Media release

Labor is increasingly being led by the Greens with the Tasmanian ALP conference voting against key election promises made by the Federal Party, according to the Australian Christian Lobby.

 

Votes to scrap chaplains and introduce gay marriage at the Tasmanian ALP conference this weekend show that Labor is prepared to put the Greens’ policy agenda ahead of its own election promises http://vimeo.com/13959730.

 

“Both the Prime Minister and the Federal Labor Party gave unequivocal election promises to continue the popular chaplaincy program and to ensure that the Marriage Act was protected,” ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said.

 

“It is a measure of the Greens power over Labor, particularly in a State like Tasmania where the Greens are in a coalition government with Labor, that a Labor State conference is prepared to defy Federal Labor policy so brazenly.

 

“We continue to see the tyranny of the minority influencing the national agenda.”

 

Mr Wallace said the Mayor of Burwood, Councillor John Faker, in inner Sydney was right when he talked last week of a noisy minority “stamping its feet” on issues like gay marriage in the face of majority opinion.

 

Mr Wallace said the conference’s vote to allow stranger adoption to same-sex couples was another Greens’ policy championed by a small group of activists.

 

“How on earth can a government, which is bound to always act in the best interest of children, give a ward of the State over to two men or two women when that child has no choice?”

 

A vote to decriminalise abortion to birth, even when there was a healthy mother and a healthy baby, was another extreme Greens policy now adopted by Tasmanian Labor.

 

Mr Wallace said Labor was in danger of moving away from the concerns of mainstream Australia which were more in line with the results of last week’s Australia SCAN survey which showed middle Australia wants a return to “basic moral values like honesty and hard work and putting families first”.

 

 

 ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace appeared on Sunrise this morning to clarify misrepresentations made of a Twitter post yesterday.

Jim repeated his apology for tweeting on ANZAC Day, saying it was never his intention to politicise it.

However, he stood by his comment that the issues of same-sex marriage and Islamic extremism would change the nature of Australia and needed to be grappled with.

Media Release

ACL Managing Director clarifies tweet misrepresentation

The purpose of this Media Statement is to clarify what are misinterpretations of a tweet by Jim Wallace earlier today.

“The tweet has obviously been seized on by everyone with an intention to discredit, but although ill timed, it did not and was never intended to suggest that veterans had not fought for all Australians,” said Mr Wallace.

Mr Wallace had been sitting with his 96 year old father, a veteran of both Tobruk and Milne Bay, when he considered a theme often mentioned by him, that he found it difficult to recognise the Australia he had fought for.

“My ill timed tweet was a comment on the ‘nature’ of the Australia he had fought for, and the need to honour that in the way we preserve it into the future.” said Mr Wallace.

“While of course and rightly there have always been gays and Muslims in Australia, many of whom have fought for the country, the nature of the country they fought for and arguably what made it worth fighting for, has been largely drawn from Judeo-Christian heritage and values,” said Mr Wallace.

“I believe in and value ANZAC Day and our veterans too much to have ever intended a slight on the day, and apologise unreservedly for having even tweeted the thought on this day, it was not my intent to see it used this way, ” said Mr Wallace.

Media contact: Katherine Spackman 0408 875 979

MEDIA RELEASE

 

For release: Tuesday April 12, 2011

The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) has expressed concern today that the R18+ computer game debate was descending into farce following the Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O’Connor’s appeal to employment opportunities and the economy as justifications for allowing more violent and sexually explicit games into Australia.

“Linking an apparent boost in the economy to the creation of more graphically violent and sexually explicit interactive computer games reduces this debate to farce,” said ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace.

“Ensuring children are not exposed to the introduction of violent games should come before industry profits and economic concerns.

“First the creation of the R18+ rating was meant to be about the rights of adults to play adult games, then it was supposedly about protecting children, and now it is about creating jobs and boosting the economy,” he said.

“Adults have a duty to consider the costs of their choices, especially when doing so will see more children accessing violent games. With US research showing that children there regularly play ‘adult games’ such as Grand Theft Auto, nobody can honestly claim that placing an ‘R’ on the package will prevent Australian children from also accessing such material.

“Introducing an R18+ rating for games has never been a child protection measure, and this new claim to major economic benefit from R18+ games reflects a mark of desperation in the debate,” said Mr Wallace.

Mr Wallace urged the Attorneys-General around Australia to think carefully before opening the doors to more violent games, which credible research clearly demonstrates does do harm to children.

 

 

Media Release

For release: Friday, 1^st of April

 

 

The Gillard Government must not bow to Greens’ threats of ‘consequences’ coming back to ‘bite’ it for warning Australians of the dangers of Green ideology, the Australian Christian Lobby said today.

“The Prime Minister has done the nation a service by highlighting the extreme nature of the Greens’ agenda which is anti-family, anti-religious freedom and anti-economic growth,” ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said.

“Bob Brown’s threats to Ms Gillard and his sudden defence of Israel today is further evidence of the disingenuous nature of the Greens.

