Elections on March 20, 2010

Tasmania and South Australia both have elections on Saturday March 20, 2010.

In South Australia both the House of Assembly and half the legislative Council are being elected whilst in Tasmania elections will only be held for the House of Assembly. 

It's important that Christians (and everyone else for that matter!) know what the political parties stand for and what their policies are. It's also important for voters to ASK the candidates in their electorates about their own views and values before we cast a vote.

To help understand more about the political parties and their polices, the Australian Christian Values Institute has published Christian Values Checklists for both of these elections.

For full information about these elections, along with the Christian Values Checklists, please click on the following links.

South Australian election

Tasmanian election

Parental leave, relationship registers and elections

So many issues! So many things happening!

Just this week, a lot is happening around the country. After a few days away last week, there's a lot to report on:

* Elections will be held on Saturday March 20, 2010 for South Australia[House of Assembly and Legislative Council] and Tasmania [House of Assembly only]. We're assisting in the preparation of Christian Values Checklists which compare the various political parties on a range of moral and ethics issues. They'll be published in the next couple of days. Check back to see those...

* Tony Abbott has proposed a paid parental leave scheme to be funded by 'big business'. See more in our report on our Latest News page - click here.

* The NSW government has announced that it will introduce relationship registers for same-sex couples. The registers will also allow heterosexual couples to register their relationship, creating a form of 'marriage lite'. Read more about this - click here.

* Muslim leaders in Sydney have called for shari'a [Islamic] lawto be implemented in areas such as marriage and family law. Zachariah Matthews called for this while speaking at the Lakemba Mosque Open Day - later Keysar Trad (who has previously called for polygamy to be legalised in Australia because Islam allows men to have four wives) supported the call.
Read media article: Muslim leader wants elements of sharia in Australia  SMH, PAUL BIBBY - March 8, 2010.

And the atheists are holding their global convention in Melbourne this coming weekend. . .
Richard Dawkins and a whole host of other speakers will spend a lot of time and effort speaking about a God they don't believe in!

Same-sex "marriage" bill defeated

Good news! On Thursday 25 February the Federal Senate soundly rejected Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young's attempt to change the Marriage Act to include same-sex relationships.

Both the government and the Coalition opposed the Bill. The proposal lost 45 votes to five - this means 25 Senators did not vote. Only the five Greens Senators voted for the Bill - showing that they are more about radical social engineering than the environment.

For our full report see the report on our Latest News page - click here.

Read media reports at The Age and ABC.

Surrogacy Legalised in Queensland

Last week - on Thursday February 11, 2010 - the Queensland government passed a bill that legalises surrogacy. The bill was passed by 45 votes to 36 votes.

The bill allows a lesbian couple or a single woman or a male homosexual couple to use surrogacy to have a child.

This is another retrograde step in undermining the importance of the natural family of mum, dad and their biological children. The Bill also allows a child's birth certificate to record false details of their 'parents'.

Two Labor MPs crossed the floor to vote against the legislation: Former Minister Margaret Keech and Capalaba MP Michael Choi.
seven MPs did not cast a vote - see Courier Mail article link below.

The government ignored a strong campaign from Christians asking them to vote against the proposal. The Opposition tried to amend the legislation to only allow surrogacy to be used by infertile heterosexual married or de facto couples but those amendments were defeated.

We opposed the passage of the legislation in full.

Media reports:

Labor MPs to cross the floor on surrogacy Bill - Courier Mail, February 11, 2010.
"TWO Labor MPs have crossed the floor to vote against the Bligh Government's plan to allow gay couples and single parents to have children through surrogacy. But it was not enough to scuttle the Bill which was passed at 8pm, 45 votes to 36 following a marathon debate. Seven MPs did not cast a final vote on the Bill. . ."

Surrogacy laws spark mixed response ABC Online - ‎Feb 11, 2010

Surrogacy payments 'difficult to stop' Brisbane Times - ‎Feb 11, 2010
"There would be little to stop new parents "paying" a surrogate mother despite commercial arrangements remaining illegal under new state law, lawyers say..."

Keeping up!

Every day there are more issues....  more news.... more things to write about....

SIN
- Today we learnt that Australia has been rated as the most SINFUL nation in the world- scoring in the top ten of every 'sin' in a survey of the seven deadly sins....
Click here to read more.

ISLAMIC FINANCE
- Today the federal Trade Minister Simon Crean launched a booklet called Islamic Finance - published by the government's Austrade group. It promotes having Islamic shariah-compliant finance - attracting Islamic banks, encouraging our banks to provide it...
So what is it?
If say you want to buy a house, and you don't have the money, you take a loan - and pay interest to teh bank.
Well, Muslims can't pay interest according to the Qur'an and Mohammed.
So the bank buys the house and then SELLS the house to the Muslim at a HIGHER price. That full amount is then paid back over a period of time!
Read our full report on our Latest News page - click here.

R18+ rated games
- The government is conducting an Inquiry.
Click here for full details and our campaign Page to find out how you can make a response.
Submissions are due by 28 February!

Our own FOX News?
Andrew Bolt calls on Rupert Murdoch - who actually owns the US conservative news service FOX News - to give us our OWN FOX News!

On Climate Change - Global Warming - and the COLD USA!
With global warming you'd expect warmer conditions and less cold weather!
That's why they've changed it to 'climate change' - it can provide an answer for anything!
Some people in the USA are claiming that the big snowstorms in the USA are what you'd expect!
Click here for the report in Time.
Andrew Bolt comments - click here.