The Secular Party of Australia condemns Gillard for her outrageous claim that she accepts Australia’s cultural and religious heritage.  She ignores the fact that 42% of residents in Melbourne Ports are not Christian and she uses religion as an excuse to deny equality for all Australians.

Gillard stated in an interview that she accepts the Christian reason for marriage and ignores the fact that the Marriage Act was only changed in 2004 to specify marriage between one man and one woman.  Her use of the term ‘Christian heritage’ is disrespectful and deeply offensive to married people of no faith and of other religions.

Despite her personal held beliefs about marriage, she should not allow her decision to be based on religious grounds to the detriment of a section of the community.  Government should be about protecting minorities against the unjustifiable will of the majority.

The Secular Party of Australia’s policy is equality for all.  The removal of religion from government decision making is now paramount.  No one religion should be used to lord it over the rest of the population.

Media Release – Gillard Stands Condemned (20 Aug 10)

The Australian Education Union believes that the funding arrangement delivers one third of the funding to government schools that teach two thirds of all children.

The Secular Party of Australia understands the importance of public education, and to provide effective outcomes our system needs to be adequately and properly funded.  It’s time to move away from funding private schools so directly and instead move to a system of rebates directly to families that choose a private education.  The rebate would be based on the cost of educating students in the public sector.

The Greens are keen to placate the Catholic Schools, backing away from their policy to reduce private school funding ² and the Catholic Church again shows why we need to separate church and state when it’s director of Catholic Education says that a cut in funding would mean that Catholic Schools would loose the ability to be “catholic”³

Only the Secular Party of Australia has a fair system of private education funding.  We fully accept that some people may choose faith based education over secular education, but only the Secular Party would fund students and not schools, by providing rebates to directly to parents and not to the school, allowing an equitable funding to all.  The religious and independent schools would then need to fund their own school through fees and fund raising, not government handouts.

Get along and have a read.

The Australian Jewish News is a very small newspaper that has virtually no readership outside the Jewish community.  I’ve tried to get myself into the paper as they have been heavily promoting the election for Liberal and Labor, and in the last edition included a bit on the Greens (although the editorial was very anti-green).  They have no problems in accepting advertising from the major parties, no doubt this has been a major boost to their bottom line.

I spoke on the phone to Naomi Levin, Deputy Editor (News) who had no hesistation telling me that the AJN was a religious paper and that they wouldn’t be giving me or the Secular Party any coverage.

Strikes me as a bit strange.  I’m aware that there are a number of Jewish people who actually think the separation of church and state is a really good idea.  I’m aware of a number of secular Jews who might have liked to find out more about who else is standing in their local electorates.

The Jewish News has shown it’s bias, has clearly demonstrated that they alone are the guardians on who knows what in the Jewish community, they have deliberately chosen to censor anyone who they think may offend some of their readers.  Levin told me point blank that those secular Jews should just go read this information somewhere else.

This is not a newspaper that wants to report the news, this is a newspaper that wants to direct people to think their way and only their way.

Elections are important times for our democracy in Australia.  This censorship by the AJN is unwarranted, treats their readership like children who are unable to make up their own minds, displays a bias towards those with the money and deliberately sets out to stifle any other information that some of their readership may find useful.

Just for the record, I’ve been reading the Jewish News for two years.  They consistently run a range of stories that are not ‘religious’ in content and that is amongst some of the content that really gets up people’s noses at times.

So many women in our society are still treated as second-class citizens, whether it’s Tony Abbott telling us that a woman’s virginity is a gift, a church organisation discriminating against pregnant single women, or young girls being told they have to find a man within their faith.  Discrimination abounds.

The Secular Party of Australia has a clear policy on personal freedoms. We recognise that faith-based morality frequently seeks to impose it’s religious views on the entire population, especially when it comes to women.

Faith-based philosophies are likely to try to restrict a woman’s access to proper medical treatment for unwanted pregnancy, they are more likely to dictate the terms of marriage and some faiths have specific laws regarding what clothes are unacceptable to wear.

The Secular Party upholds that all men and women are equal and that equality is a fundamental human right.  We will work toward a secular Australia where all citizens are treated equally.

I call on the current Melbourne Ports representative Michael Danby and Liberal candidate Kevin Ekendahl to join me in giving unqualified support to equal rights for all women, regardless of their religious affiliation or personal circumstances.

It’s not too much to ask, is it?

A vote for me will send a clear message that you value equal rights in a fair and secular Australia.