“Why didn’t Bob Brown speak out in support of Israel before the NSW election when the anti-Israel comments were made?

“Why is he only now disciplining the ultra-extreme Green Senator-elect Lee Rhiannon?”

Mr Wallace said the ALP must oppose the Greens’ attempts to by-pass its election commitments on same-sex marriage and euthanasia through back door attempts such as the Greens’ so-called Territories rights bill which is before a Senate Inquiry.

The poor showing of the Greens in the NSW election was proof that their influence in inner city electorates is exaggerated.

“Labor power-brokers should heed this warning from the electorate and ensure that their national conference in December does not dance to the tune of the Greens by overturning Labor’s policy on marriage which has broad mainstream appeal,” Mr Wallace said.

ends

Media Contact: Katherine Spackman on 0408 875 979

There’s been some good news in the marriage debate this week with a group of Labor MPs revolting against a Greens' bill aimed at sneaking in homosexual marriage and euthanasia.

Pushback against the gay-Green agenda for redefining marriage is gathering pace in the Parliament and in marginal seats throughout Australia, although there is still a long way to go in the debate.

If you haven’t already, please sign the electronic petition to the Senate in support of marriage and encourage your friends to do the same.

The Greens put forward a so called ‘territories’ rights’ bill which the Government initially supported.

The real purpose of the bill is to allow the territories such as Norfolk Island, ACT and the Northern Territory to legislate for homosexual marriage and euthanasia.

When this was exposed yesterday, the Gillard Government agreed to stall the bill by sending it to a Senate committee for further examination.

ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace today called on Ms Gillard to withdraw Labor’s support for the bill (see "Greens social revolution by stealth must be halted")

He also had an opinion piece published in the Australian today outlining the link between the homosexual activists’ push to redefine marriage and their intolerance for religious freedom.

The Telegraph newspaper is running a poll on whether or not the Greens are running the Gillard Government.

ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace had an opinion piece published in today’s The Australian outlining the link between the homosexual agenda for marriage and the homosexual activists’ intolerance for religious freedom.

Commentator Andrew Bolt also interviewed Jim this morning on Melbourne Talk Radio (MTR) about the Labor revolt against the Greens’ latest attempt to legislate same-sex marriage and euthanasia by stealth. See here

Bolt and co-interviewer Steve Price accuse Jim of being “too Christian” in the way ACL operates in the political arena.

There’s a short introduction by Bolt and Price before Jim is introduced a few minutes in to the program.

[caption id="attachment_2346" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Jim Wallace"][/caption]

ACL’s latest monthly newsletter, which includes Jim Wallace’s column, is out now.

This month has seen a lot to concern us about the shape of politics with the Greens improved political position nationally having negative effects on social policy everywhere. Euthanasia and gay marriage have been the first issues brought forward by this supposedly nature-focussed party in the new federal parliament, and the euthanasia debate will be a close run issue on which Christians everywhere must get active.

Click here to read the rest of Jim’s column and the newsletter.

Media Release

For release: Sun Nov 7, 2010

The Australian Christian Lobby today commended Prime Minister Julia Gillard for sticking to her election promise to support marriage between a man and a woman.

ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said continual pressure by the Greens for non-mainstream social policy such as gay marriage and euthanasia was tempting some politicians to veer from the centre of politics.

“It is encouraging that the Prime Minister is prepared to stand up to the Greens. She is showing great integrity in keeping faith with her election commitments.

“It also shows that the Prime Minister understands there are far more important issues facing our nation, despite the Greens declaring that gay marriage and euthanasia are their top priorities.

“It would be a shame if the ALP’s conference in 2012 broke with the current long-standing bi-partisan support for marriage between a man and a woman, as is being suggested by some party powerbrokers.”

Mr Wallace said ACL supported the Government’s moves to amend some 80-90 pieces of legislation which removed practical discrimination from same-sex couples but believed marriage should remain between a man and a woman.

Article by ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace posted today on Online Opinion

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is right to be conflicted about changing the law so that killing a patient becomes an alternative to palliative care.

"Intellectually, you would say, people should be able to make their own decisions," she said this week.

"But I find it very hard to conceptualise the sort of safeguards that we would need if we did say that euthanasia was legal. So I am conflicted on it in that sense."

The last time there was a public discussion about what "safeguards" might be embedded in a euthanasia bill was last August when Australia's leading euthanasia activist, Dr Phillip Nitschke, fronted a parliamentary inquiry in Tasmania where, you guessed it, the Greens were pushing euthanasia.

Nitschke's testimony ( pages 100-115) should be required reading for every politician considering their vote in the upcoming Federal Parliamentary debate on Greens Leader Bob Brown's euthanasia bill.

Quizzed on long-standing concerns over whether he broke the law in the mid 1990s by euthanising patients who were not terminally ill, fudging a required psychiatric assessment and failing to have a specialist with the required qualifications assess a patient, Nitschke was breathtakingly brazen.

To read the full article on the Online Opinion site please click here.