MEDIA RELEASE



Wednesday, 29 August, 2012



The Green-Labor same-sex marriage bill tabled in the Tasmanian Parliament yesterday does not provide so called ‘marriage equality’, it creates an entirely different legal arrangement called ‘same-sex marriage’.



The Australian Christian Lobby said the Greens, Labor and Tasmanian gay activists were playing cruel politics with the hopes of the very small number of same-sex attracted Australians who might want to get ‘married’.



“What was tabled yesterday is not marriage, it is an entirely different legal concoction,” ACL’s Tasmanian Director Mark Brown said.



“The four bills in the Federal Parliament sought to change the definition of marriage but the Tasmanian bill creates a type of marriage apartheid with its own same-sex marriage celebrants who are different to real marriage celebrants.



“This is most likely because there are obvious constitutional issues with a State trying to legislate in an area of Commonwealth responsibility.”



Mr Brown said the tabling of this bill showed that the agenda of the Green-Labor Government and Tasmanian gay activists was not ‘marriage equality’ in Tasmania, it was about keeping alive the same-sex marriage campaign in order to put pressure on the Federal Parliament.



“This bill has been rushed seemingly to coincide with the four marriage bills being debated in the Federal Parliament, which have already made a farce of it and are most likely heading for defeat.



“It is a shame that the Parliament of Tasmania is being cynically manipulated in this way,” Mr Brown said.

MEDIA RELEASE



Tuesday, 28 August, 2012



The Australian Christian Lobby today applauded the comments of the WA shadow attorney-general John Quigley as he promised opposition support in repealing Labor’s micro-brothel legislation of 2008.



“We would not permit micro-brothels to run next to residences, full stop,” the shadow attorney-general has reportedly said.



ACL’s Western Australian Director Rhys Vallance said prostitution was inherently damaging and exploitative whether in a micro or macro brothel.



“We are pleased the opposition has vowed never to return to its very unpopular legislation,” Mr Vallance said.



“What disappoints me though is the Liberal government’s continued push to legalise brothels in so called tolerance zones.



“Evidence from around the world shows the increase in the demand for prostituted women resulting from legalised prostitution creates the perfect conditions for human trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable women,” he said.



“Governments around the world have tried many different models and still struggle to control prostitution.



“The best model is that of Sweden and now other Nordic countries where the purchase of sex is made illegal and the purchaser is penalised.



“The Premier promised the Christian constituency he would investigate the Swedish model at the last state election,” said Mr Vallance.



“We are yet to see this promise fulfilled and the longer we wait, the more likely the current bill before parliament will become as unpopular as the previous legislation now to be repealed.”

MEDIA RELEASE



Tuesday, 28 August, 2012



The same-sex marriage legislation being tabled today in Tasmania, as well as surrogacy laws due to be debated this week, are both radical pieces of social legislation that should be rejected by the Tasmanian Parliament.



According to the Australian Christian Lobby’s Tasmanian Director Mark Brown, it is absurd for Tasmania to be going alone on the issue of same-sex marriage when it is clearly a federal issue.



“The last thing Australia needs is conflicting marriage laws throughout the nation,” Mr Brown said.



“Clearly, the Tasmanian Labor party is not in control of the Parliament if it is allowing the Greens and their loyal activists to control its agenda as part of a wider campaign to pressure on the Federal Government to redefine marriage.



“These are not issues to be taken lightly; it is not in the best interest of children to be deliberately severed from their biological parents – something which surrogacy and same-sex marriage paves the way for,” Mr Brown said.



“The Tasmanian parliament has a responsibility to protect the rights of children to their biological mother and father wherever possible rather than succumb solely to the desires of adults,” Mr Brown said.

MEDIA RELEASE



For release: Sunday August 26



The Australian Christian Lobby said the Northern Territory election outcome reinforced its prediction that the heavily Christian indigenous communities would reject the Labor brand when it is so tainted with its association with the Greens and their faith-offensive policies.



