Humanist Society

Sydney 

The rise of the religious right is very real. While their vote is relatively small, money is not in short supply and they have powerful friends. They are a growing political force in this country and one we need to factor into our own work for a secular society committed to equity for all.

In our country the Christian faith dominates and those with a narrow view of that faith interpret their beliefs as providing legitimation for the divine right of those who have power.

Australia is dominated by a profit making system in which people who are wealthy have a disproportionate influence over the whole nation.

The stairway to paradise has become almost indistinguishable from the stairway of opportunity. Prosperity theology is a dangerous fundamentalist religion. They may not have suicide bombers but their damage to our way of life and values that serve all is immense.

Family First has grown out of this approach to politics. To what extent they are a deliberate import from the USA we don't yet know. But they are definitely part of the political landscape after the Labor Party in Victoria breathed life into them with a miscalculated preference deal.

It is worth noting that Family First's chairperson Peter Harris has said that it was the Greens with their "tough tax and liberal drug policies" that spurred his party on. They were able to raise $1.2 million for the 2004 election campaign. This is a phenomenal amount for a small party. They won a Senate seat in Victoria with less than 2% of the vote.

Our concern is that while Family First and the Christian right is still small it could exert undue influence on conservative governments similar to what One Nation did in the late 1990s.

The Howard government's policies on refugees and indigenous people were heavily influenced by One Nation. And now we could see Family First exert the same influence on Howard's policies on health, welfare and education.

We have already seen a major funding boost to Christian schools from the federal government and we will see more of that.

Family First are the political voice of some ugly policies that we have not heard of in this country since the dark days of sectarian divisions in the first half of last century.

A Family First candidate in Victoria, Pastor Danny Nalliah, called on his followers to pull down Satan's strongholds, which he named as brothels, gambling places, mosques and temples.

In the seat of La Trobe the Family First posters read "A vote for Christian Disarray is a vote for Satan". Disarray was the Labor candidate who was voted out.

And then there was the Family First party worker in Queensland who said they supported lesbians being burnt to death.

I acknowledge that the Family First leadership has moved to distance themselves from these extreme statements but I would argue that the Family First agenda benefits from these outbursts. Obviously the publicity puts them in the spot light but also the outlandish positions pulls the political agenda to the right and opens up space for those who are trying to reverse hard one gains.

Women's right to access abortion services looks like it is at the top of their hit list.

Last Thursday night I attended a small protest outside the very swank Sheraton on the Park. Inside an innocently named Women's Forum was to be held. It was in fact a meeting to discuss the next stage in the campaign to ban abortions.

In attendance were Family First President Andrea Mason, Julia Irwin former Labor Senator and other leading women in this area. This was a meeting to whip up ordinary women - four busloads from the Hills district were brought in.

Please don't think that just because PM John Howard reined in some of his own MPs on the abortion issue that it has gone away. The push to ban abortion is very real - it is well funded, and well connected.

This week in parliament all MPs received a disturbing booklet "Abortion and Religion", produced by the Foundation for Human Development.

This 20-page colour glossy has a summary of misleading figures on abortions. Many of the figures being quoted include procedures carried out when women have naturally lost their baby. This is clearly a dishonest way to inflate the figures.

The booklet brings together the views of 16 religious leaders including Buddhist, different Christian faiths and the Jewish faith. While all these faiths are not against a women's right to choose abortion the way the material is presented leaves one with that impression that the official position of all these religions is anti-abortion. The reality is that the Foundation have found 16 male religious leaders to write about their own thoughts on this matter.

So who is the Foundation. On the website of the NSW Right to Life Association website it is listed under "Other Australian Pro-Life Groups" in one spot while elsewhere it describes the Foundation as "the educational and counselling arm of NSW Right to Life".

Now the truth about the relationship of the Foundation and the Association may seem peripheral but it could be very significant as the Australian Tax Office in 2000 made the Foundation for Human Development a Deductible Gift Recipient. Now it would appear from our reading of the regulations that organisations with this tax-deductible status are clearly prohibited from lobbying.

If the Foundation is an arm of the Right to Life Association it is clearly linked with lobbying. But in their name they are lobbying MPs around the country as shown by their publication "Abortion and Religion".

So does that mean the Foundation is not acting within the requirements of the ATO. Is it breaking the law? Hopefully the ATO is doing its job and checking this out.

For ourselves we need to closely monitor the activities of the likes of Family First, the Foundation for Human Development and their ilk.

A secular society where women's health needs are fully met are being eroded. Turning around that tide of destruction and ensuring that the religious right is not in the political ascendancy are clearly linked.

