Policies
2004 Federal Election
May 2004
POLICIES SUPPORTED BY THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY (CDP) IN NATIONAL AND STATE PARLIAMENTS WHERE APPLICABLE.
Note: This policy is subject to review following Parliament's consideration of the 2004 Budget.
INDEX
- Preamble
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
- Aged Care
- Agriculture
- Anti Discrimination Legislation
- Attorney-General
- Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs
- Classification – Censorship Laws
- Counter-Terrorism
- Defence
- Disability Services
- Drugs
- Education
- Employment
- Environment
- Families
- Family Law
- Foreign Affairs and Trade
- Gambling
- Health
- Hospitals
- Housing
- Immigration
- Public Ownership
- Regional Services
- Social Security
- Superannuation
- Trade
- Treasury
- Veterans’ Affairs
It is the view of The Christian Democratic Party that the principles set out in the Bible present a secure framework for our society and a code of practice for the wise government of our nation. The Holy Bible is the Creator’s Manual for the governing of God’s Creation - Planet Earth (Refer Romans 13: 1-7).
"For the best results follow the Creator’s instructions".
This does not mean the Christian Democratic Party is a party that would make and enforce religious laws in government - eg compulsory church attendance on Sundays, etc. It means that all of our policies and activities are based upon the Biblical Christian ethic, which was the foundation of Australia and its Common Law and civil law. Other parties have failed to uphold these values which once made Australia an admired country. They have undermined the importance of the family. We are committed to turning this tide, and promoting the values that Australians cherish.
The Christian Democratic Party upholds the primacy of the family unit in all its policies, moral, social and economic, and seeks to review all legislation in respect of its affect on that family unit.
Any proposal of governments or parliaments to undermine this foundational unit of society is clearly opposed to basic policy and cannot be supported. Conversely any policy which supports the family will be supported. The Christian Democratic Party will also take every opportunity to present legislative measures to support, promote and encourage the family unit.
Please note that this policy document is not definitive on every subject, but seeks to provide a positive framework on which other policy decisions can be made. It provides principles and procedures on a wide range of issues that influence our society and are often the focus of governments across this nation.
This document is not intended to include a description of the methods by which those policies will be implemented. These will be the subject of ongoing consultation with groups, organisations and individuals directly affected by the policy areas. However, it is possible to use the policies for future CDP Members of Parliament to evaluate legislative proposals. For example, the Christian Democratic Party policy to eliminate the foreign debt can be used as the basis for evaluating the legislative proposals in the same way that the family policy can be used as a guide for assessing legislation - if the legislation contributes to the reduction of the foreign debt it will be supported. Please forward your constructive criticisms or suggested amendments to my office C/O- GPO Box 141 Sydney, 2001.
Rev Fred Nile MLC
(Hon. National President)
ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS
The disadvantage suffered by many indigenous people in the area of health, housing, education, employment and economic development should continue to be addressed, and priority should be given to eliminating the physical and sexual abuse of the elderly, women and children in isolated communities. Indigenous Australians are entitled to enjoy the same rights and to bear the same responsibilities as other Australians. The place of indigenous Australians as the first occupiers of the land is recognised, and the mutual obligations of reconciliation should continue to be sought.
The national strategy for older Australians that recognises the challenge of Australia’s aging population, and provides an aged care system that ensures their dignity, care and respect should be further developed. The existing standards and care levels should be maintained and consistently improved. There needs to be greater support for families and community groups who assist older Australians to remain in their homes safely and cared-for.
Support should continue for the Agriculture – Advancing Australia (AAA) program which is a package of Commonwealth programs designed to help primary producers in agriculture, fishing, forestry and processed food industries become more competitive, sustainable and profitable. The farm sector should be helped to grow and respond to change while providing a safety net for farm families in financial difficulties. Support should also be given to rural industries as they move toward greater self-reliance from the more structured mechanisms of past decades.
Support should also continue for the Murray-Darling Basin Initiative which is the largest integrated catchment management program in the world, covering 19 catchments, 52,000 farms (43% of Australian farms) and three million people who depend directly on natural resources. 41% of Australia’s gross agricultural production is generated in the MDB.
