The LNP is hiding whether they have a conscience or not, Labor isn’t

Vote for the person, not the party – but do you know anything about the people you’re preferencing (or rejecting) in your electorate? LNP leader Crisafulli and ALP leader Miles said exactly what you need to remember before every election.

• ChurchAndState.com.au/QldVotes
• ChurchAndState.com.au/Adelaide

There are very important lessons to be taken from a current debate going on between the Queensland LNP leader and the Queensland Labor leader and they’re wanting to have a bit of political gamesmanship about the issue of abortion.

You see, the Katter Australian Party has said that they’re going to introduce, if they get re-elected, in the next parliament, a bill abolishing and overturning, repealing the changes to the laws on abortion. At this point in the state of Queensland, we have some of the world’s worst abortion laws. There is no restriction on abortion.

With the cooperation of just two abortionists, so-called doctors, you can get, if they agree, any abortion for any reason at any stage at all. We’re talking gender selection. We’re talking covering up child abuse.

We’re talking coercion and domestic violence and family abuse. We’re talking the, I don’t feel like it, my career is more important. You know, really not important reasons at all.

Again, look, let me say this really clearly. Nobody is against triage. No woman should be denied actually needed medical therapies to save her life.

But the fact is that at least 95% of abortions are on perfectly healthy women with perfectly healthy babies. So let’s put aside the exceptions that some people try and argue about, because you don’t actually care about life at all. You just want the right to take life and you use those exceptions to argue.

I argue that every human life is sacred at every stage and in every circumstance and worth defending. That should be a uncontroversial statement. And yet, the parliaments around the world and around Australia and in Queensland believe that no, you actually do get the right to choose when a already living, unique human being gets to live or not, if you are that child’s mother, which is perverse and immoral.

“Every human life is sacred at every stage, and in every circumstance, and worth defending.”

And that’s why Katter’s Party has said, look, at the very least, we need to stop the very late term abortions, the third trimester abortions, which are happening. I mean, politicians haven’t even got the conscience to agree that a post-abortion born person gets the same human rights as every other born person. This is despicable.

And you would think this would be easy for a party right of centre to say, but it’s not. So have a look at this press conference, trying to get David Crisafulli, the leader of the LNP to say something basically human and moral about the fundamental human right to life. And what he says, or hasn’t got the courage to say is damning.

[Reporter 1] “David Crisifulli also unable to say how he’ll control LNP MPs who want to overturn abortion laws allowing women the right to choose with Cater Party MPs promising to bring on a vote on the issue.”

 

[Reporter 2] “Yes or no, will there be a conscience vote for LNP MPs on Mr Cater’s bill?”

 

[Crisafulli] “We’re taking forward a plan to the election. It’s not part of our plan.”

 

[Reporter 2] “My question isn’t about your plan, it’s about a conscience vote Mr Crisifulli. Yes or no?”

 

[Crisafulli] It’s not part of our plan.

 

[Reporter 3] “Do other members have a different plan?”

 

[Crisafulli] “We have a plan.”

 

[Miles] “It’s been our long-held practice to have a conscience vote on those matters, but you know what our conscience says.”

There it is. The absolute lesson for everybody to take away on how to prepare for the next election.

You may have missed it, but it harmonises with things I’ve been teaching for a very long time, well over eight years. And so I want to repeat some of the things that they said and draw out the lessons from them so that you can actually listen to it again and hear the truth of it all. For a start, David Crisafulli is incredibly strategic about his position.

I’d like to insult his courage and his convictions and his morals, but the reality is that Queensland voters do not reward courage and conviction and values. They reward very small target campaigns. The policies that the LNP has put out there are more than the policies that got the Anastasia Palaszczuk Labor government into government and defeating the Campbell Newman government.

That means that Anastasia Palaszczuk won an election by saying nothing, by doing nothing, by promising nothing, by having no vision and no plan. Every time a question was put to her about something controversial or debated, she would simply say, we’ll have an inquiry and implement the results of that, or we’ll have a review and implement the results of that, or we’ll form a commission and follow their recommendations. And over and over again, this is how she campaigned in 2015.

Queenslanders do not reward vision, loyalty and integrity in political campaigning at the state level. We’re very conservative at the federal level, but not so much at the state level. So you can’t blame the politicians for supplying what the market demands.

The shame then is on us. It’s on voters. It’s on pulpits for failing to create a demand politically and electorally and socially and culturally for righteousness and justice and liberty in government.

Shame on us for voting for such candidates and parties anyway, without that kind of vision and leadership in government. If you want vision, righteousness, justice and leadership in government, you need to vote for the candidates that are offering it. And here we come to the important question about Stephen Miles’s response.

He said, it is a long-held practice for us to have a conscience vote on these kind of things. Again, David Crisafulli was unable to say such a basic, uncontroversial statement because he is terrified of making abortion an election issue. It’s not an issue he wants to fight on because he knows Queensland state voters will not vote for that kind of government.

That is true because it’s the only message he’s ever received. Shame on the people of God. Shame on right-thinking people.

Shame on human rights activists who have not made it an election issue, who have not demanded their candidates for election be righteous and strong and courageous in the defence of the sanctity of human life. That’s on us, that it should be something that a politician considers a jeopardisation of his political career to defend. The fact is, it was grassroots Christians who ran the first human rights campaign and made over decades such a cultural shift that slavery became an election issue when it was totally, socially acceptable.

And here we are again, treating innocent, unique human lives as disposable private property. It is up to us to make this an election issue because politicians like Crisafulli will never stand on the courage of what is right when they are pursuing a career more than their conscience. That is on us and not on him.

