"This year we have again sent surveys to all contactable candidates in the SA state election 2010," said FamilyVoice SA state officer David d’Lima.  "Our ten questions on family, faith and freedom issues were straightforward and specific – but the two major parties found some of them too hard, and the Greens do not want voters to know anything about their policies in these areas.

"Nominations closed just two weeks before the election, so it has been a massive task to identify and contact all 327 candidates.  We have now begun entering their answers on our website  – assessed via scores as follows: 10 (= yes definitely); 7 (= probably); 5 (= unsure); 3 (= unlikely); 2 (= definitely not); 1 (= no comment).  A score of zero indicates a refusal to acknowledge the survey in any way," David d’Lima said. 

"The highest total score is 100, indicating full agreement with all ten questions – such as: ‘Would you support a bill for poker machines to be phased out of hotels and clubs by 2015?’ or ‘Would you vote for enforceable bans on prostitution-related advertising and recruitment to the prostitution trade?’

"Robert Brokenshire and his Family First party said Yes definitely for all questions," David d’Lima said.

"However SA Labor headquarters found the questions too hard.  They told us to find the answers ourselves by checking out the party platform on their website.  We did our best – and Labor scored 40 out of a possible 100.

"SA Liberal headquarters personally replied to our survey, but either don’t have a policy or don’t want to have a policy on most of the questions we asked.  We therefore scored them 5 for most questions.  The Liberal total was 52. 

"However Liberal and Labor candidates are beginning to send personal replies.  Some are scoring better than their party response on conscience issues such as poker machines, prostitution, abortion and euthanasia.  Our survey can help voters who want more information on these issues, which are often not canvassed in the mainstream media," David d’Lima said. 

For more survey details, see http://www.fava.org.au/election-surveys/south-australia

FamilyVoice Australia (previously known as Festival of Light Australia) began in 1972 and has grown to become a national organisation with members in all states. FamilyVoice Australia publishes carefully researched information on current issues affecting the family and the community.  National Office: Family Voice Australia 4th Floor, 68 Grenfell Street South Australia Ph: 1300 365 965 Fax: (08) 8223 5850 Email: office@fava.org.au Website: www.fava.org.au