Scott Morrison delivered a magnificent farewell speech in parliament, full of emotion, splendid gratitude, love of family, faith and country, plenty of substance, and a brilliant little riff, requested by his daughters, on Taylor Swift album titles. Anthony Albanese’s response was equally generous and gracious.

This is a good moment in our politics. The battle of ideas should be ferocious, the battle of people should be civil, decent, and full of human regard. Morrison and Albanese both deserve our thanks for this.

On foreign affairs and national security, Morrison was an effective national leader who left a strong legacy. The big failure across the Coalition’s decade in office was in not producing new defense capabilities. But beyond his share of that failure, a failure fully continued by the Albanese government, Morrison had a lot of positive achievements.

One of his biggest national ­security achievements came before he became PM. Under then-prime minister Tony Abbott, Morrison as immigration minister secured our borders and put an end to dangerous waves of unregulated boat immigration from the north.

As prime minister, his biggest single foreign policy achievement in Greg’s view was not AUKUS, but standing up to China. Beijing made a cold, calculated decision that, using all its coercive power short of military intervention, it would intimidate Australia and force a change of policy on us in a range of policy areas – the ban on Huawei in our NBN, laws against foreign interference, national security limits on Chinese investments in critical infrastructure, closer defense co-operation with the US and a raft of other matters.

The Morrison government resisted this aggression absolutely and pursued policies in Australia’s national interest. I think Scott’s government’s language was sometimes a bit too strong, but this was a pivotal moment in our national story. It was the right thing for Australia and it won enormous international respect, not least in Washington.

Scott Morrison says “authoritarians and autocrats win” if the ­nation’s embrace of secularism ­allows it to drift into a “valueless void”.

In an at-times emotional valedictory speech to parliament on Monday, the former prime minister thanked his family and constituents for their support during his 16-year parliamentary career, quoted the bible and referenced every single Taylor Swift album and some songs after being challenged to a Swift bingo game by his daughters.

He touched on his government’s pandemic response, which he said ensured Australia emerged with “one of the strongest economies through Covid”, and reflected that politics was an imperfect project.

The member for Cook, whose resignation will trigger a by-election later this year, declared respect for human rights has its roots in religion, warning of a decline in Judaeo-Christian values in Australian society.

“You don’t need to share my Christian faith to appreciate the virtue of human rights,” he said.

“I’m not suggesting you do, but equally, we should be careful about diminishing the influence and the voice of Judaeo-Christian faith in our Western society, as doing so risks our society drifting into a valueless void.

“In that world, there is nothing to stand on. There is nothing to hold on to, and the authoritarians and autocrats win.

“In the increasing Western embrace of secularism, let us be careful not to disconnect ourselves from what I would argue is our greatest gift and most effective protector of our freedoms – the ­Judaeo-Christian values upon which our liberty and society were founded.”

This article reporting Scott Morrison’s (former P.M.) farewell speech in the Australian Parliament appeared in The Australian by Greg Sheridan