Current Affairs

The Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party has been the governing party in Australia since the last federal election in 2007. Labor currently governs all states and territories other than Western Australia. Labor is the country's oldest political party, having been founded in 1891. Julia Gillard is the current leader of the Labor Party and the Prime Minister of Australia. The former Deputy Prime Minister became Prime Minister on June 10th, 2010 when former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd stepped down, after losing the support of his party. She is the first female Prime Minister and the first not to be married. For more... Read more →


What about Family First?

The Family First political party was founded in South Australia in 2002 and spread nationally in 2004. The Family First party has not sought to promote itself as a Christian or church-based party but rather as a party with a primary focus on looking out for families. Family First currently has four members in parliament, two in SA, one in NSW and one in Federal Parliament - Steve Fielding, who was elected in 2004. Steve and his family attend CityLife Church. However, I do not act as Steve's policy adviser. We have casual conversations from time to time about various... Read more →


What about the Australian Green's Party?

The Australian Green's Party is gaining more and more interest here in Australia, especially amongst the younger generation who seem to be looking for an alternative to the Labor and Liberal political parties. It is estimated that the Greens could win anywhere between 10-16% of the Australian vote. There is also a high probability that they will hold the balance of power in the Senate after this election, which will place them in a very influential role, much like Family First member Steve Fielding has had over the last term (Family First does still have a chance to be re-elected... Read more →


Preparing to Vote ...

The Australia federal election is just under two weeks away (Saturday, August 21st). Every election is a very important time in any nation and as followers of Christ we should take our responsibilities as citizens seriously. Voting is a privilege and we should be diligent in our research of each candidate and the various political parties vying for our support. The Australian Christian Lobby has done us an excellent service by compiling the various viewpoints of each party on a wide variety of issues. See their web site here, which includes a recent interview of Julia Gillard who was not... Read more →


Does the Prime Minister need to be a Christian?

Last week I received a phone call from Barney Zwartz, a journalist from the Melbourne AGE newspaper. He wanted to get my pulse on the upcoming federal election. We had a 5-10 minute conversation together and talked about a range of issues. In his actual article, I ended up with one quote ... "Mr Conner, senior pastor at Melbourne's biggest church, CityLife, said he was not concerned by Ms Gillard's atheism: 'Primarily you are looking at them to have what it takes to run the nation' - but felt Mr Rudd's dumping would cost Labor more than the party realised."... Read more →


New Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard

Julia Gillard became the 27th Prime Minister of Australia on June 24th, 2010. This occurred after the resignation of Kevin Rudd. Julia had served as the Deputy Prime Minister in the Rudd Government. She is the first woman Prime Minister in Australia and the first to have never married. She is also a red head - bring on national ranga day! :) Discussion has taken place concerning the ousting of Prime Minister Rudd, but let's not forget that Rudd did a similar thing to Kim Beazley and similar situations have occurred in other parties. Political leadership is not for the... Read more →


Kevin Rudd

Kevin Rudd was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia. Under his leadership, his party won the November 2007 election against former Prime Minister John Howard. As the new leader, he made major announcements about climate change, education, a national broadband network, and health. He will be remembered for a number of things, including his reading of an apology to the Indigenous Australians for the 'stolen generations.' Mr Rudd started well, gaining fairly broad rapport with the general population and giving some inspiring speeches. Over time, his popularity declined and he didn't deliver on a number of his promises. Was this... Read more →


President Obama's Speech

Last week saw the swearing in of the 44th leader of the United States of America as Barack Obama officially began his role as president. President Obama's inauguration and speech can be viewed on You Tube by clicking here. A full transcript of his address is available from the New York Times web site (click here). Not everyone likes Obama. There are concerns about his policies on a number of important issues, including abortion (see Jim Wallace's recent article on this). President Obama is not perfect. He is not the messiah. He needs our prayers and God's wisdom. He plays... Read more →


Australia Day 2009

Today is Australia Day- an annual celebration, held every January 26th, of the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, marking the colonisation of Australia by Great Britain. Having just read the book The First Fleet by David Hill, it is amazing that our nation, as it is today, even got started. England was sending convicts from its overflowing prisons to America when America's sudden independence (on July 4th, 1776) closed that door. Other locations were discussed, with Botany Bay being a last resort. The long trip out from England was marked by frequent crises and challenges, let alone the... Read more →


Racism

Many have lauded the election of President Barack Obama as a new day for African-Americans, after a long history of abuse and mistreatment. Unfortunately, racism is still alive and well in America. Click here to read a shocking report of recent incidents since the election. Prejudice based on skin colour is not only sad, it is morally wrong. Each human being is created in the image of God and is to be treated with dignity and respect. The apostle Paul tells us that 'in Christ' there is neither Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male nor female (Galatians 3:28). This... Read more →


A New American President

Yesterday, the American people voted in a new president - Barack Obama. Winds of change are in the air and there is a lot of anticipation about what kind of leadership Obama will bring to his nation. There is no doubt that he is a charismatic speaker who has captured the attention of people from all sectors of society. The challenge for Obama now is to try to turn around a nation that is in crisis financially and in regard to its place in the world arena. Regardless of our personal thoughts about Obama, we need to pray for him... Read more →


Obama or McCain - who would you vote for?

On Tuesday, November 4th, Americans will vote for a new president as their presidential election takes place. Who will win - Barack Obama or John McCain? Who would you vote for? Some people tend to vote more 'conservative' while others vote on the 'liberal side'. Here is an article on the election by American political commentator, Jim Wallis (author of God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It). You may not agree with everything he says but his comments are very thought-provoking ... "In 2004, several conservative Catholic Bishops and a few megachurch pastors... Read more →


Was Moses a Mass Murderer?

A recent article in the Melbourne Age profiled Cleric Francis Macnab of St Michael's Uniting Church in Collins Street. He is hoping to start a new faith for the 21st century claiming that the 10 commandments are too negative, Jesus was just a Jewish peasant, and Moses was a mass murderer. Francis feels that this new faith is necessary because the old faith no longer works. "The old faith is in large sections unbelievable. We want to make the new faith more believable, realistic and helpful in terms of the way people live," he said. St Michael's is promoting the... Read more →