ALP wins Government

	Jim Wallace Managing Director Australian Christian Lobby

Congratulations to Kevin Rudd and his ALP team on their election victory.

Labor’s win has given the party a clear mandate to govern. ACL hopes that the injection of new talent that the election brings to all sides of politics will be good for the country. We look forward to working with Kevin Rudd and his new Cabinet on many issues of interest to Christians, from climate change and social wellbeing to promoting the special status of marriage and the health of families.

Under Kevin Rudd, Labor has shown a renewed recognition of the importance of the Christian constituency and demonstrated a desire to engage with Christians on the issues that concern us.

ACL offers our best wishes and thanks to John Howard and the outgoing Coalition Government. Change was inevitable at some point, but Mr Howard and his team gave dedicated service to this country in government and were considerate of Christian concerns on many issues. We look forward to a strong Opposition ensuring a healthy democracy.

It has been encouraging to see the prominence of the Christian vote in this election. ACL sought to provide Christian voters with the opportunity to hear from the party leaders at the Make it Count event on 9th August, and to understand the different party policies through this website and accompanying booklets which were sent to nearly 6000 churches. Christians were also given the chance to hear directly from the candidates at over 50 Meet Your Candidate Forums, attended by several thousand Christians across Australia.

However, the most encouraging aspect of the election was to see Australians being less moved by the offer of tax cuts given by both sides than the need for community and national infrastructure. ACL hopes the new Government can build on this attitudinal shift and lead Australians to expand it to heighten not only our concerns for our own disadvantaged, but also the circumstances of the world’s poorest overseas.

This Australia Votes website will remain live for some time to come. I hope it will continue to be useful, helping you to hold the Government, and other parties, accountable to honour the policy commitments they made in response to ACL’s election questionnaire, which will remain available here.

Please keep the new Government in your prayers, as they adapt to the challenges of office and shoulder the responsibility of leading our nation.

Jim Wallace AM
Managing Director, Australian Christian Lobby