This upcoming election in Australia has got me thinking about who’s governing our country more than ever before. It’s only the last couple of elections (federal and state) that I’ve bothered to put numbers in all the boxes rather than do the lazy one number at the top and not even know where the preference votes were going. To do this, however, I want to be more informed about where I’ll be placing certain parties in my list.
After reading an entry at Alert but not alarmed, it reminded me I had been meaning to find out more about the Family First party which I hadn’t heard much about before but sounded a bit too good to be true. I started looking at their website and then opened up the long policy document. To me, the Family First name sounds good but what is their definition of family? Read on..
Some quotes from the Family First policy (PDF document) with my thoughts after each quote.
‘Family grows out of heterosexual relationships between men and women.’
This is discounting quite a bit of the population who are not heterosexual
‘Principle 4
The interests of children are best served by growing up in a happy,
understanding, safe home created by a loving mother and father supported by the extended intergenerational family and a supportive social, legal and economic foundation.’
With families being smaller, the divorce rate being higher this seems quite shortsighted. Many extended family members don’t live near each other so children having this constant support isn’t always viable.
‘Principle 6
Marriage between a man and a women is the surest approach to the
establishment of stable family life and is therefore worthy of positive support and promotion by government and society’
Again, doesn’t take into account the divorce rate and the fact that many children are looked after by sole parents.
‘Family First believes that the ratio of suiciding fathers as against mothers is up 18:1 a situation that has come about as a direct result of the frustration, anger and despair that fathers are experiencing in relation to custody arrangements.’
There was no evidence in this policy document to back this up. Have there been studies undertaken to confirm this? I speculate it’s more a case of men find it more difficult than women to seek help and talk to others about their problems.
‘Family First is committed to winning the war against terror. Family First
acknowledges the need for careful deployment of our armed forces, in cooperation with allies and the international community.’
Just plain disagree with this. Saw an excellent film (compilation of short films) called ‘Time to Go John’. Sounds like Family First is in agreement with the Liberal Party regarding the war in Iraq despite the fact that the Australian sentiment was mostly otherwise.
Well this has decided where my vote won’t be going. Family First, you are down towards the bottom of my list.
