the news business.   Bill Leak brought his guts, talent and technique consistently on the issues that really matter.

I can’t think of anyone else who’s done that at so high a level with such impact for so long.

I read a comment in The Australian that the loss of Bill Leak from our lives is like waking up and discovering coffee has disappeared from the face of the planet.  Where do we turn without Bill?

Thank you for all that you did Bill. Rest in peace.