At the weekend's meeting of the Young Liberal Movement's Federal Council, Jocelyn Sutcliffe was elected as our Movement's 45th Federal President alongside Alexander Lisov as Federal Vice-President.

At Federal Council, Jocelyn and Alex were elected on a clear platform to:

1. Give the strongest possible support to the Queensland and ACT divisions in their crucial state and territory elections;
2. Host a targeted Campaign Workshop Series alongside the Party's 2020 meeting of Federal Council; and
3. Level up our Movement's policy advocacy via a range of submissions to government and a new Policy Blog.

It’s an enormous honour to have been elected as the new Federal President of the Young Liberals over the weekend and I wanted to outline my plan to make our Movement even stronger.

On 26 January 2019, Federal President Josh Manuatu tabled the 2018-19 Young Liberal Annual Report which shows that the Young Liberals has fully implemented its Strategic Plan to become an active and activist movement.

The Federal Liberal Government has just announced that it will commission a review of freedom of speech, to be conducted by former High Court chief justice Robert French, at universities following the countless examples of the oppressive left shutting down debate and centre-right thought on campus.

The Government has just announced that it is formally considering moving the Australian embassy in Israel to West Jerusalem and has placed the Iran Nuclear Deal in review.

Former Federal Young Liberal President Claire Chandler has been preselected as the Number 2 Tasmanian Liberal Senate Candidate for the next election.

In January when we released our Strategic Plan, we committed to build an active and activist Movement that’s focused on our values and invests in improving all that we do.

The Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has announced that the Federal Government will end Australian aid being provided to the Palestinian Authority and instead redirect our Aid to the United Nations' efforts in the region. In her announcement, the Minister said:

At the Liberal Party's Federal Council, a number of key policy motions put forward by our Movement were passed. This again highlights that we are making the case, leading the charge and delivering results.

At the Liberal Party's 2018 Federal Council, Federal Young Liberal President Josh Manuatu successfully moved:

This Federal Council calls on the Federal Government to relocate the Australian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and to suspend aid to the Palestinian Authority until it terminates its ‘Martyrs’ Fund.

The motion was passed 44 votes to 37.

WATCH Federal President Josh Manuatu's speech here: