Memo, Mark: It's the family, stupid

Babette Francis

Dear Mr Latham,

You are blamed for the ALP defeat on October 9, but my view is you were seduced by the Greens, gays and gender-feminists, who took advantage of your inexperience.

The gays, for instance: did you really believe the Kinsey nonsense that they are 10 per cent of the population, when surveys have repeatedly shown they comprise between one and two per cent?

Of that number, many are not activists — effeminate Fred who lives with his pal Henry and just wants a quiet existence, would be quite perturbed at the prospect of "marriage".

Now you aim to have young, "progressive" women on your front bench when it is their "Emily's List" policies which were responsible for your election debacle! "Emily's List" candidates support abortion, affirmative action (discrimination against men in employment and promotion) and in vitro fertilisation for lesbians.

Shadow Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon, who reluctantly supported the Government's Marriage Amendment Bill defining traditional marriage, made a big mistake by then promising gays "civil unions with all the benefits of marriage".

It would be smarter to support the government's domestic dependency policy, whereby those who are genuinely dependent — such as siblings who share a home, or a parent and adult child living together — would be recognised as partners in a household. This does not exclude homosexual partners, but it is not based on sexual relationships.

Roxon then compounded the mistake—before 1,200 pro-family activists from all over Australia in the Great Hall of Parliament House on August 4 — by promising that a Labor Government would introduce a Racial and Religious Vilification Bill.

Two Christian pastors have endured months of legal action under Victoria's vilification legislation for analysing the Koran at a seminar for Christians. The case has cost hundreds of thousands of dollars — and great alarm among other pastors. Each pastor has a congregation of a few hundred — that's a lot of votes blowing away from the ALP.

At an ALP conference your deputy, Jenny Macklin, announced lesbians and single women were entitled to in vitro fertilisation so they could have children without fathers. (Whatever happened to your policy of having fathers read to their children?).

Currently, the Victorian Law Reform Commission, dominated by gender-feminists, has issued discussion papers, all touting the creation or adoption of children for homosexual couples.

These green, gay and gender-feminists have succeeded in awakening Protestants to the connection between their faith and politics. Catholics have always been involved in pro-life and pro-family politics, but the involvement of other Christians is new.

The DLP (mostly Catholic) kept the Labor Party out of office for over two decades in the 20th century. Now the Protestant groups in Pentecostal churches, Family First, the Australian Christian Lobby, the Fatherhood Foundation and the Christian Democratic Party, together with Catholic activists in the pro-life movement and the National Civic Council, may do the same in the 21st.

You have not understood the power of new technology — the internet which has enabled Christians to by-pass a left-wing media, and ultrasound images which throw a searchlight on the brutality of abortion and how outdated the ALP's platform is on "reproductive rights". The internet enabled Christians to circulate thousands of copies of a "Christian Values Check List" analysing the platforms of all political parties.

Having gender-feminists like Joan Kirner demanding ALP women be given front bench positions is the last straw for male voters — and the wives they support. Resign your membership of Emily's List — or you may suffer Gendergrad in 2007 — a defeat reminiscent of Stalingrad.

(Babette Francis is national coordinator of Endeavour Forum Inc. This article originally appeared in Melbourne's Herald Sun, October 28 2004.)

Post-election Action

With the spate of recent pro-marriage, pro-family and pro-life victories, we need to now work harder than ever. In Australia we have a sympathetic government at the federal level that is open to pro-family and pro-life ideas and action. We need to keep in touch with our local members and let them know of our concerns, be it abortion, Internet pornography or family-friendly taxation policy.

As to the abortion issue, here are some points of action:

1. Write to:

The Hon John Howard Prime Minister of Australia Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600

In your own words thank him for encouraging a full and open debate on abortion. Express your opposition to abortion, especially to the use of taxpayers' money through Medicare to pay for abortions. You may wish to congratulate him for his own opposition to late term abortion. Finally, ask him to allow time in Parliament for a full debate and vote on this issue.

• Write to any of the Coalition MPs active in the debate (all at Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600) and congratulate them for their
  public comments against abortion. Encourage them to pursue this matter in Parliament.
• Write to your local MHR congratulating him or her on their recent success in the Federal election. Ask where he or she stands on
  abortion. Questions you could ask include: "Do you think there are too many abortions in Australia?"; "Do you think taxpayers should
  fund abortions through Medicare?" "Are you concerned that babies are being aborted at 20 weeks or more when premature babies born
  at the same age can survive if given proper care?""What are you going to do about this important problem?"

Family Update, November-December 2004, p. 2