Status quo for Christian parties in NSW upper house

Christian parties neither increased or reduced their presence in the NSW Legislative Council in the March 2011 election. Shoalhaven Mayor Paul Green, standing for the Christian Democratic Party, replaces Gordon Moyes who represented Family First (after a mid-term departure from the CDP).

Once again, the two parties struggled to find agreement in how best to maximise the impact of those voters who choose to vote for a Christian party, with preference agreements falling down.

Paul Green joins Rev Fred Nile in the LC and together with the two Shooters and Fishers will play a significant role in sharing the balance of power in the current parliament. Green plans to continue on as Shoalhaven Mayor.

Gordon Moyes, his stint in NSW Parliament at an end, plans to use his time and experience in mentoring young Christian leaders, with a particular focus on politics.

For a wrap up of a the March 2011 NSW election, check out the following:

Antony Green's blog
CDP wrap-up
Gordon Moyes future
Australian Christian Lobby's reports

Christian vote contributes powerfully to election result

Regardless of arguments for and against faith playing a role in the political process, one respected electoral analyst reports that the beliefs of both Christians and atheists strongly influenced voting patterns and results in the 2010 Federal Election.

Former Labor Senator John Black now runs Australian Development Strategies which includes a service called Elaborate, used to analyse the latest election results.

Elaborate is the name given to both the database and the analytical techniques developed by Australian Development Strategies principals during 35 years of experience in using demographic analysis, profiling and mapping.

Even in the the first paragraphs of he 45 page report, it becomes clear that the votes of Christians played a significant role in the election.

In describing the methodology for the 2010 election analysis, John Black's report says:

'Where we found more activist Christians, we found more voters swinging against Labor... The regression analysis weeds out the purely descriptive variables and uses only those variables which contribute real explaining power to the model. For example in the current election, the ALP copped an absolute caning in the regression analysis from activist Christian demographics in terms of both the vote and the swing. So the presence of an activist Christian vote in any electorate both described and explained behaviour.'

Australian Christian Voter's own research indicates that in the days after Julia Gillard became Prime Minister, thousands of people, presumably Christians, searched the internet for information about Ms Gillard's religious beliefs.

ACV to bring election comment to an end shortly

Australian Christian Voter will shortly go into recess after a three month journey covering the 2010 federal election. With more than 130 posts in that time, and more than 6,000 page impressions, it has proved a useful resource for Christian voters, and voters in general.

If as a Christian voter, you have been visiting various party and organisational sites to see how the voting of Christians affected the 2010 result, you probably have found very little information. This partly because there is not a clear result yet, and because of the general wear and tear on organisations after a gruelling campaign.

ACV will tomorrow bring you some insightful comment on the election result, including how the Christian and atheist vote affected the outcome. Stay tuned.

DLP claims Vic Senate seat as count continues

Possible DLP Senator John Madigan

The sixth and final Senate seat in Victoria is still up in the air with the Democratic Labor Party claiming the seat just ahead of Family First's Steve Fielding and Liberal Julian McGauran.

While the DLP only finished fifth on first preferences, behind Liberal, ALP, Greens and Family First, they do well with preferences from other minor parties, including, crucially, the Christian Democratic Party, who preferenced the DLP ahead of Family First.

However the ABC's Senate calculator is now showing the DLP being eliminated before Family First, with Family First not having enough votes to hold out Senator McGauran.

Despite this the DLP is virtually claiming victory on their website:

'After an extremely successful senate campaign and despite the fact that no one in the electronic or print media gave the DLP so much as a footnote, the people of Victoria have put John Madigan in the position of becoming the first DLP Senator in 35 years. Although the final figures will not be known for up to two weeks John is well placed to take the final Victorian Senate Seat.

'It is a shame that this possible DLP victory will come at the cost of Senators Julian McGauran and Steve Fielding who have given such strong and determined service on behalf of the people of Victoria.'

Mr Madigan is a blacksmith, skills that may well benefit him in the Senate.

Thousands of votes 'quarantined' by AEC in two electorates

In a federal election where the two major parties have virtually tied, the Australian Electoral Commission has announced that hundreds, and even thousands, of votes in two electorates will not be counted because they had 'not been handled in accordance with the provisions of the Commonwealth Electoral Act'.

