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Australian Politics

Catfish

08/01/2022 by Australian Family Party

catfishWhen the Canadian fishing industry first established its live cod exports to SE Asia, the fishing companies encountered an unexpected problem which threatened to derail the viability of their business.

They had started sending the live cod in big water tanks onboard ships but the cod’s inactivity in the tanks over the long journey resulted in them developing very soft and mushy flesh. By the time they reached their destination they were not what their Asian customers had ordered.

To counter the problem, the companies put catfish in the tanks with the cod. The catfish kept nipping at the cod and agitating them throughout the journey keeping them active and ensuring the quality of the fish.

We are catfish. We are there to agitate. To agitate for the family.

Wherever we are – in the workplace, in the community, in the classroom, in the courtroom, in the media, in the church, and especially in the parliament, our aim is to agitate and keep people on their toes.

As a Party, we are on track for the forthcoming SA State election in March with our key Lower House candidates now in place.

High on our nipping list will be to do those things which strengthen the family – economically and socially.

My late father used to say, “When poverty comes in the door, love goes out through the window”. In Australia today, one of the biggest causes of marriage stress is financial pressure – employment uncertainty, ridiculously high mortgages forcing both parents out to work, the high cost of educating and raising children, high power prices, high water prices – you name it.

Social ills caused by the rupturing of family relationships – divorce, de-facto relationships, fatherless households, single mothers bringing up children – lead to a breakdown in society. Family breakdown is costly.

We have quoted these figures before, but mental illness costs the Australian economy $180bn a year. More than 3,000 Australians take their own lives each year. Boys raised in father-absent environments are twenty times more likely to end up in a correctional facility. Addiction to alcohol, gambling, drugs and pornography are rampant.

Then there’s social media.

There is an indisputable link between mental health and social media. Violent computer games affect boys. Cyber bullying has turned deadly for girls. Sexting is rife. Online sexual predators are pervasive.

So how to respond to this new threat to family life? Do we try to control it or do we try to inoculate people against its effects?

Things are changing so profoundly – in social attitudes, world economics, and especially technology – that politicians and bureaucrats seem ill-equipped to manage them.

One institution which can do a lot to help combat the lawlessness of the digital jungle and its predators is the family. The family is the ideal place to teach about relationships, learning who to trust, who not to trust, who to communicate with, and who not to communicate with.

If we are not the catfish, someone else will be – and the results will not be pleasant.

Filed Under: Australian Politics, Election '22, South Australia

More Breakfast, Less Dinner

18/12/2021 by Australian Family Party

more-breakfast“The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties, but through the heart of every human being.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

It’s not every day you get to be on the ground during an historical event. More so when you get to witness dramatically contrasting aspects of human nature on the same day.

On 14 September 2015, along with a number of other Senators and MPs, I attended the Australian National Prayer Breakfast in Parliament House in Canberra.

Organised by the former Member for Macquarie Louise Markus MP and the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship, the mission of PCF is, “To encourage and uplift fellow Members and Senators and provide opportunity for reflective discussion on biblical themes to both sustain and strengthen our daily walks with Jesus Christ”.

Hillsong musicians were flown in to lead the singing, I read the prayer for peace, and a number of other MPs and Senators prayed for each other, for the nation, and for our leaders.

“We prayed for wisdom, we prayed for our national leaders, and we prayed for our international leaders as they resolve and work on challenges and issues around the globe,” said Louise.

“We prayed huge prayers, big prayers, because we do believe that God answers those prayers.”

The event went for two hours – from 7:00am to 9:00am and all left spiritually uplifted. I remember thinking, “there’s hope for this place yet!”

However, by the end of that same day, words of goodwill and trust and support had given way to words of betrayal and treachery and ‘blood on the floor’, as a bitter leadership spill saw Prime Minister Tony Abbott rolled by Malcolm Turnbull.  Did someone say ‘a week is a long time in politics’? – how about a day!

The sentiments of the breakfast table did not survive past dinner time.

Being in Parliament House that day and watching events unfold had a profound effect on me. I saw first-hand the best and worst in people – the best and worst in the same people.

In the book of Genesis, before Cain murders his brother Abel in a fit of rage, God warns Cain to deal with his anger before it’s too late: “If you do not, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Gen 4:7).

God is telling Cain to deal with his anger and not let it continue or he will soon find himself in the grip of a monster he can’t control.

It’s been said people do not follow good causes; they follow good people who pursue good causes.

We do not elect political leaders to follow the crowd, we elect them to influence the crowd to follow them. The Apostle Paul said, ‘Be ye followers of me even as I am of Christ’.

Being elected to parliament is an opportunity to influence people, to bring out the best in people and suppress the worst that is ‘crouching at the door’ or as Solzhenitsyn says, is ‘lurking in the heart of every human being’.

We particularly have an obligation to our young people who need to have a sense of purpose. A sense of pursuing something bigger than themselves.

As we end one tumultuous year and enter what will no doubt be an equally turbulent 2022, let us acknowledge the irrefutable truth of human nature and determine to do what we can to bring out the best and subdue the worst. That will certainly be our aim here at the Australian Family Party.

In closing, I trust the Newsletters this year have given you an insight into what the Australian Family Party is about – we would not want anyone to be in any doubt as to where we stand on the issues of the day.

To all our readers, have a happy Christmas and New Year and we look forward to catching up with you again in January.

Filed Under: Family Policy, Australian Politics

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