Candidate forums target marginal seats

The Australian Christian Lobby is encouraging Christian voters to attend candidate forums being held in many electorates across the nation. These are meant to be non-confrontational forums to canvass candidates views and are especially targeted at marginal seats.

Watch a short video on candidate forums.

Candidate forum events as of August 5, 2010 (electorate name in block letters):

Millions to learn of Australian voting website answering Christian concerns

By Glynis Quinlan,

Public Relations Manager
Australian Christian Lobby 

With little more than two weeks to go until the Federal election, the Australian Christian Lobby today launched a website – promoted by a million fliers and booklets sent to churches throughout Australia – informing Christians about the different political party standpoints on key issues they care about.

The Australiavotes website provides the responses of eight political parties, including the Coalition and Labor, to 24 questions on issues of interest to Christians ranging from homelessness and foreign aid to freedom of religion and the sexualisation of children. Tellingly, the Australian Greens only answered six of the questions, choosing to avoid scrutiny on a variety of issues where their policy is unlikely to be well-received by most Christians.

'The failure of the Australian Greens to answer 18 of the 24 questions – even where they have known positions on the issue such as their support for gay marriage and removing school chaplains – can only be seen as a cynical exercise to avoid scrutiny of their more radical policy positions,' ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said.

'But as disturbing as the deception in not declaring their antagonism to faith in society, is the failure to comment on issues like youth unemployment, the funding of private schools and the sexualisation of children – all issues of concern to a broader constituency,' he said.

'This deception and narrow agenda is hardly the stuff of a legitimate third force in politics.'

Christian vote gets prime radio coverage

ABC Radio's popular AM program today gave prominence to Prime Minister Julia Gillard's atheism and the impact of this on Christian voters in marginal Queensland seats.

The interview with group of female voters who identified themselves as Christians gave an insight into the strength of feeling in Queensland, arguably Australia's most conservatively Christian state.

Listen to AM's story, Brisbane Christian's won't vote Labor.

Excellent election info for voters

As we head into the home straight for the election, there are a few good websites about that help with the mechanics of voting or with overviews of electorates.

Below the Line is a great site for helping you work out who is running for the Senate in your site and, if you choose to mark all the preferences for yourself, will help you prepare in advance.

The Tally Room is a great blog that provides profiles for every federal electorate in Australia. You can search them alphabetically and each profile includes a map, background, sitting member and last election results.

The Poll Bludger is a Crickey.com blog that provides more details on polls than you might ever imagine needing.

The Australian Electoral Commission is of course the official source of information for the federal election and you can do everything from finding a polling booth to working out how to cast a postal or pre-poll vote.

And stay tuned for Australia Votes which is not up as of today but will be a comprehensive election site provided by the Australian Christian Lobby.

Each of this links will appear permanently on Australian Christian Voter website in the right column.

Brief video report of Christian election issues

Adventists Media's latest Politics in Focus video report is available on Australian Christian Voter's Watching page. It features a brief rundown of Christian issues in the August 21 election campaign with Australian Christian Lobby managing director, Jim Wallace.

Christian voter checklist released

Australian Christian Values Institute has released its checklist for the August 21 election in which major parties are rated on their policy or statements on a range of issues.

The purpose of the checklist is to 'help the Christian community and those who are sympathetic to Christian values make a more informed choice when it comes to voting'.

According to the the Australian Christian Values Institute website, it is 'an initiative of the board of Australian Heart Ministries, a non-profit charity dedicated to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Australian Christian Values Institute has a vision to "renew the Christian vision of Australia for the common good".'

The answers appearing on the checklist from the major parties are prepared from 'party policy statements, public statements, media reports... In some cases the voting record of the parties over the past few years has also been considered'.

Read background about the purpose of the checklist.

Direct link to the checklist as a pdf document

 

Read further background on how checklist responses were developed

 

Aid commitment remains despite $300m cut

The Coalition has affirmed its commitment to increasing overseas aid and development to 0.5 per cent of national income by 2015 despite axing $300 million worth of foreign aid programs designed to mitigate the affects of climate change.

While the cut has been criticised by aid organisations such as Oxfam and Caritas, Opposition's Foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop claims Labor padded the aid budget with the climate funding to garner support for a UN security council seat.

'The Coalition remains committed to increasing the foreign aid budget up to 0.5 per cent of GNI by 2015. We will be changing the focus, and we will be ensuring that aid is delivered in the main in our region where it can have the most effect,' Ms Bishop said today.

 

But the head of Catholic aid organisation, Caritas is not convinced. 'Countries, like Australia, who have amassed their wealth from the production of greenhouse gasses, cannot simply walk away from their responsibility to assist, as the coalition appears to be doing,' said Caritas CEO Jack De Groot.

 

Australia's aid and development sector for has been calling on politicians to meet the UN's Millennium Goals which include a recommendation for foreign development assistance to rise to 0.7 per cent of GNI by 2015, but both the government and the opposition remain committed to 0.5 per cent.
 
Read Caritas's full media release.
 
Read Fiona Bishop's response. 

Christians should be willing to change voting patterns: Dickson

'Much has been said about the ''Christian vote'', an expression often associated with those nasty-right-wing-religious-nuts imposing their morals on a secular society', writes the Centre for Public Christianity's John Dickson in the Sydney Morning Herald.

'Given that 64 per cent of Australians call themselves Christian, according to the census, it is important to clarify what the Christian vote means.

'Christians should be willing to change voting patterns after Christian reflection on particular policies. A believer who cannot imagine voting for the ''other side'' has either determined that only one party aligns with the will of God or, more likely, is more attached to their cultural context than to the wisdom of scripture.'

Read John Dickson's full article.