The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) congratulated the newly elected Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and praised him for bringing the Federal Labor Party to renew its focus on the Christian constituency in this election.
Jim Wallace, the managing director of the ACL, said the Christian lobby group looked forward to working with the new government on a range of issues that are important to Christians.
"...We look forward to liaising closely with the new Labor Government on a wide variety of matters ranging from climate change and social well-being to promoting the special status of marriage and the health of families."
Giving his own brief analysis as to why the Coalition government was not elected, Mr. Wallace told Christian Today Australia the previous Federal government had let itself be perceived as lacking in compassion and humility, though it remain firm in morality issues.
Meanwhile, Federal Labor had outmanoeuvred the Howard government by pledging to lift its foreign aid contribution to 0.5 percent of GDP by 2015, which the Coalition government refused to do, while supporting its stance on morality issues such as the introduction of an amendment to ensure a marriage is a union between a man and a woman.
For Mr. Howard, gaining control of the Senate was a double-edge sword where many media commentators believed the introduction of the Work Choice law was part of the reason for the electoral rout he faced. The new industrial relation law implemented by the Coalition government had shifted more workers to individual workplace
agreement, where conditions and awards were stripped away, so flexibility can be introduced in workplace negotiation.
However, the new law had attracted criticisms from not only the unions but also Christians as well who expressed fear it might affect the vulnerable and cut the time they spent with their family, reported a Fairfax publication.
The sizeable swing towards Federal Labor in this Federal Election, Mr. Wallace said, was an indication that Christians had switched their vote from the Coalition since the Labor Party had more policies to offer on social justice issues front while maintaining an almost unison approach in backing nearly all of the Coalition morality policies.