October 2003 Report:

Membership

We are pleased to report that we have reached the 100 party members required to register CDP as a political party for ACT elections. We give God the praise. However we don’t want to rest on our laurels and we continue to invite membership to the fastest growing political party in the ACT. Once we have our Branch Constitution finalised we will submit our registration.

Candidates

Our next big challenge after that is finding 4 Federal and 6 local candidates. We owe it to our supporters to field excellent candidates.

Anti homosexual adoption rally

On Sunday 19th October 2003 the combined churches participated in a rally organised by the Australian Christian Lobby to oppose the adoption of children by same sex couples. Unfortunately we were not invited to speak. A small band of homosexuals were in attendance but were comparatively quiet, likely subdued by the large turnout of over 1600 Christians. It was probably the largest rally crowd ever in Canberra’s Civic Square. The sad part was that the Catholic church’s Bishop, Pat Power, said he was not against homosexuals but rather stood up for them, although he was against them adopting children.

Issues

Canberra must be the Issues capital as well as the political one because we are inundated (but not overwhelmed!) with them.

We have a legalised pornography industry, a legalised prostitution industry and a government-run abortion clinic (on demand but not free) but now the Stanhope Government is trying to lead the way in accommodating same sex marriages, or “same sex domestic relationships” (the terms “marriage” and “spouse” have been removed from ACT statute books). The Stanhope Government is also preparing to introduce a Human Rights Act much ‘more progressive’ than anything to date. This same government has mooted ‘safe’ injecting rooms for the suburbs “where the addicts and users are”.

Commercial Development

Commercial Development in the ACT has virtually ground to a standstill due to a development protocol that one developer claimed would add three million dollars to his project and delay it 2 to 3 years. A significant tree (one you cannot get your arms around) can not be removed or damaged by a development unless approved by the Conservator and approval is unlikely. The church I attend has had a retirement village in the ACT Planning Office for nearly three years and cannot get an answer even though there is an 8-10 year waiting list for retirement accommodation.

January Fire Storm Inquest

It seems from the inquest into the January Fire Storm deaths that the government instructions were to reduce forest ground fuel but the Forrestry Department employees (almost exclusively Greens) procrastinated in its execution leading to the disaster that killed four people, destroyed over 500 homes and millions of dollars worth of infrastructure.

Monthly meetings

Our branch monthly meetings have been well attended with 12–15 participants of recent months which is good for a political meeting. Interest and enthusiasm is high but we do need more people to take responsibility for different functions.

John Miller, our ACT Coordinator has produced in some excellent in-depth research papers on Same Sex legislation, Condoms in High Schools, ACT Prostitution, and what he terms “The Sad Side of Self Government” with the negative legislation introduced since the ACT Self Government Act of 1988.

Tim Janes
ACT President