Senator Andrew Bartlett
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
 
There's been a fair bit of commentary lately on the alleged growing influence of religion on the Australian political scene. I am rather dubious about this - firstly because it's been there for quite some time in various forms and secondly because a lot of it seems to be focused around a heavily overstated assessment of the popularity of Family First.

As regular readers of this blog would know, I'm less convinced than many others this party deserves labels like Fascists First or the Christian Taliban. The picture that's been painted of them as far-right extremists is at best based on fairly thin evidence, whilst ignoring plenty of evidence to the contrary and their level of support and influence (so far) has been grossly overstated. Getting a Senator elected this time was basically a fluke and they were outpolled in the Senate on primary votes nationally by the Democrats and gained just a few votes more than One Nation.

A fair bit of the publicity they have received has been (a) from a media looking for a fresh character to insert in the soap opera story line that passes for most political reporting and (b) from a stoush between the Greens and Family First with both trying to exaggerate the extremism of the other to assist in more clearly defining themselves. I have a much stronger concern about the potential changing role and impact of religion in the major parties and in political debate. The focus on Family First is a symptom of this to some extent, whilst also serving to draw attention away from the bigger risk.

Anyone who has been listening would be aware that religion-based moralising is already strongly alive and prospering in the Coalition, with an even stronger boost gained from the election. It is also far from absent in the Labor party. The fact is religion has been heavily intwined with politics in Australia for many years. The connections between the Labor Party and the Catholic church are well known and continue in some Unions and factions today. The influence of Protestant churches was also very strong in the Coalition parties and still has some echoes.

I remember regularly being told that Mike Ahern would never be allowed to be Leader of the National Party in Qld because he was a Catholic (1980s Qld politics for all of you young folk & non-Queenslanders out there) - I don't know for sure that that's true, but the fact that it could be seriously suggested speaks for itself. It seems strange that people are getting themselves into a lather about Family First having some links to the Assemblies of God as if this sort of thing has never happened before. Particularly given that the structure of the Assemblies of God is far less hierarchical than the Catholic or major Protestant churches, so there is far less prospect of any meaningful organisational linkages beyond the parish level. That doesn't mean that there might not be heaps of people who go to Assembly of God churches who are in Family First, in the same way that there used to be heaps of Catholics in the ALP and later the DLP.

I don't believe in or follow any sort of organised religion myself and I'm usually fairly antipathetic to religion in general in the context of politics. I do NOT mean that I believe people who are religious should not be involved in politics. What I mean is that using religious belief as the sole or predominant ground to justify a policy is something I am not comfortable with. My view has grown over time, but has particularly been driven by the repeated wave of abusive letters and emails I get whenever I speak in support of equal rights for gay and lesbian people. Almost all of these sorts of letters are (a) extremely abusive and filled with what could only be called hate, and (b) quote the Bible to justify these views.

It is the absence of any rationally based argument that concerns me in this context, rather than religion itself. It is why I am equally antipathetic to fundamentalism of a non-religious kind, where people just keep parroting a view regardless of the evidence or the arguments. Sadly, I'm feeling more and more like this is where politics is now at in Australia, which is difficult to know how to deal with. Either I can ignore reality and continue to try to espouse rational debate and reasoned acknowledgement of a variety of views (and continue to receive media contempt and zero votes) or I can mindlessly parrot the shibboleths of whichever group seems most suited to me.

It worries me, if it becomes accepted wisdom that religion is supposedly newly influential in Australian politics, that everyone will start trying to use it to define their political message (including the negative sense). Kevin Rudd was on television last weekend saying "we will not for one moment stand idly by while either the Liberals, the Nationals or the Family First assert that God has somehow become some wholly-owned subsidiary of political conservatism in this country." Whilst it may not be what Kevin Rudd means, it looks to me like we may start to see a bidding war for God - each major party vying to be more appealing to the 'Christian folk' - defined according to whatever psychographic the focus group pollsters have finessed this year.

The concerns I have over this are:

  1. It will create another divide through which to define people as 'in' or 'out' (by both sides) - meaning people in politics will go more out of their way to be overt about their supposed beliefs and more inclined to feel the need to manufacture or embellish some, and the media will feel it is now appropriate and relevant to report and comment on such things;
  2. It will distort policy debates and decisions by forcing it through a prism of 'values' that will be used more and more with the implication that it is synonymous with Christian values;
  3. It will make it even more difficult for those of other religions or beliefs (or with none) - particularly Muslims I suspect, who will more and more be implied as less proper or right(eous). There is already a risk that terrorism is being defined as everything else other than Christianity, especially with some of the 'us and them' rhetoric used to describe the 'threat'.
  4. It will put a big torpedo right through the middle of successful multiculturalism in Australia.
I want to make it clear that I am not accusing people with religious beliefs of doing anything wrong here. I am expressing concern about a potential change in what is considered as appropriate and relevant factors in political debate.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Tuesday, November 09, 2004
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