C.T AUS: What has been a highlight for you in the Australian Christian Lobby this year?
J.W: The highlight has been the fact that we have been able to confirm the existence of the Christian constituency in a major election and I think it is put beyond challenge in the future. The truth is Christians should have an influence in public policy.
I suppose the second thing would be that we have been able to go through a transition of government from conservative to Labor or, alternatively Coalition to Labor, and still from a lobbyist's point of view be able to maintain our contact and influence into the new government as well as into the Coalition. So, for us, this is proof of the concept of the lobbying. We always wanted to bring Christian influence into the parliament, regardless of which side of politics is in power.
C.T AUS: The staging of the 'Make-It-Count' election event was described as a feat by many Christian commentators and I was wondering how did you come up with the idea?
J.W: We came up with the idea because we wanted to prove the existence of the Christian vote. We realised that after the last election there was a perception that the Christian vote exists but it was just a perception where no one was looking for it. We knew that this time people would be looking for it and those who didn't want to see Christian influence into public policy would be trying to disprove it. So, we wanted to make sure we could do that very early on and the most obvious way of doing that was to involve both John Howard and Kevin Rudd because they saw the proof that a Christian constituency actually exists.
Also, we were trying to encourage people to turn up in their churches. This idea belonged to David Yates, who works for the ACL, so the event could be webcast out to the churches and so we were able to count them. This means the constituency was there and that they were really committed was beyond dispute.
C.T AUS: Do you believe the lobby group can still play an active role in the political process given no conservative party is in government at both the Federal and State level?
J.W: Absolutely, because we know there are good people on both sides of parliament. There is no doubt we do not have the depth of evangelicals on the side of Labor when compared to the Coalition but there are still good people there.
We also have the proof of the Christian constituency so we know both political parties will be very keen to engage them to take their view into account as both of them look at formulating their policies. If that was the case, then we know the lobby group will continue to have an influence into parliament and thus public policy as well.
C.T AUS: What is ACL's plan for next year?
J.W: The plan for the ACL is primarily to get ready for the 2010 election and to make sure we increase the impact of the Christian voice in the election. Though great things were achieved this time, we believe if we can activate the whole of this constituency there will be an amazing effect for good and for an even greater Christian voice that is brought into the election.
The second thing next year is of course we have the Australian Capital Territory election and we know the ACT government under John Stanhope has been the promoter of ungodly legislation, in particular to do with furthering the homosexual agenda such as homosexual adoption, which over 90 of ACT residents who responded to the consultation process rejected.
Yet, Mr Stanhope brought it in and there has been a push for civil union/partnership despite his own admission that public opinion is against him by as much as 10 to 1. We have someone here who is really determined to oppose Christian values so this election for the ACT is very important.
C.T AUS: Do you see the ACL evolving into a political party in the future?
J.W: No, we don't want to see the ACL become party-partisan and we don't want to become a party. We believe very strongly that Christians should be in mainstream parties and in Christian parties such as CDP and those that fulfil a Christian purpose such as Family First. However, we believe there is a very important space in the political domain for a lobby group which is aiming to bring Christian influence into parliament all the time so as to maintain a consistency of influence to public policy.
C.T AUS: Do you have a Christmas message which you wish to send to the Australian people?
J.W: At this stage where we see the very concept of marriage and the model of it being challenged by Mr. Stanhope and his civil partnerships legislation, we have to remember that Christmas was about a family, a very particular family. It was a family of Mary and Joseph and it wasn't Mary and Martha or Joseph and John. They had a very special baby, Jesus, and he was born into that family to receive the love of a mother and father and we should be coming together at Christmas remembering the fact that God put His son into a family and it was proof of the importance of family to all of us and indeed to the community.