ANTI DISCRIMINATION LEGISLATION
The CDP strongly supports the 1948 United Nations Declaration of Human Rights which was based upon biblical principles and promoted by Christians. However, it is concerned at the burgeoning human rights and equal opportunity sub-laws and bureaucracies that have since formed in the robust Australian democracy, and are now beginning to limit freedom of speech and religious freedom, upon which our democracy has been built. The CDP supports a review of anti-discrimination and equal opportunity laws and policies to identify any abuses they have caused, and to prevent further abuses.
In particular, Churches should be free to employ and remove employees in accordance with their principles of faith, and to freely preach and teach from the Bible. Commonwealth anti-discrimination legislation and equal opportunity policies should be amended to exclude churches and their institutions from legislation that can be used to force them to employ persons who do not share their beliefs, and to limit teaching from the Bible that may offend others. The Commonwealth should oppose the legislation of states and territories that jeopardise these aspects of freedom of religion.
The sovereignty of the Australian people to determine Australian laws should continue to be asserted. The balance should be restored to law and justice to protect all Australians not just minority groups. Law and justice should reflect majority values while protecting the expression of minority opinion and freedom for minority groups. Marriage laws as a union between a man and a woman should be strengthened, together with the right of all children to a mother and a father.
CITIZENSHIP AND MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS
Australia has been enriched and strengthened by our cultural diversity and unified by an Australian identity that has been formed by our history and Christian heritage. Priority for settlement should be given to the many ethnic groups who are able to readily integrate into the Australian community and who accept Australia’s heritage and the values that have made Australia safe and prosperous. Greater efforts should be made to avoid the development of ethnic ghettos in the light of present day European experience.
Because of the high uptake rates of Australian citizenship (95%), and the strong identification of first generation Australians with mainstream Australian culture, rather than identifying with the cultural attachments brought to Australia by their parents, the CDP supports the Commonwealth Government reviewing multicultural policies that have become obsolete, and in some cases divisive, and placing greater focus upon strengthening Australian citizenship and Australia’s heritage, and the values that underpin our heritage.
CLASSIFICATION – CENSORSHIP LAWS
The right of people not to be exposed to offensive material in the public media, and children to be protected from harmful media should be restored. The right of adults to see and hear what they wish should be maintained, but not at the expense of those who do not wish to see or hear such material, or the protection of children from harm. Penalties should be introduced or increased for those who expose children to sexually explicit entertainment by whatever medium.
The Office of Film and Literature Classification should be instructed to focus on the offensiveness of material, and to reverse the slackening of classification categories, in order to encourage film financiers and producers to create entertainment product in line with the above policy.
Australia’s defences and responses to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats and weapons should be increased and kept under regular review.
Recent Australian Defence force operations in East Timor, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Solomon Islands illustrate Australia’s need for a balanced Australian Defence Force, capable of deploying at short notice, and able to present the Government with a wide range of options to defend Australia and Australia’s interests against conventional and non conventional threats. The interests of operational ADF personnel should be given priority by ensuring they are in combat readiness by being fully trained, adequately and quality equipped, well supplied and with adequate resources in reserve. The CDP will oppose any future defence budget cuts, or cuts to the numbers of operational personnel.
The CDP supports the involvement of current levels of ADF deployment in Iraq to allow the new Iraqi security forces, under the command of a democratically elected Iraqi government, to be mobilized, trained and equipped to the point where they can maintain law and order, and the security of Iraq’s borders.
Further effort needs to be made to support people with disabilities, and their carers, so that they may enjoy more productive and creative lives in a caring environment. The Commonwealth should remain responsible primarily for employment assistance and other services; state and territory governments should remain responsible for accommodation support and related services; and there should be a shared responsibility for advocacy and print disability services.
The foundations of an illicit drugs policy should be:
- disruption of illicit drug exports in countries of origin and departure (maintain support for Australian Federal Police postings to embassies in countries of export)
- interception of illicit drug importation
- more detoxification and rehabilitation that get illicit users drug free
- more truthful information about the harm of all illicit drugs
- court ordered and supervised detoxification and rehabilitation programs
- less illicit drug users, drug pushers and drug related crimes through better law enforcement
- tougher penalties for illicit drug financiers and pushers who target our children.
