When the Howard administration finally fell last year, you might have wondered how the Australian Christian Right took their defeat. Well, ponder no more. And yes, the title for this piece was inspired by Marion Maddox’ excellent book on the Australian federal Christian Right, New Right and Howard administration, God Under Howard.

Predictably, the hardcore anti-abortionists and homophobes were most upset. Anti-feminist Babette Francis worried about green pro-choice tendencies within the abortion debate, oblivious to the relationship between increased human population and environmental degradation. However, that much was predictable. Francis is a rabid coalition supporter, once standing as a candidate for the agriculturally based National Party of Australia.

As for the Adelaide-based “Salt Shakers” Christian Right group, this editorial was their sobfest after the Australian electorate underwent its dwarf throwing period of purification in November 2007:

The Howard Government did not do everything right but they did put the brakes on a number of minority groups. They have been held back for ten years, but now the foot is off the brake peddle and on the accelerator, going full speed to achieve their various ‘progressive’ agendas. (Funny how that word ‘progressive’ is used today to promote liberal thinking and acting!!!)

Major issues now on the ‘progressive’ agenda include a national Bill of Rights, homosexual normalisation, including relationships and parenting, abortion on demand, multi-faith-ism (including appeasement to Islam) and a republic - and that is just for starters!

[Oh goody! Australia sounds like it’s rejoining the western mainstream after the excesses of the Howard era. And note some of the comments. We’ve had a Bill of Rights here for almost twenty years, most Australian states and territories finished introducing liberal abortion access during that period, and as for a multi-faith society, whatever happened to religious freedom and church-state separation?- C]

The homosexual activists are certainly gearing up to exert pressure on the Rudd government. Their media are full of articles about relationship rights, marriage, IVF etc. Even the moves already announced for Victoria don’t go far enough, they cry, and as for any possibility that Mr Rudd will force the ACT to toe the line and not introduce a Civil Unions Bill is already being seen as a backflip.

[Er, it is. What exactly are wrong with civil unions? Oh right- they actually bring an end to substantive spousal discrimination when it comes to LGBT couples.]

With yet another lesbian joining the Labor ranks in Canberra (West Australian activist Louise Pratt) it will be even harder to hold back the tide.

[Great news!- C]

We were criticised for focusing our ‘Christian Values Check List’ on distinctly ‘moral’ issues rather than ‘social justice’ issues such as Overseas Aid and the poor, and, would you believe ‘work choices’, but when sin abounds who is going to care about others. When selfishness abounds, who will care about the poor? When greed abounds who will consider it necessary to do a hard day’s work for a day’s pay?

[No, rather pander to the hard right of the Liberal Party, and show no compassion whatsoever to the homeless, those victimised by anti-union industrial relations laws and the plight of the Third World poor compared to affluent Australians. What a ridiculously neurotic, sexualised notion of  ‘morality’ Salt Shakers spout.]

Moving on. The Festival of Light needs no introduction to many LGBT New Zealanders. It tried to interfere with the decriminalisation of sex work here, and worked closely with the New Zealand Christian Right over that issue. What was their response to the end of the Howard regime?

No-one can be quite sure, as the Festival hasn’t published a Queensland or South Australian based newsletter since their respective September 2007 issues of Focus and Light, its two periodicals. Would Kevin Rudd introduce a Bill of Rights, they worried? FOL published a questionnaire heavily slanted toward the fundamentalist agenda, involving attacks on abortion access and spousal and family rights for LGBT Australians. The fundamentalist Christian Democratic Party and Family First (South Australia) scored highly, while the Coalition and ALP did slightly better.

About the only reasonably balanced perspective came from the National Civic Council, a conservative Catholic group which isn’t as smorgasbord as its tiny New Zealand counterpart, Family Life International, when it comes to broader Catholic concerns about a just economy. Surprisingly, it strongly criticised the Howard administration over its anti-union WorkChoices legislation, obviously not having read the Salt Shaker apologia above for pandering to Howard era conservatism hook, line and sinker. It argued that was one of the principal reasons behind the end of that regime, although predictably, it wasn’t too happy about the return of multiculturalism, republicanism and occupational feminism to the top of the political agenda of the ALP and Greens.

What can one conclude from this? Happily, the Christian Right seem shell-shocked at their marginalisation from the Australian national mainstream, although the damage is done when it comes to that nation’s draconian attack on the free speech of euthanasia rights proponents and prohibition of same-sex marriage.

Hopefully, after removing WorkChoices and closing down the Howard era concentration camps for refugees and asylum seekers, the Rudd administration will give them ample reason for their paranoia and hysteria. It’s high time that they were banished back to the fringes of Australian society where they belonged. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for New Zealand’s similarly revolting Family First pressure group and their would-be suitor, Judith (Banksia) Collins.

Not Recommended:

http://www.endeavourforum.org.au

Endeavour Forum- Australian antifeminist group

http://www.saltshakers.org.au

Salt Shakers- Adelaide based fundamentalist pressure group

http://www.fol.org.au

Festival of Light- anti-sexworker, anti-gay and general Christian

Right pressure group, roughly equivalent to the SPCS here.

http://www.newsweekly.com.au

News Weekly/National Civic Council- Australian conservative

Catholic pressure group- more balanced and critical of Howard

over economics and industrial relations issues, but…