CHRISTIAN LOBBY CONGRATULATES NEW RUDD GOVERNMENT

Australian Christian Lobby
Media Release

25 November 2007

The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) today congratulated Kevin Rudd and his ALP team on their election victory and said they looked forward to working with the new Government on many issues of interest to Christians.

“Labor’s win has given the party a clear mandate to govern. We hope that the injection of new talent the election brings to all sides of politics will be good for the country,” ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said today.

“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 issues of concern to us. We look forward to liaising closely with the new Labor Government on a wide variety of matters ranging from climate change and social wellbeing to promoting the special status of marriage and the health of families.”

Mr Wallace also conveyed the ACL’s best wishes to John Howard and the outgoing Coalition Government and thanked them for their dedicated service to Australia and their consideration for Christian concerns.

He added that it had been encouraging to see the prominence of the Christian vote in the 2007 Federal election.

“We appreciated the attendance of both Mr Rudd and Mr Howard at the Make it Count webcast on August 9 and the responsiveness of both major parties and a number of minor parties to our election questionnaire. It was also good to see so many political candidates turn out to the 52 ‘Meet Your Candidate Forums’ we held throughout Australia prior to the election – forums which attracted more than 4,000 Christians.”

Mr Wallace said that during the election campaign it was also pleasing to see the way Australians appeared to be less moved by offers of tax cuts than the need for community and national infrastructure in areas such as education, health and housing.

“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.”