Commenting on NT Labor President Senator Trish Crossin’s statement that this might be “the first time in this nation's history, in any state or territory, the outcome has been decided by people in the bush, indigenous people," Mr Wallace said part of that backlash is from indigenous Christians who have been repelled by Federal Labor’s compromising the definition of marriage.



“The NT rural electorates are the most Christian in the country,” said Mr Wallace.



“While it may not have been the prime issue for indigenous voters, ALP strategists need to consider how their failure to uphold marriage will have impacted the large percentage of Christians in these communities.



“Labor’s support for gay marriage is offensive to the great majority of faith communities, and if the Federal election is to be as close as Labor hopes, it will cost Labor deeply in 2013 too,” said Mr Wallace.



Former Labor Senator John Black’s Australian Development Strategies analysis of the 2007 election found that the religious affiliation of swinging voters played a more decisive role in determining the outcome than any other single factor. This was a swing that many believe carried Labor to victory on the back of Kevin Rudd’s appeal to the faith communities.



“Labor’s support of same sex marriage, and the farce currently been played out in the Federal Parliament with four same sex marriage bills wasting parliamentary time, are sure to resonate similarly in the marginal seats of SE Qld and Western Sydney,” said Mr Wallace.



“The NT result should give Labor good cause to move this issue quickly off the parliamentary agenda, by bringing it to a vote in the next session and even more to reconsider the political sense of the policy,” said Mr Wallace.



The Coalition has retained its position of marriage being between a man and a woman that that is a matter of party policy, and honoured its commitment to that.



 

MEDIA RELEASE



Friday, 24 August, 2012



The fourth same-sex marriage bill to be tabled is a farcical attempt by Green-Labor politicians to give false prominence to an issue they know doesn’t have Parliamentary support, according to the Australian Christian Lobby.



The bill follows an identical private member’s bill by Labor’s Stephen Jones, and similar bills by Adam Bandt and Andrew Wilkie in the lower house, and a further bill by Greens’ Senator Sarah Hanson-Young in the Senate.



“The longer this drags on, the more farcical it becomes,” ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said today.



“What an insult to MPs that activist have loaded the Parliament with four bills, and that parliamentarians would become complicit in such an obvious waste of Parliamentary time.



“All this follows three Parliamentary inquiries in the past two years, none of which presented evidence of any discrimination against same-sex couples,” Mr Wallace said.



”Labor should think about the damage this is doing to their brand and put some distance between themselves and this shameful Greens-inspired activism,” Mr Wallace said.

MEDIA RELEASE



Friday, 24 August, 2012



The Australian Christian Lobby has expressed concern that some frontline services to Queensland’s most vulnerable people are being affected by the Government’s budget cuts.



ACL Queensland Director Wendy Francis said ACL understood the need for the Government to balance its budget, but was concerned some of the cuts were going too far.



Ms Francis had spoken to a number of charities working with the disadvantaged.



“While the community and not-for-profit sector does need to play its part in helping reduce the deficit, it is hard to understand why cuts of relatively small amounts of money are being made to not-for-profits working at the coal-face with the disadvantaged,” Ms Francis said.



“They have proven track-records of effective assistance to our most needy,” she said.



In Ipswich alone, two Salvation Army community development programs have already been axed, and many trainees are now at risk of being forced out of their courses.



Other programs likely to be affected by the funding cuts include the Pacific Islanders program in Goodna catering to disadvantaged young people, and the Logan-based Participants in Prosperity program for ex-offenders.

MEDIA RELEASE

Friday, August 24, 2012



The Australian Christian Lobby welcomes the introduction of legislation to establish the new Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) but is concerned about the impact of some provisions in the bill for churches and other not-for-profit organisations.



Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury introduced draft legislation to establish the ACNC and also to amend special conditions for tax exemption.



The Special Conditions bill will establish a new “in Australia” test, which will require that an organisation must operate principally in Australia to retain tax exempt status. This means that organisations which operate overseas or direct funds to overseas operations risk losing tax exempt status, which in turn means less money going to the world’s poor.



ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace says that the bill is alarming for charities and not-for-profit organisations.



“There is concern that charitable organisations providing overseas aid may be significantly impacted by this bill,” he said.



