Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand tonight to speak about the first Australian Christian Heritage Forum, held in Parliament House, Canberra on Sunday, 6 August, and Monday, 7 August, this year. Nearly 400 Christian leaders, pastors, teachers, historians and others spent the two days listening to a series of plenary sessions and seminar addresses on the Christian contribution to the development of Australia, its culture, its professions and its institutions. It was about the importance of Australia’s Christian heritage to our past and its relevance to our future. I had the honour of being one of the parliamentary hosts, and I will refer to that again shortly. I was invited to make some opening remarks and to provide the forum summary on the Monday evening. I would like to share some of those remarks and then pay tribute to the organisers of the forum—in particular, Professor Stuart Piggin and Graham McDonald and his team.

It was at an Easter Friday church service last year that I received confirmation of a vision. The vision involved the Australian Christian community being more proactive in discussing and promoting the benefits and contribution to our community of upholding the values of Jesus Christ—a vision of people boldly saying the Christian community has contributed and is contributing positively to our nation, and of me playing my part in making this happen in the federal parliamentary arena.

In my opening remarks to the forum, I also said that it was stimulated in part by the consistent attack on and denigration of Australia’s Christian heritage, whether it be with regard to the institution of marriage, the push for a valueless education system or the removal of Christmas carols and the nativity scene from schools and public places. It seems that, at every juncture, the Christian community and its leaders are on the defence. Of course, the grassroots response in defence of marriage being between a man and woman received overwhelming community support and, ultimately, bipartisan parliamentary support—an excellent result.

Strategically, it is important—indeed, vital—to defend our core values and beliefs when they are threatened, but it is difficult to advance the cause and progress without a more proactive, forward-looking approach—hence the forum and the espousing of the belief that Australia’s Christian heritage has helped shape the character of this nation in a most positive way. Yes, it is true that the Australian Church, the institution of the Church and the people within it, have made mistakes, including in recent times child sex abuse matters. But these acts of indecency and other injustices should not diminish the overwhelmingly positive contributions to the lives of our fellow Australians, most notably in the areas of social welfare and community service, health and education. For example, the brilliant Australian spirit of volunteerism is underpinned by the value of caring for one another, along with compassion and giving and the biblical principle of ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’. The Anzac spirit, I believe, espouses the values of mateship, bravery and sacrifice—all values espoused by Jesus.

Professor Stuart Piggin is an associate professor and director of the Centre for the History of Christian Thought and Experience at Macquarie University. Graham McDonald, the forum coordinator, is a team leader for Children of the World, a children’s ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. Graham has been involved in children’s ministry for over 20 years here in Australia and overseas, and was very much at the forefront of getting the forum off the ground. Rod West is the forum treasurer. Rod was assistant coordinator and conference liaison for the International Christian Dance Fellowship. John Howell is the executive chairman of Transforming Leadership Inc., which is involved in renewing leaders, empowering learning and transforming people’s lives in their communities. John Luttrell is a Marist brother from the Marist community in Randwick, Sydney. Sharon West has over 14 years experience as part of the Living Word Creative Ministry team travelling around Australia and internationally sharing and teaching creative programs in churches and schools. And there is Daniel Willis, who is the CEO of the Bible Society New South Wales. Daniel has worked in Bible and parish ministry for over 23 years. Each of these people, with a horde of volunteers to back them up, supported the organisation of this forum and made it a success.

In my opening remarks, I said that I stood in solidarity with colleague parliamentary hosts, and I would like to name each of them and thank them for their support and contribution. There was Senator Helen Polley, from Tasmania; Senator Grant Chapman; Senator Steve Fielding; Senator Barnaby Joyce; the Hon. John Anderson; Mr Kevin Rudd; Mr John Murphy; the Hon. Danna Vale; the Hon. Bruce Baird; Mr Anthony Byrne; Mr Harry Quick; and the Hon. Alan Cadman. Each played their part in advance of and during the forum. I said that I stood in solidarity with them to declare that I was proud of Australia’s Christian heritage; that the values and views of Jesus, his faith and belief have positively contributed to the character of our nation and offered hope to the lives of our people; and that, indeed, they remain as relevant today and to our future as they have been in the history of our great nation, Australia.

In terms of the program, we had a tremendous range and a high calibre of speakers. During the forum, we heard from our master of ceremonies, Mal Garvin; the Powerhouse Museum’s Brad Baker; Professor Geoffrey Bolton; Tim Costello; Tony Byrne; James Haire; Elizabeth Ward; historian Graeme Davison; Barnaby Joyce; Anne Robinson; Stephen Judd; and Helen McCabe. We heard from Bernadette Quinn, and I must say it was a most refreshing and profound contribution from her on behalf of younger Australians. There was Marina Prior, a tremendous singer and a great Australian; Ken Duncan; Professor Robert Linder, who is a US professor and who flew from the US to be in Australia to present at our forum; Bronwyn Bishop; and Margaret Reeson, historian. Sing Australia provided music for us at our forum. Wayne Swan chaired the afternoon session with Roger Corbett of Woolworths. We had Ian Harper, the economist. And we had Harry Quick chairing the session with Keith Mason and Kevin Rudd. Geraldine Doogue appeared towards the afternoon session with Shayne Blackman and the Hon. John Anderson, and I summed up the forum. It was a tremendous couple of days and it was very much a proud moment to have been part of such a great event.

Professor Stuart Piggin summarised some of the outcomes when he said:

Representatives of many denominations were present with none dominating. Denominationalism was not an issue. Christianity needs to say goodbye to its sectarian past if it is to maximise its contribution to any society. At the Forum, unity was more easily attained than delegates could have envisaged by the simple decision to focus on Jesus rather than the church. Jesus is the one thing all Christians have in common, and indeed, as numerous stories about the role of Jesus in Australian history reveals, Jesus is not the preserve of Christians, but has been as constantly revered by most Australians as the churches have been criticised.

Clergy were outnumbered twenty to one by the laity, and only three clergymen had any role in the program, and none of them was a minister of a congregation. This was not about Church, theology and doctrine. This was about the world of work, the marketplace of ideas, the role of the human family, and the civic responsibilities of citizens to the polis. Delegates as well as speakers were drawn from a wide range of professions: parliamentarians, academics, lawyers, teachers, social researchers, business men and women, architects, and entertainers. Among those not well represented were medical doctors, sportspeople or the young. ‘Next time,’ was the refrain of the organisers.

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Indigenous leaders were well represented at the Forum, their stories commending interest and respect on the Forum website ...

That website is: australianchristianheritageforum.com.au.

I will conclude by saying that one of the related outcomes is the tremendous contribution in social welfare. Nearly three-quarters of the social welfare services provided in Australia are provided by Christian based and faith based organisations. That is a tremendous contribution to the Australian way of life. The success of the forum is a great tribute to the organisers, and I believe it is a wonderful foundation for the future. (Time expired)