"Unless the Labor Party looks to repair its relationship with the broader Christian constituency, particularly in the growing mortgage-belt seats of the capital cities where the new churches are strongest, it will continue to lose 'un-loseable' elections."

14th October, 2004

JIM WALLACE

One of the big stories of this election is that Christians have had a significant impact on the result.

For years Christians have felt abandoned by the political process, by what they saw as social engineers in Labor, the Democrats and Greens systematically eroding the Christian assumptions underpinning our laws.

The political influence of the Catholic Church seemed to have waned on all but "life" issues, and the increasing liberalisation of parts of the Anglican and Uniting churches rendered them unwilling to oppose legislation that angered many in the pews.

However, all this changed at this election. The evangelical side of the church saw the mantle had fallen to them, and picked it up.

Various Christian advocacy groups prepared the ground between the last election and this, alerting large parts of the church to its political responsibility.

The response from the Christian constituency was immediate, with the Australian Christian Lobby boasting a sustained growth in membership of 120 a month during 2004.

As importantly, individual Christians responded well during the election campaign itself. Nearly 6000 attended more than 30 Australian Christian Lobby "meet your candidate" forums mainly conducted in marginal seats around the country, and thousands of voters guides were distributed through church networks nationally. Of those seats where the ACL campaigned, more than 60 per cent recorded two-party preferred swings to the Government above the national average.

Whether Labor underestimated or just ignored the awakening of this constituency is a matter for its post-mortem. What is clear is that with Christians now politically aware and organised in many marginal seats, Labor lost out.

The evangelical side of the church saw the mantle had fallen to them, and picked it up.

Before the election, Labor was exposed as being at least complicit in the Greens and Democrats tactic to thwart the passage of an amendment to the Marriage Act. The definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman was one issue over which Christians were almost totally united and, more importantly, one over which they were prepared to fight.

Labor finally supported the passage of the legislation, but in the eyes of much of the Christian constituency, it was only after their complicity had been exposed. Suddenly there were real concerns about how much Christians could trust Labor.

Christians' confidence in Labor was further eroded when the party directed its candidates not to fill out the voters guides. This lack of confidence was exacerbated by the knowledge that the ALP is reluctant to permit conscience votes, except on "life" issues. This was something Family First highlighted as a reason for selecting the Coalition over Labor when distributing its preferences.

Another negative for Labor was Mark Latham's failure to endorse Judeo-Christian values and his description of himself as a humanist. This put him at a distinct disadvantage against John Howard and the openly Christian John Anderson.

None of this is to say that the Christian constituency is naturally right-wing, as is often claimed. Issues of refugees and social justice are close to the heart of all parts of the church and make it a constituency that can be won by either side.

However, unless the Labor Party looks to repair its relationship with the broader Christian constituency, particularly in the growing mortgage-belt seats of the capital cities where the new churches are strongest, it will continue to lose "un-loseable" elections.

In addition, Labor must demonstrate that the social conservatives within the party are given an equal hearing to the left-wingers.

Unless the social conservatives are seen as able to affect party policy, Labor will continue to lose the support of the broader church, which will see no presence in the ALP that can champion the Christian cause.

Jim Wallace is the executive chairman of the Australian Christian Lobby. This article was first published in The Age newspaper (www.theage.com.au).