As the election campaign enters its final week, school funding and chaplaincies are among the issues confronting Christian voters.
Weekend newspapers pointed to Western Sydney as an election battleground, while regional areas and the Queensland vote were also seen to be decisive.
Both Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott have been straining to portray themselves as battlers, Ms Gillard saying “I’m a westie” and Megan Abbott saying she and her husband once struggled from week to week to bring up their family.
Ms Gillard also revealed to reporters that churches have asked to pray for her.
“The Christian churches would come to me and say, ‘We’re going to pray for you, what would you like us to pray for?’ And I’ve said: ‘fortitude’,” she told Australian Associated Press.
The polls are still back and forth, although one released on Sunday predicted a coalition win.
Several issues are of special interest to Christians, including funding of independent and Church schools, and whether the Chaplaincy program in public schools will continue, or even be expanded.
While the Leader’s debate organised by the Australian Christian Lobby showed the major parties substantially in agreement on those issues, the Greens are on the back foot on both counts.
A report in the Sunday Age reported Senator Bob Brown as backing away from Greens policy to slash private school funding, but senior figures in the party say the policy still stands.
The apparent disagreement comes on top of the Greens pledge to modify the school chaplaincy program to employ ‘counsellors’ not chaplains.
The Greens have already clashed with the ACL over their refusal to answer 18 of the 24 party survey questions in the Lobby’s voter information guide.
The Australian Christian Channel will screen ACL’s election special on Thursday night at 6.30 pm, featuring Tony Abbott’s speech at the leader’s debate and a special interview with Julia Gillard.
sydneyanglicans.net will have the final of Karin Sowada’s Campaign Diary features on Tuesday, as well as breaking election news throughout the final week.