All children have a right to high quality education that gives priority to basic competency in literacy and numeracy, and their parents to a choice of school system, regardless of their economic circumstances. School governing bodies, teachers, parents and children have a responsibility to ensure that schools are safe and orderly, by supporting high standards of discipline in the interests of all students and staff. The Commonwealth should undertake a review of school discipline to clarify acceptable conduct by teachers, students and parents, the rights and responsibilities of each, and effective disciplinary and enforcement measures.
All students should leave school with a good knowledge of the history of Australia, its Christian heritage and the development of its democratic institutions.
The six pillars that support employment growth are supported. These are:
- a strong and well managed economy
- an entrepreneurial and dynamic small business sector
- an educational system that focuses on standards, skill development and job readiness
- an active welfare system that helps the unemployed move from welfare to jobs
- a strong employment services sector based on the social coalition between the government, community, business and individuals.
Sustainable development and the restoration of the environment should be the guiding lights of environmental policy. The significant advances over the past decade in managing and protecting the environment, including the implementation of strategic plans, should be continued and enhanced. This includes the National Heritage Trust which is the largest and most successful environmental restoration program in Australia’s history. The major challenges are to reduce salinity and to improve water quality across Australia for environmental, agricultural, industrial and human health, and to work towards the Kyoto 2012 target of 108% of 1990 greenhouse gas emissions.
Strong and functional families are the key to the ongoing stability of Australian society. They are a major contributor to economic prosperity and the elimination of poverty and many other social and costly problems.
All legislation should be vetted to prevent bills and to repeal laws that are harmful to families. The principle should be maintained that the family, ideally headed by a father and a mother, is the primary institution for fostering the values on which a cohesive society is built, and for disciplining children.
All children have the right to a father and a mother. Family law should be reformed to give greater recognition to the harm caused to children by family break-up, and enhance the rights of children to sustained access to both parents. The culture of the operation of the Family Court should be changed from facilitating the break-up of families to encouraging their sustainability.
Commonwealth marriage laws that assert that marriage is between a man and a woman should be retained and strengthened. Greater recognition and encouragement should be given to Covenant Marriages.
The objective of Australia’s foreign affairs and trade should be to enhance Australia’s economic prosperity and security, and to make a positive contribution to our region. The liberalisation of regional and multilateral trade should be pursued in order to expand market access for Australia’s exports and income. The strategic significance of historical alliances is recognised.
The CDP strongly supports the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, but is concerned at the burgeoning human rights and equal opportunity sub-laws and bureaucracies that have since formed in our robust democracy, and are now beginning to limit freedom of speech and religious freedoms, upon which our democracy has been built. The CDP supports a review of anti-discrimination and equal opportunity laws and policies to identify any abuses they have caused, and to prevent further abuses.
An Office of Religious Affairs should be established within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to enhance religious freedom and to protect religious minorities from persecution.
The Commonwealth should engage the states and territories to develop a national policy addressing the negative and social impacts of problem gambling on individuals, families and communities, and adopt policies to progressively reduce gambling levels in Australia. The regulation of gambling should remain a state and territory responsibility, but if gambling levels are not progressively reduced over the life of the next Parliament the Commonwealth should examine ways of exercising greater controls.
All Australians should have access to a secure, world-class health care system regardless of their economic circumstance or location. This includes a viable, universal and publicly funded health system of Medicare, with the freedom of choice provided by a strong private sector.
The government should withdraw funding for National Condom Day and transfer the funds to a public awareness campaign informing young people of the positive health and social benefits of a chaste unmarried lifestyle.
Commonwealth funding for abortions should be withdrawn and transferred to specialist clinics for the treatment of thousands of young children, many of who are pre-schoolers, who have been traumatised by viewing classified X rated videos, with life-long consequences.
