Coming out of the October 9 federal elections, it seems that Family First candidate Steven Fielding may have the balance of power in the Senate, after receiving just 42,560 votes, because most parties, including Labor and the Democrats, preferenced his party before the Greens in Victoria. This may make it much easier for the Coalition government to get legislation adopted that has previously been blocked in the Senate, such as more draconian "anti-terror" laws. Family First is "committed to winning the war on terror", its policy statement on the Iraq war declares.
While a huge proportion of the Family First party's membership come from the Assemblies of God Church (which is explicitly anti-abortion, anti-homosexual, believes sexual relations should only exist inside marriage, and discourages divorce, even when abuse has occurred; see <http://www.ag.org>), Family First insists it is not formally a Christian party. South Australian state MP Andrew Evans explained that explicitly Christian parties "cut off a whole heap of people who might like some of their values but who are not Christian".
The mantra of Family First is that a "healthy and stable family life is the key to the prosperity of our communities and society." A family for them involves a heterosexual relationship, and the family will "flourish" when couples strive for "sexual fidelity".
Family First aims to prevent "relationship breakdown" by providing "support and counselling for relationships and marriages under pressure".
However, too many women stay in abusive relationships because of the idea that breaking up with a partner would be a public expression of their supposed failure to be a "good" wife. The difficulties of getting a job after being a long-term housewife, and the belief that children need to be raised by two parents of the opposite gender, leads many women to stay in abusive relationships.
While claiming it seeks to ease the pressures of present-day economic conditions on "families" — ignoring the fact that these pressures are the result of multi-millionaire business-owning families bearing down on the wages, working conditions and social services of working-class families — Family First is clearly maximising business profits in its economic orientation, declaring that it "will keep at the forefront of its approach ... economic growth, employment growth and business success".
Family First clearly does not believe that women in general, and working-class women, are oppressed, since its raft of policies does not contain even one addressing the status of women in society.
Family First is also concerned with increasing Australia's population. While they support "a carefully managed and compassionate response to applications of refugees and migrants", they believe encouraging Australian women to stay at home and breed is the most effective way to encourage population growth. "The governments of our nation should legislate so that families are encouraged to raise more children by rewarding mothers who stay at home with tax breaks and baby bonuses", a Family First media release stated.
Apparently, too many women are naively having abortions. Andrew Evans argues that if women stopped having abortions, South Australia would be half way to reaching its goal of an increase in population of half a million people by 2050. He suggested following the example of some centres in the US, "such as a centre called A Woman's Concern in Massachusetts, [which] provide[s] extensive support, counselling and assistance, as well as accessing the use of technology such as ultrasound to allow the expectant mother to view her baby. The result is that many women make a choice not to proceed with abortion."
Evans referred to a survey which found that "of the abortion-minded women who contact the centre to have an abortion, a total of 74% do not abort". It is a patronising idea that women have abortions simply because they don't know what is involved and what it is they are aborting.
While most of its formal policy statements consist of nothing more than liberal banalities about "equity", "justice", "accessibility" for all, Family First is clearly a party of and for homophobes. While giving its preferences to the Liberals in most seats, it made an exception for the Liberal candidate for Brisbane, Ingrid Tall, because she is a lesbian.
John Lewis, the Family First Senate candidate for Queensland, did not hide the fact that it was anti-homosexual bigotry that motivated its decision not to direct its preferences to Tall. "People have a right of choice of lifestyle, however we are not going to support these people because we don't agree with that lifestyle", Lewis said on October 5. His comments came a day after a Family First volunteer in Brisbane answered "yes" when asked whether the party supported lesbians being burnt to death.
Tamara Pearson
From Green Left Weekly, October 20, 2004.
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