In this special series of Watercooler podcasts, we’re attempting something big: to define the virtues that unite Australian Liberals in the 21st century.

The True Believers podcasts are the start of what we hope will become a wider conversation about the ideas that bind members of the Liberal Party as it approaches its 80th birthday.

Our starting point is the We Believe statement issued by Robert Menzies in 1954 to mark the 10th anniversary of the Liberal Party of Australia. The 17 points express inspiring values and principles, but in language that may sound strange to some Australians today.

In this episode Nick Cater, Freya Leach and Louise Clegg discuss the Crown, national unity and the Commonwealth beginning with the first of the We Believe statements:

We believe in the Crown as the enduring embodiment of our national unity and as the symbol of that unity and as the symbol of that other unity that exists between all nations of the British Commonwealth.

Read the 1954 We Believe Statement in full: https://www.menziesrc.org/we-believe

Subscribe to the Menzies Research Centre from $10 a month https://www.menziesrc.org/subscribe1

Nick Cater is senior fellow at the Menzies Research Centre and a former executive director. He is a columnist with The Australian and the presenter of Battleground on ADH TV.

Freya Leach is a research fellow at Menzies Research Centre

Louise Clegg is a lawyer with a special interest in constitutional law.