The Australian Christian Lobby has welcomed the election of the new Labor government in NSW saying it is hopeful that the concerns of people of faith will be listened to and respected by Premier-Elect Chris Minns.
Labor has ended 12 years in opposition and is likely to secure majority government in NSW as counting continues after the 25 March election.
Labor has failed however to secure a majority in the NSW Legislative Council or upper house where the Greens have won at least two seats and One Nation one seat. Labor has won at least eight seats and the Coalition six seats of the 21 seats up for election in the upper house.
The Australian Christian Lobby’s (ACL) Deputy Director, Dan Flynn said he is particularly pleased to see Labor on track for a majority in the lower house, without having to rely on independents who often have an agenda hostile to traditional Christian values.
But he remains concerned over the likely make-up of the upper house and has cautioned Labor over entering deals with the Greens—a party which has been traditionally hostile to faith-based values.
Mr Flynn said Christian groups have welcomed Labor’s commitment to establish a faith affairs council which would be made up of representatives appointed by the various faiths and which would be able to meet and present their concerns directly to the new government.
“It’s a great initiative and it reflects very well on Premier Minns who is a man very committed to his Catholic faith and so to have an organised mechanism in place, for faith leaders to be able to raise their needs and concerns directly with government, is a very positive step in the right direction,” he said.
Mr Minns has confirmed that the Labor MP for Rockdale, Steve Kamper, will be the government’s point of contact for faith communities on the new faith affairs council.
A government spokesman has confirmed that current representatives on the religious communities advisory council established by the outgoing Coalition government would continue on the faith affairs council, if their faith community supported their appointment.
Labor has also committed to reviewing the current Anti-Discrimination Act within its first 100 days in government to include the need to address discrimination on the basis of religion.
The Australian Christian Lobby’s Dan Flynn believes caution is needed to ensure that public preaching is allowed for under the legislation.
He also believes there is an urgent need for the incoming government to introduce anti-discrimination laws, allowing greater protection for faith-based organisations in their workplace decisions.
“NSW and South Australia are the only states without religious discrimination legislation and while the federal government has indicated it is likely to provide us with protection to allow faith-based organisations to give preference in recruitment practices to people from the same faith, these protections don’t extend to staff members who may then openly contravene faith-based values after they have been recruited,” Mr Flynn explained.
“A staff member in a Catholic school could become a vocal advocate for LGBTI rights and the school would not be able to ask that staff member to leave, because the likely protections under federal law would only cover recruitment.
“Hopefully this is an issue we can raise through the new faith affairs council to ensure these protections can be expanded under NSW Anti-Discrimination Laws.”
The Council for Catholic School Parents (CCSP) has welcomed the new Labor government’s commitment to spending $60 million on new and expanded pre-schools, co-located at non-government schools, saying this will help many families with the convenience of having children educated on the one site.
During the election campaign, the Coalition promised an extra $50 million in classroom upgrades and building projects for non-government schools and CCSP Chairman, Wayne Davie has called on the new government to match that commitment.
“The schools we’re most concerned about are those affected by the NSW floods, since some of them have essentially been wiped out and haven’t been able to get any commitment from insurance companies to cover insurance for those schools,” Mr Davie said.
“Affected dioceses simply don’t have the capital funding to be able to go and buy new land and build new schools and that’s where the NSW Government needs to step in and provide that support.”
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