The AEC website reports that 'legal advice has been received which means that 2,977 early votes cast for the Division of Boothby will not be included in the count' and separately, that '452 early votes cast for the Division of Flynn will not be included in the count'.

Boothby in SA was held by Liberal Andrew Southcott and his lead in the count was reduced by 339 votes because of the quarantining of votes from the Oaklands Park Early Voting Centre.

Although the AEC says this has not changed the position of candidates in terms of the two party preferred position, it has made it nail-bitingly close 50.81 to Liberal, 49.19 to Labor.

The Flynn result is not as close and less votes were involved.

The Electoral Commissioner, Ed Killesteyn said that this is a serious matter that has resulted in affected voters not having their votes counted.

Read the AEC's statements and see the electorate results.

An explanation of the state of the Senate

While the Senate election result is more clear cut than the House of Representatives, there is still some debate over who will win the final Senate seat in Victoria.

ABC election guru Antony Green says Family First will miss out, with the seat going to the Democratic Labor Party or the Coalition. However, Senator Fielding says he's still chance.

Read The Tally Room's summary here.

Fielding still flexing Senate muscle

With the new Senate not sitting until July 2011, Family First Senator Steven Fielding is planning to influence the shape of government, using his balance of power vote, regardless of whether he is re-elected as the Senate count continues.

Mr Fielding said he believed 'voters are not very happy with Labor' and along with independent Senator Nick Xenophon, can prevent Labor legislation from passing the Senate. Currently there are 37 Liberal Senators, 32 Labor, five Green plus Fielding and Xenophon. When the newly elected Senate sits from July next year, the Greens - with about nine Senators - will hold the balance of power.

Steve Fielding may block Labor rule

Do the new cross bench members carry their cross?

When Julia Gillard became Prime Minister there was massive interest from the Christian community as to whether she believed in God or carried Christian values.

Now that we have a handful of independents holding the balance of power, it will be interesting to see if their religious faith or otherwise receives the same scrutiny.

None of them have clear Christian identification in their publicity material but the rural independents would be well accustomed to visiting church events as part of country life.

At this stage, between four and six members of the House of Representatives will sit on the cross benches - that is, not on the Labor or Liberal side of the house.

They are the independents, Member for New England (NSW) Tony Windsor, Member for Lyne (NSW) Rob Oakeshott and Member for Kennedy (Qld) Bob Katter, all regional or rural electorates. Issues highlighted by these three include help for regional Australia, a departure from the two-party system of government to a more united parliament approach and

Also on the cross benches is Member for Melbourne, Adam Bandt, who is a member of The Greens and his policies are those of The Greens. He highlighted gay marriage and a price on carbon as two of his priorities.

A possible fifth is Member for O'Connor (WA) Tony Crook who ran as a National but is reported as saying he will sit on the cross benches as an 'independent WA National'. He is staunchly anti-mining tax and ETS.

And a likely sixth member is independent Andrew Wilkie who appears to have won the seat of Denison in Tasmania. He is contacting independent Senator Nick Xenophon for advice and one of Wilkie's key issues is to combat the spread of poker machines.

Family First increases vote, Fielding still in race

Family First's Senator Steve Fielding is still in the race for the sixth senate seat in Victoria, despite widespread reports (including a reference on ACV) that he had lost his seat.

According to Family First Victoria, 'Contrary to reports in much of the media, Family First has not been swept out of the Senate by the “greenslide” – at the very least it is going to be a very close count. While the Greens have definitely won the fifth Senate spot, the final spot is coming down to a photo finish between ourselves, the DLP, and the Liberals.'

Family First is also reporting a 30 per cent increase in its vote across Australia.

Read Family First's election report.

CDP summary describes vote as 'encouraging'

The Christian Democrtic Party NSW Senate results are 'very encouraging', according to a summary on the CDP website.

The CDP received 82,560 votes in the 2007 Senate Election and preliminary results indicate that the CDP vote will increase by 3-4000 votes in 2010, still not enough to win a seat.

Read the full NSW CDP summary.