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This article is about the Australian political party. For the New Hampshire health charity, please see Families First

The Family First Party (FFP/F1) is a Christian political party in Australia, that espouses Christian socially conservative family values.

The party was founded in South Australia in time to contest the 2002 state elections, when former Assemblies of God pastor Dr Andrew Evans became its first MLC, winning a seat in the South Australian Legislative Council. A second MLC, pharmaceutical executive Dennis Hood, was elected at the 2006 South Australian election.

In the October 2004 federal election it contested seats all over Australia, generally exchanging preferences with Liberal candidates (but in some seats exchanging preferences with the Australian Labor Party). At that election the party was successful in electing their first and at present only federal politician Steve Fielding, Senator for Victoria.

Election Results

2002 South Australian Election

The first election Family First contested was the 2002 South Australian Election. Dr Andrew Evans received a primary vote of 4.02% which, with preferences from other parties, was sufficient to get him elected to one of the 11 seats available in the South Australian Legislative Council.

2004 Federal Election

The party agreed to share House of Representatives preferences with the Liberal-National Coalition at the 2004 election (with some exceptions discussed below).

Family First did better than expected at the election, picking up 1.76 percent of the vote nationally, and outpolling the Australian Democrats by more than 40,000 votes. This resulted in an unexpected victory in Victoria, where candidate Steve Fielding was elected on preferences to the Federal Senate, despite receiving significantly fewer primary votes (56,376 or 1.88% Group Totals) than The Greens' David Risstrom (263,551 or 8.80% Group Totals).

The party also came close to picking up other Senate seats in Tasmania (largely due to surplus Liberal votes, because Liberal polled over three quotas but only stood three candidates) and in South Australia where the then party leader Andrea Mason narrowly missed out (polling 3.98% and receiving Liberal preferences). Their preferences also assisted the performance of the governing Liberal Party in several House of Representatives seats, such as in the highly marginal South Australian seat of Makin.

State Elections since 2004

In the 2005 Western Australian Election, Family First polled just over 2% in the Legislative Council (although only contesting 5 of 6 seats). Interestingly, in 2005, the Liberal member for Ningaloo, Rod Sweetman, and Alan Cadby (who was defeated in Liberal preselection for a further term) offered to serve out their parliamentary terms as a Family First members - an offer which was rejected by Family First due to their both supporting a bill for decriminalisation of abortion in 1998.

In the 2006 South Australian election, Family First's vote increased to 4.98% in the Legislative Council, and a second Member of the Legislative Council was elected - former pharmaceutical executive Dennis Hood. In several rural and outer metropolitan seats, Family First's vote approached 10% - and in the seat of Kavel, Tom Playford achieved a vote of 15.7%. In the Legislative Council, Family First shares the balance of power with the other minor parties and independents.

The 2006 Queensland State Election saw Family First receive a primary vote of 7% in contested seats (many seats were not contested), with a high of 14.5% and several other seats posting results of 10% . Queensland does not have an Upper House, and these results were insufficient for any candidates to be elected.

The 2006 Victorian State Election saw Family First's vote increase from 1.9% to 4.27% of first preferences , however no candidates were elected.

Internal structure

Family First is registered as a limited liability company with day to day party decisions being made by the board of directors rather than the party as a whole. A National Conference occurs at least once every two years for policy formulation and to endorse candidates. Federal and State branches have Annual General Meetings, which are open to all members.

Policies

A complete list of Family First's declared policies may be found on their website.

Asylum seekers

Family First contends that it has a 'compassionate' stance towards asylum seekers, supporting fast on-shore processing. In what would have been a deciding vote, Federal leader Steve Fielding opposed the Liberal Government to ensure that asylum seekers to Australia are not processed in overseas detention facilities. This resulted in the government not proceeding with the proposed legislation

Drugs

Family First oppose harm reduction as a primary strategy for combating drug abuse, instead favouring prevention, zero tolerance, rehabilitation, and avoidance.

Environment

Family First's environment and resources policy states that "Family First is committed to the environment as essential to ensuring the health and happiness of future generations of families".

In the South Australian parliament, Family First MPs have taken outspoken positions on environmental topics such as desalination schemes and the Murray-Darling Basin. Family First MPs also successfully lobbied the government to include an interim 2020 greenhouse reduction target in Climate Change legislation.