“Further, there will be less incentive for businesses or individuals to make charitable donations if they are not tax deductible.”



“Charities and not-for-profits make enormous contributions, not only in Australian society, but where it is most needed in other parts of the world,” he said.



“It is essential that in a wealthy country like Australia, charities can continue to operate efficiently and people are encouraged to give generously to help those in need.”

MEDIA RELEASE



Friday, 24 August, 2012



The Australian Christian Lobby welcomes yesterday’s move by the federal government to increase Australia’s refugee intake.



The humanitarian program will increase Australia’s refugee intake by 6,000 every year, and will focus on bringing people from problem regions such as the Middle East, Asia and Africa.



ACL supports the generosity of our nation, and any attempts of the Australian government in putting an end to the dangerous people smuggling trade and looking after displaced persons.



ACL’s Managing Director Jim Wallace supports the new move, and says that Australia’s increase in humanitarian intervention should be an example to the rest of the world.



“ACL has long advocated that Australia raise its humanitarian intake,” Mr Wallace said.



“Too many people have died over the years waiting for us to deliberate over the asylum seeker policy. I praise the government’s move in preventing further loss of life,” he said.

MEDIA RELEASE



Wednesday, 22 August, 2012



The Australian Christian Lobby is calling on Prime Minister Julia Gillard to honour her election promise to protect marriage against attempts by Territories to mimic it.



ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said today's move by the ACT Labor-Green coalition to pass marriage-mimicking civil union legislation should be overturned by the Federal Parliament.



Two weeks before the 2010 election, Ms Gillard recorded a video interview with ACL.



Jim Wallace: On marriage – marriage is clearly defined in the Marriage Act as the union of a man and a woman to exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life, something important to the great majority of Christians. Your party’s committed to the definition of marriage, does that extend to not allowing it to be mimicked for instance in territories, for instance, by the inclusion of ceremonies and celebrants in a legal sense in legislation where parties don’t meet that definition of marriage?



PM Gillard: Look the Labor Party has worked this through and we have determined as a Labor Party that the Marriage Act will stay unchanged so marriage will be defined as it is in our current Marriage Act as between a man and a woman. And we have also said that the Labor Party policy is we do not want to see the development of ceremonies that mimic marriage ceremonies and so that’s the party policy and as Prime Minister, as Leader of the Parliamentary Labor Party that’s obviously my policy, and that’s what you should expect to see from a Gillard Labor Government if we’re re-elected.



[See http://vimeo.com/13959730 from 12:10]



Mr Wallace said the ACT Labor-Green coalition's civil union legislation was not even wanted by the same-sex community and that today's move was just a stunt to cause further distraction of the Federal Parliament which is now bound to debate it, despite already having three same sex bills before it.



“This attempt to legislate same sex marriage by fatigue is reprehensible for its waste of parliamentary time and should be rejected by both major parties by joining in Federal Parliament to vote it down,” said Mr Wallace.



“This is the last sitting week before the ACT election and Labor and the Greens are using the ACT Assembly's time on what is really a low order issue in the electorate,” Mr Wallace said.

MEDIA RELEASE



Tuesday, August 21st, 2012



The Australian Christian Lobby said it is ironic that Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings has promised a formal apology for forced adoptions in this session of Parliament, given her plan to legalise surrogacy for same-sex couples and singles.



The Premier has failed to recognise that, like forced adoptions, same-sex and single surrogacy will force a child to be severed from biological parents.



ACL’s Tasmanian Director Mark Brown said it’s important to highlight the irony between the proposed surrogacy legislation and forced adoptions.



“Lara Giddings’ pledge to apologise for the injustices and deep hurt caused to mothers and children affected by forced adoptions should be applauded. It is, however, totally inconsistent that in the same session of Parliament, laws may be passed that perpetuate the same injustices for future Tasmanian children,” Mr Brown said.



“Who is going to apologise to these children in 20 years time for them being deprived of, or in some cases even knowing, a mother or father?



“Wherever possible, our government should, in the best interests of children, give them the right to at least begin life with their natural mother and father,” he said.