State and territory governments are under-funding their share of the cost of providing public hospital services, despite current record federal funding of $42 billion provided through five year Australian Health Care Agreements. Public hospitals have traditionally been a responsibility of state and territory governments. Currently, the Commonwealth government provides 47% of overall health funding, the state governments 23% and non government sources the remaining 30%. Because of the failure of state and territory governments to:
- reduce public hospital waiting lists and waiting times (eg. delays in emergency surgery, long waiting lists for elective surgery, ambulances queuing outside big city hospitals, and stretchers lined up in corridors)
- reduce adverse events in public hospitals (every year 18,000 patients die in public hospitals from unnecessary adverse events. Delays are estimated to cause 20% of these deaths)
- provide sufficient investment in, where practical, post-hospital care and rehabilitation services provided in the community and their own home
- improve on the strong safety and quality focus required under Health Care Agreements
- and deliver on their share in overall increases in funding commitments to public hospitals,
the CDP supports the Commonwealth government reforming, or making a staged withdrawal from state and territory Health Care Agreements, and providing funding directly to public hospitals through a single administration if necessary, in a similar way it funds universities. The Commonwealth already manages and funds aged care, Medicare and pharmaceutical benefits. The elimination of overlapping state and territory health bureaucracies would provide savings of up to $2 billion to the state and territory governments, as well as the $34 billion they currently provide. The Commonwealth could then lower its disbursements to them in other areas. The Commonwealth savings should be used to increase overall direct Commonwealth funding to public hospitals.
The Government should assist people in crisis and help families in periods of transition and stress. There should be continued support for:
- the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy with a focus on prevention and early intervention,
- the National Homelessness Strategy,
- the Family Homelessness Prevention Pilot programs,
- and the Commonwealth Advisory Committee on Homelessness.
It is the sovereign right of any nation to determine who does and who does not enter its borders for temporary or permanent stay. The operations of people smugglers should continue to be disrupted and frustrated so that the business becomes commercially unviable. Australia should continue to meet its international obligations to treat unauthorised arrivals humanely and to consider any claims they make for refugee status. Persons who arrive illegally and make claims for protection that are proven false should be removed from Australia as soon as practicable.
Mandatory detention should continue for all persons without authority to be in Australia. Further legislation that does not impinge upon natural justice should be passed to prevent the abuse of the judicial process that extends the stay of persons who have no entitlement to be in Australia.
Australia should continue to be a world leader in being a generous haven for genuine refugees through internationally supervised and orderly refugee resettlement programs. Priority should be given to refugee applicants who are most likely to readily integrate into the Australian way of life.
Industry sectors should continue to be regulated by legislation and policy to protect the public interest rather than by full or majority public ownership. Proceeds from public sale of public assets should be used to reduce public debt (Coalition policy), rather than spent on recurrent public expenditure (ALP policy). The government should continue to run surplus budgets over the economic cycle.
Continuing support should be given to improving transport links between regions and their markets, ensuring equitable access to telecommunications services, including the internet, funding programs to restore land and water resources, maintaining and improving social infrastructure.
Further efforts should be made to simplify the social security system, reduce fraud and strengthen compliance and to minimise labour market disincentives for employment.
Australians should be assisted to build financial self-reliance in retirement through increased tax concessions and incentives. Greater scrutiny should be given to the probity of superannuation investment organisations, and superannuation made more user-friendly.
Increasing trade and exports means more jobs and better living standards for all Australians. This is achieved through significant improvements in market access for agriculture, industrials and services. This requires the careful phasing out of export subsidies and other trade distortions in Australia’s key markets of Asia, Europe and America. The Singapore, Thailand and US free trade agreements should be added to with agreements in other major markets where favourable terms that would deliver substantial gains can be obtained.
Support should continue for budget surpluses, reducing the ratio of net debt to the economy and to capping and reducing taxes. The tax system should recognise the economic benefits of strong and functional families and adequately recognise the cost of raising children. It should also provide incentives to save, invest, create jobs and increase living standards.
Support should continue for the veteran community that is generous and caring in its benefits and compensation, and is fair and responsive to their needs, regardless of where they live in Australia. New innovative and flexible programs need to be developed to cater for the different health needs of older and younger veterans. The service of veterans should continue to be honoured publicly, and generations of Australians who have little personal experience of the harrowing nature of war kept informed of the nation’s sacrificial history.