The rise of the religious right is very real. While their vote is relatively small, money is not in short supply and they have powerful friends. They are a growing political force in this country and one we need to factor into our own work for a secular society committed to equity for all.

In our country the Christian faith dominates and those with a narrow view of that faith interpret their beliefs as providing legitimation for the divine right of those who have power.

Australia is dominated by a profit making system in which people who are wealthy have a disproportionate influence over the whole nation.

The stairway to paradise has become almost indistinguishable from the stairway of opportunity. Prosperity theology is a dangerous fundamentalist religion. They may not have suicide bombers but their damage to our way of life and values that serve all is immense.

Family First has grown out of this approach to politics. To what extent they are a deliberate import from the USA we don't yet know. But they are definitely part of the political landscape after the Labor Party in Victoria breathed life into them with a miscalculated preference deal.

It is worth noting that Family First's chairperson Peter Harris has said that it was the Greens with their "tough tax and liberal drug policies" that spurred his party on. They were able to raise $1.2 million for the 2004 election campaign. This is a phenomenal amount for a small party. They won a Senate seat in Victoria with less than 2% of the vote.

Our concern is that while Family First and the Christian right is still small it could exert undue influence on conservative governments similar to what One Nation did in the late 1990s.

The Howard government's policies on refugees and indigenous people were heavily influenced by One Nation. And now we could see Family First exert the same influence on Howard's policies on health, welfare and education.

We have already seen a major funding boost to Christian schools from the federal government and we will see more of that.

Family First are the political voice of some ugly policies that we have not heard of in this country since the dark days of sectarian divisions in the first half of last century.

A Family First candidate in Victoria, Pastor Danny Nalliah, called on his followers to pull down Satan's strongholds, which he named as brothels, gambling places, mosques and temples.

In the seat of La Trobe the Family First posters read "A vote for Christian Disarray is a vote for Satan". Disarray was the Labor candidate who was voted out.

And then there was the Family First party worker in Queensland who said they supported lesbians being burnt to death.

I acknowledge that the Family First leadership has moved to distance themselves from these extreme statements but I would argue that the Family First agenda benefits from these outbursts. Obviously the publicity puts them in the spot light but also the outlandish positions pulls the political agenda to the right and opens up space for those who are trying to reverse hard one gains.

Women's right to access abortion services looks like it is at the top of their hit list.

Last Thursday night I attended a small protest outside the very swank Sheraton on the Park. Inside an innocently named Women's Forum was to be held. It was in fact a meeting to discuss the next stage in the campaign to ban abortions.

In attendance were Family First President Andrea Mason, Julia Irwin former Labor Senator and other leading women in this area. This was a meeting to whip up ordinary women - four busloads from the Hills district were brought in.

Please don't think that just because PM John Howard reined in some of his own MPs on the abortion issue that it has gone away. The push to ban abortion is very real - it is well funded, and well connected.

This week in parliament all MPs received a disturbing booklet "Abortion and Religion", produced by the Foundation for Human Development.

This 20-page colour glossy has a summary of misleading figures on abortions. Many of the figures being quoted include procedures carried out when women have naturally lost their baby. This is clearly a dishonest way to inflate the figures.

The booklet brings together the views of 16 religious leaders including Buddhist, different Christian faiths and the Jewish faith. While all these faiths are not against a women's right to choose abortion the way the material is presented leaves one with that impression that the official position of all these religions is anti-abortion. The reality is that the Foundation have found 16 male religious leaders to write about their own thoughts on this matter.

So who is the Foundation. On the website of the NSW Right to Life Association website it is listed under "Other Australian Pro-Life Groups" in one spot while elsewhere it describes the Foundation as "the educational and counselling arm of NSW Right to Life".

Now the truth about the relationship of the Foundation and the Association may seem peripheral but it could be very significant as the Australian Tax Office in 2000 made the Foundation for Human Development a Deductible Gift Recipient. Now it would appear from our reading of the regulations that organisations with this tax-deductible status are clearly prohibited from lobbying.

If the Foundation is an arm of the Right to Life Association it is clearly linked with lobbying. But in their name they are lobbying MPs around the country as shown by their publication "Abortion and Religion".

So does that mean the Foundation is not acting within the requirements of the ATO. Is it breaking the law? Hopefully the ATO is doing its job and checking this out.

For ourselves we need to closely monitor the activities of the likes of Family First, the Foundation for Human Development and their ilk.

A secular society where women's health needs are fully met are being eroded. Turning around that tide of destruction and ensuring that the religious right is not in the political ascendancy are clearly linked.