Reflections on the Victorian Election
Thank you to all those who supported repealsection8 [1]. You had a hand – maybe only very small – in throwing out an ethically irresponsible ruling party, a party that:
- Permitted abortion by any method, at any gestation, without anaesthesia for the unborn child, for any reason – thus also permitting unrestricted eugenic selection of all that may be considered imperfect or undesirable
- Compelled doctors with a conscientious objection to any of the above to participate in the process and refer to a doctor who they know has no such objection
- Allowed MPs to have a conscience vote in the overruling of doctor’s conscience
- Ignored its own charter of rights in passing the overruling of doctor’s conscience
- Also ignored international covenants to which Australia is a signatory in the overruling of doctor’s conscience – covenants that were established to ensure that such abuses would never happen again after the lessons of Nazi Germany
- Failed to adequately inform the people of Victoria of the significance of what it was doing and then had done – the voices of protest were there but they were ignored in the determination to ram the legislation through
How could the issues have been made more clear? I don’t know. There were excellent campaigns by right-to-life groups and yet still the overall protest vote was way lower than it should have been. Do the people of faith in Victoria still not know? Are they in denial (this could not possibly be true)? Do they say this is not my responsibility and deny they had to vote for good or evil?
Possibly many good MPs who fought against these things suffered “battle fatigue” eventually giving up against the odds and fed up with fighting it.
The issue of battle fatigue is real. Our politicians and we, the Australian public, will be facing this again with euthanasia and physician assisted suicide – and also the re-definition of and abandonment of marriage and family as the bedrock of society. It becomes so easy when such moves are repeated year after year to just give in and agree so the clamouring voices will stop. We desperately need leaders who will say “enough” and put a block on repeated attempts at least for the life of that government’s term of office.
So pray for our leaders that they will be strong in the face of such a barrage.
And we still need to repeal Section 8.
Let us not grow weary in our resistance – we have had a win and can encourage each other in this. Besides, the Christ-child in the manger, the Creator and ruler of the universe, is and will be the One who puts all things right. This is a time for good tidings and best wishes and I wish you all a happy and healthy Christmas.
Lachlan Dunjey. 8 Dec 2010.