He will have to answer to God for his lack of morality and leadership, but so will we for not leading our candidates that way. And this is what this video is about. How do you change the culture? How do you create a demand for a supply of righteousness in government? That is the incredibly important question and Stephen Miles, the leader of the government and the next opposition leader in Queensland, gave this the answer.

He said these words right after he said it’s a long-held practice for us to have a conscience vote on these issues. He said:

“…But you know what our conscience says.”

But you know what our conscience says.

The last time this issue came up in parliament, it was the Palaszczuk government. It was Stephen Miles in government and there were only two Labor members who did not vote with the party to decriminalise and liberalise the industrialised slaughter of pre-born children. One of them was Joanne Miller who voted against the bill as a Labor member.

Another one, I’m just trying to remember his name right now, but he’s the member for Logan and he abstained from the bill. He wouldn’t support it which is helpful. There were three LNP members who crossed God and voted to liberalise the industrialised sacrifice of children and that is shame on them.

But here’s the important thing. Do you know where your local candidate’s conscience is if they were given a conscience vote? And here’s how you make this an election issue. Ask them.

You just have to ask them. You just have to write, not just to one candidate, not just to the candidate you want to vote for, but you need to honestly, before God, choose to be an undecided voter and let these priority morality and justice issues choose who you will vote for. Never vote for the person, never vote for the party, always vote for the person.

And so you need to know the people. You need to ask the people, the candidates, how they will vote on these justice issues. You need to go to every candidate in your electorate, either in person, via phone or via email, and you need to ask them, if abortion comes up in the next parliament of Queensland, will you vote to defend the sanctity of life? And the way you phrase that question is important.

You’re not asking them what they believe, what they value, or you’re not debating with them and trying to change their mind. You’re asking how they will vote. This will take into account their party disciplines and the conscience votes that they get.

You may want to add on the extra question, especially if you’re talking to an LNP candidate, “If you don’t get a conscience vote, if the leader doesn’t grant a conscience vote when this legislation comes up, will you vote with your conscience or with your party? And what is your conscience on this issue?”

My friends, my fellow Queenslanders, fellow Australians in any electorate, Westerners anywhere in the world, imagine if the candidate who was possibly looking for a bit of courage for their conscience to defend the sanctity of life, imagine if they got thousands of people asking them, “Will you vote for the sanctity of life?”

That is a signal that there are five to ten times more people in that jurisdiction, in that electorate, who are looking for that kind of candidate. They will be able to take that message back to their party and say, we’re going to get punished politically if our careers are the most important thing to us. Our careers are at risk if we don’t do the right thing because this is a popular and important and a major election issue in my electorate.

Forget what the media is saying, they’re not hearing what I’m hearing. I’m being asked over and over and over and over again, will I fight for the sanctity of human life in every circumstance and at every stage? And that is the kind of candidate that deserves your vote. And my friends, if the major party that you prefer to be in government has a candidate with less moral fibre and less conscience strength than a major party candidate you wouldn’t prefer in power, you have to prefer the person that Jesus would vote for and that is the person who is pro-life.

I promise you, Almighty God is pro-life. I promise you, there are very few other issues that come close to the moral urgency of the industrialised child sacrifice system that we have going on in this nation and God save us from the judgment that comes to such a culture and society. Let’s watch this press interview again, it’s very short but we really need to see how they are teaching us, they are teaching us how to create demand for the kind of righteousness and justice and morality in government that we don’t have.

Let’s listen to this again.

[Reporter 1] “David Crisifulli also unable to say how he’ll control LNP MPs who want to overturn abortion laws allowing women the right to choose with Cater Party MPs promising to bring on a vote on the issue.”

 

[Reporter 2] “Yes or no, will there be a conscience vote for LNP MPs on Mr Cater’s bill?”

 

[Crisafulli] “We’re taking forward a plan to the election. It’s not part of our plan.”

 

[Reporter 2] “My question isn’t about your plan, it’s about a conscience vote Mr Crisifulli. Yes or no?”

 

[Crisafulli] It’s not part of our plan.

 

[Reporter 3] “Do other members have a different plan?”

 

[Crisafulli] “We have a plan.”

 

[Miles] “It’s been our long-held practice to have a conscience vote on those matters, but you know what our conscience says.”

So that’s the challenge of this video, ladies and gentlemen, is do you know what the conscience of your local candidates from any party or independent says?

Ask your Family First candidate, ask your Katter Party candidate, ask your Labor Party candidate, ask your Greens Party candidate, ask your LNP Party candidate, ask your independent candidates and any other on the form, “How will you vote if this issue comes up in Parliament?“

Now here on the screen you see a link to Churchandstate.com.au/QldVotes, that’s a series of five videos that will go into depth about this issue and two others, as well as teach you how preferences work and how to maximise the effectiveness and influence of your vote. When Jesus said you are the light of the world and the salt of the earth, he did not mean except in politics, he did not mean except in government, he did not mean except in legislation and the public square. He meant everywhere, without limitation, on a thousand hills and spheres of influence, let your Christian light shine. Don’t you dare hide it selfishly and be a small, hateful Christian, the kind like the Pharisee and the Levite who walked past the man beat up on the side of the road waiting for the good Samaritan who illustrated love of neighbour.

Love your neighbour enough, love abortion vulnerable women enough, love the children being sacrificed at extraordinary rates in this state and around the nation enough to shine your Christian light in the public square and be an effective influence.

Dave Pellowe is a Christian political educator & commentator, founder of The Good Sauce, convener of the annual Australian Church And State Summit and host of Good Sauce’s weekly The Church And State Show. Since 2016 Dave has undertaken the mission of arming Christians to redeem culture through events from Perth to Auckland, videos, podcasts and articles published in multiple journals across Australia and New Zealand. [more]

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