Former Prime Minister John Howard has launched a staunch defence of western civilisation along with a new book.

The issue is firmly in the spotlight at the moment following the ANU’s decision to cancel a course on western civilisation.

Mr Howard joins Alan Jones saying it would be foolish to ignore our founding principles.

“Western cultural tradition isn’t perfect, no tradition is, but it’s essentially made us who we are, it’s where we came from.

“By all means debate it, analyse it, pick flaws in it. But for heaven’s sake, don’t pretend that it hasn’t moulded us.

“And I’m not using this as a platform to attack other civilisations, I’m using it as a vehicle through which to remind the Australian people of just who we are, where we came from and what we owe to all the constituent elements of western civilisation.”

Alan will join Mr Howard tonight to launch his new book Howard: The Art of Persuasion, an anthology of his most impressive speeches between 1995 and 2016.

Mr Howard says politicians need one key attribute to succeed…

“You can’t persuade if you don’t believe. The most important thing about the success, or otherwise, of anybody in public life is belief.

“You’ve got to let people know what you stand for and in order to do that, you’ve got to work it out for yourself.

“The most effective political figures I’ve observed in my lifetime, figures like Churchill, Menzies, Reagan and Thatcher; they were people who had very strong convictions.”

Click PLAY below for the full interview

Click HERE to purchase a copy of Howard: The Art of Persuasion