The inaugural award goes to Tony Abbott, recently elected by a margin of one party vote to the leadership of the federal opposition.
The next prime minister should the people of Australia collectively lose their mind (stranger things have happened...)
To quote Michael Peruso, chief executive of Sacred Heart Mission:
" I was in Canberra last week and had the opportunity to ask Opposition Leader Tony Abbott whether a government under his direction would continue with the Rudd government's goal of halving homelessness by 2020. His answer was no. In justifying his stance, Abbott quoted from the Gospel of Matthew: ''The poor will always be with us,'' he said..."
Tony...have been asleep all your life?
Spouting quotes from the Bible as social policy is, REALLY, the wrong thing to do here.
Spouting quotes from the Bible as a social policy is the wrong thing to do in Australia?
ReplyDeleteBoy, it's sure the right thing to do right here in the good ol' U.S. of A, and look how much good it's doing us! Why, we're God's favorite country. yes siree.
It is the wrong thing to do on many levels, not least of them is that a majority will usually not vote for you.
ReplyDeleteDitto Green Eagle's comment. I dream of an America where wearing one's religion on one's sleeve would be a hindrance to attaining public office.
ReplyDeleteThe power of religion in US politics is quite alarming, if I may say so (I think you agree anyway).
ReplyDeletePublic trepidation about a leader's religious views doesn't stop religion being an influence however. Tony Blair downplayed his religious views because he feared they would alienate the public.
Our current prime minister is a committed and vocal Christian.
He has said however: "Christian perspective on contemporary policy debates may not prevail. It must nonetheless be argued. And once heard, it must be weighed, together with other arguments from different philosophical traditions, in a fully contestable secular polity".
This was said though in defense of religion in public life, rather than in advancement of secularism.