DAVID ADAMS speaks to the Australian Christian Lobby’s managing director, Lyle Shelton, about the ACL’s election questionnaire and guide…
The Australian Christian Lobby has this week published the responses various political parties have made to 26 “key” questions ahead of the 2nd July federal election.
The questions cover subjects ranging from the controversial Safe Schools program, same-sex marriage and school chaplaincy to helping persecuted minorities and refugees, constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians, prayer in parliament, gambling, abortion and euthanasia.
ELECTION GUIDE: The ACL has, for the first time released a six page color election guide, ahead of the 2nd July election.
“We don’t claim that we’ve covered every area of concern…Obviously we can’t and part of our question selection is a little bit pragmatic – it’s issues that we’ve been deeply engaged in. We would love to do more but we’re only a small organisation and there’s only so many issues you can take on…”
– Lyle Shelton, managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby
At the time of publication of this article, nine parties had provided responses including the National-Liberal Coalition, the Australian Labor Party and a number of smaller parties including Australian Christians, the Australian Sex Party and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party. Most prominent among those parties who had not yet responded to the ACL policy questionnaire was the Australian Greens.
Lyle Shelton, the ACL’s managing director, says that the questions were designed to cover a broad range of issues Christians are interested in.
“We don’t claim that we’ve covered every area of concern…” he said, describing the lack of questions on the environmental issues, for example as “probably an oversight”.
“Obviously we can’t and part of our question selection is a little bit pragmatic – it’s issues that we’ve been deeply engaged in. We would love to do more but we’re only a small organisation and there’s only so many issues you can take on…”
He said the questions were compiled based on previous years’ questions as well as “a bit of analysis on what are key issues that have been bubbling away in public policy in recent times”. “We always construct the questionnaire and run it past some key Christian subject matter experts in different fields; we run it past denominational leaders as well, just for their input.”
Mr Shelton said the ACL did not aim to tell people how to vote but wanted to expose them to the “considered responses from the parties on a broad range of issues that are of concern to Christians”.
The ACL has also, for the first time before a federal election, released a six-page full colour election newsletter in which they have highlighted a number of what they see as key issues this election. While addressing issues such as the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and Australia’s foreign aid budget, much of the focus is on issues surrounding the same-sex marriage debate and the Safe School’s program with a page dedicated to “Labor’s rainbow national platform”.
“We wanted people to be aware of just the extent of how far Labor has capitulated to the rainbow political agenda.,” says Mr Shelton of the guide. “Of course, a very key choice this election is between Labor’s promise to scrap the people’s vote on marriage and the Liberal-National Coalition’s promise to hold a people’s vote so people can have a say.
“The other key choice is Labor says they’re going to fund Safe Schools which teaches children their gender is fluid, gives advice on sex change operations for minors, encourages schools to allow boys that identify as girls to use the girls’ toilets, etcetera, etcetera. The Liberals have said they are going to defund that program.”
Mr Shelton, who describes the upcoming federal election as the most important in a generation, says that because these issues “go to the heart of what it means to be a human” and to the “heart of social justice for children”, “we’re really felt we’ve needed to put in a special effort to make people aware of what is going on.”
In response to the criticism that the newsletter, which has been posted out to about 30,000 people and emailed to more than 60,000 is a pro-Liberal-National document, Mr Shelton says that while the ACL never tells people who to vote for, “we do feel a deep responsibility to ensure that people know where the parties stand”.
“We have been shocked to see just how quickly the Labor Party has adopted what was once a far-left Greens position on issues of sexuality, marriage and family…” he says. This is a very serious agenda that Labor has adopted and we just felt that people needed to know.”
Mr Shelton says that the document “is a risk for us because it does have the appearance of partisanship”. “But how else do you let people know that this is their policy?”
Meanwhile, the ACL has been conducting ‘meet your candidate’ forums in selected electorates around the country. Between 35 and 40 forums will be held in the lead-up to the election with an average attendance, so far, of about 100 people at each.
“They’ve been going very, very well,” says Mr Shelton, adding that one of the most common issues raised was that of the Safe Schools program – a subject the ACL has been campaigning heavily on in recent months.
“It’s been amazing that many of the candidates are just not aware of the extent of just how radical this program is in terms of what it teaches children about gender.”
