Australia will need to protect its democracy for generations through education and the study of history as it faces the rise of authoritarian governments such as China, the influential Liberal MP who heads Parliament’s intelligence committee says.

Liberal MP and former SAS officer Andrew Hastie was one of several MPs from across the political spectrum who has broadly backed former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s view that Australia is at the forefront of a geopolitical contest.

"Australia is at the forefront of the geopolitical contest of our time": Steve Bannon. Credit:Bloomberg

Mr Bannon told Fairfax Media this week that Australia risked being controlled by China and stood at the “San Andreas fault between China and the West” but had set an example to other countries including the United States by resisting that pull through new laws to counter foreign interference and influence.

Mr Hastie, who chairs the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security, said the Chinese Communist Party thought “generationally” about how to maintain its grip on power.