The power and the influence

The federal election exposed the alleged power and influence of the Religious Right as a complete con. Far from having any impact on the outcome, their claim of being able to corral votes and decide seats was shown to be fraudulent.

In the wake of this revelation, will Kevin Rudd and his new Labor Government continue to pander to this lobby and their superstitions?

In recent years, the Religious Right has broadly formed into two wings. The first is the parliamentary wing, the “Family First Party” originally founded by the Assemblies of God and supported by many evangelical church groups.

The second wing has been the “Australian Christian Lobby”, a peak body which aims to speak for “Christian” voters and values and is headed by Canberra-based Jim Wallace AM.

Together, and with the help of some supportive MP’s and Senators, the Religious Right has been agitating for its agenda both outside and inside the parliament.

With the election of Family First Senator Steve Fielding in 2005 and the rising media prominence of the ACL, outgoing Prime Minister John Howard showed unprecedented patronage to this constituency, giving it extraordinary access.

Even former Treasurer Peter Costello felt the need to go and wave his hands in the air at the Hillsong megachurch in outer Sydney but looked uncomfortable and became evasive when a live TV interview with him from the venue turned to the question of the church’s advocacy of “Intelligent Design”.

Howard was just as cynical and interested only in the votes such groups might be able to deliver. In return, the Religious Right wanted his government to take a hard line on same-sex entitlements, lesbian parenting, abortion, stem cell research and above all else - gay marriage.

During the recent campaign both Howard and Rudd agreed to discuss faith and values with an Internet telecast organised by Hillsong, where the topic of gay marriage seemed to dominate the anxieties of the virtual audience.

Gay marriage is an obsession with the Religious Right and it has been their rallying cry for the past two federal elections. Gay marriage is the new communism; there’s one under every bed.

Indeed, the Religious Right were successful at getting both the Howard government and Labor Opposition to ban gay marriage in 2004. But this success propelled them to campaign for more of their agenda.

Along with banning gay marriage, the Howard government funded a high schools’ Chaplaincy program, moved to prohibit overseas adoption by same-sex couples and even flirted with the possibility of allowing “Intelligent Design” to be taught in public schools.

All these issues had much more to do with symbolic gestures to the Religious Right than with good governance, and these things only got as far as they did because enough politicians had become convinced of the growing influence of the Religious Right.

So, in light of all the acquiescence and concessions both Labor and the Coalition have given the Religious Right in recent years, what was this movement actually able to deliver on Election Day?

Well, nothing as it turns out.

Not one Lower House seat was won or lost as a direct result of Family First or Christian Democrats’ preferences. Neither party gained any senators. Family First polled 1.9 per cent nationally; a 0.0 per cent increase on the last election.

The Family First vote peaked three years ago and the party only gained its lone senator in 2005 because of a curious preference deal by Labor. He is set to lose his seat at the next election.

By contrast, the party which was relentlessly attacked, ridiculed and condemned by the Religious Right during this campaign over their “anti-Christian values” (namely gay marriage), achieved its best ever result and helped thrust Labor into government with a 20-seat majority.

Indeed, the Greens achieved their highest ever nationwide vote and their greatest number of senators. They outpolled Family First five to one. In Tasmania where the anti-gay attack on the Greens was at its most vicious, the Greens actually surpassed the required quota to win a senate spot while every Coalition MP lost his seat.

In the wake of this electoral and campaign rout, how does the Religious Right now position itself to try and influence the Rudd Labor Government? What argument does it have left?

That question was answered on November 28, when Mr Wallace from the ACL had an opinion piece published in The Daily Telegraph in which he audaciously suggests that it was Christian voters who helped Rudd to win.

Not only is his premise illogical, it’s absurd. It’s understandable that the ACL would want to put the best possible spin on the election result, but Mr Wallace is caught out by his own argument.

In the article he says: “But given the sizeable swing to Labor last Saturday, it would be accurate to assume that many Christians who voted for the Coalition in 2004 voted for the ALP this time.”

This is as meaningless as saying that many meat eaters who voted for Howard last time voted for Rudd this time. But that doesn’t mean the Cattleman’s Association can claim some responsibility for Labor’s win.

The reality is Rudd Labor gained a 6 per cent swing across the nation from a range of constituencies on a host issues. Hostility to gays was not one of them.

In fact, credible polling (PDF 222KB) has recently shown that more than 70 per cent of Australians support equal rights for gay and lesbian people and 58 per cent support gay marriage itself. Using these survey results and Mr Wallace’s argument, then the majority of people who swung from Howard to Rudd at this election disagree with the ACL and support gay equality.

Yet, this does not stop Mr Wallace from firing a warning shot over the bow of the new government to assert: “[Rudd] not only recommitted the party to preserving marriage as the union of one man and one woman, but also pledged it to work with Labor state and territory governments to ensure that marriage is not mimicked by civil unions or partnerships.”

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that this ACL editorial was published the very day after ACT Attorney General Simon Corbell confirmed the Territory Government would press ahead with civil unions for same-sex couples. While the previous Howard government had twice scuttled the Territories’ civil union plans, the Rudd Government is set to support it.

In reaction to this news, Mr Wallace moved swiftly to promote the myth that “Christians” helped Rudd to win but that they are opposed to civil unions, and so Rudd must come to heel or suffer the backlash.

It’s true that some hardline, Conservative Christians vote according to these narrow issues alone, but they are an isolated minority without electoral influence. Claiming otherwise is just a bluff on their part. Simply because many Australians describe themselves as Christian in the national census does not mean they oppose fairness and support discrimination.

Clearly, new Liberal leader Dr Brendan Nelson understands this given his significant policy shift announced just four days into his leadership, overturning decades of blanket hostility to gay rights and repositioning the Coalition to middle ground on this matter.

Now that the fundamentalist fraud has been exposed and the Federal Opposition have jettisoned past prejudice, it remains to be seen if Kevin Rudd will continue to pay more attention to the fears of the Religious Right than he has to the hopes of gay Australians.