In the 2006 Victorian election, Family First advocated several positions that that the Australian Conservation Foundation viewed as non-environmental. These positions included the construction of new dams to increase water supplies , arguing for a reduction in fuel taxes , arguing against cuts to existing logging agreements, and specifically supporting continued access to public lands for "recreational fishing, shooting and hunting" .

Euthanasia

Family First is opposed to euthanasia, holding the view that "the duty of health carers is to promote health, relieve suffering and safeguard life". Instead, they favour palliative care.

Gay Rights

Family First opposes gay adoptions, IVF treatment for gay couples, and does not acknowledge gay civil unions (currently, same-sex marriage is not legally recognized in Australia), stating their affirmation of marriage as "a union of a man and a woman".

Family First's published policies prominently affirm the value of stable, committed, heterosexual relationships. They also seek to support families going through separation and/or divorce, and sole parents (see "The Family"). Their website and policies contain few references to homosexuality . Most of these references are found in media articles or references to other parties' policies .

Their only official gay rights-related policy is that "all co-dependents should not be discriminated against – whether Homosexual or not". A practical outworking of this view is Dr Andrew Evans's call for caution and broader consideration in same-sex superannuation changes. He mentions "two women who are in a relationship of domestic co-dependence", and asks "By failing to include domestic co-dependents, does this bill perpetuate discrimination rather than remove it?".

In South Australia, Family First claim to have successfully lobbied the government to include a number of changes into proposed gay-rights legislation. The changes included a clear differentiation between marriage and gay and de-facto relationships, and the removal of the sexual relations test as a pre-requisite before rights could accrue (which has resulted in non-sexual 'domestic co-dependent' relationships now being recognised in South Australia on the same level as conjugal gay relationships). Despite these claimed concessions, Family First MPs voted against the legislation in the state parliament, with the legislation passing by 17 to 4 votes in the state's upper house.

The party has expressed unfavourable views on homosexuality elsewhere. An example of this is their campaign to allow Christian schools to discriminate against job applicants based on religion and sexuality. Andrea Mason, then the Party Leader, spoke against anti-discrimination efforts by the Greens and Democrats: "The Greens and Democrats policies aim to remove discrimination against what they term as LGBTI people... they want to see that transvestites and others have the right to teach our children" (Sydney Morning Herald, October 8 2004).

Further, some saw a bias against openly homosexual candidates in Family First preferencing in the 2004 election. While Family First most frequently directed their preferences to the Coalition ahead of Labor in the 2004 election, they reversed this in the seats of Brisbane and Leichhardt. The candidate for Brisbane, Ingrid Tall, is a lesbian and the candidate for Leichhardt, Warren Entsch, supports gay marriage. While no reason was given publicly for preferencing against the candidates, several newspaper articles claimed that their strong support on gay issues was responsible .

Indigenous Australians

Family First was the first party in Australia to nominate an Aboriginal woman, lawyer Andrea Mason, as party President. The party did hope to attract a large Aboriginal vote in South Australia where Andrea Mason was touted as possibly the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to parliament.

Although Family First's policy on indigenous Australians does not specifically address the Stolen Generation, Mason has said: "I think there is a cobweb, there is a veil over our country... in terms of this unresolved issue... I think that there will be a significant change in the way we perceive ourselves and our relationships with each other when there is an apology made to the stolen generations".

Industrial Relations

Family First is opposed to some aspects of the Howard government's Australian Workplace Agreement measures, campaigning against the measures in the Federal Senate . In his Maiden Speech, Senator Steve Fielding argued for a fairer work / rest / and 'family time' or leisure balance in opposing the measures.

Pornography

Family First advocate Mandatory filtering of internet pornography at the Internet service provider (ISP) level as a matter of child protection.

"It is a national travesty that is so easily fixed if the Government and the opposition would exercise their moral will and pass legislation that requires Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) to provide a compulsory filtering of pornography on the Internet", said Andrea Mason in a media release on Wednesday, 25 August 2004.

War in Iraq

Family First believes that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was wrong because diplomatic avenues had not been exhausted, but that having participated in that invasion Australia is now obliged to protect Iraqis and Australians in Iraq through a military presence.

Christian connections

Detractors of Family First regularly claim that Family First is an 'Assemblies of God' party, or Christian political party. That issue is the subject of dispute. Australia's political climate is predominantly secular and there is general disapproval of overt public manifestations of faith. In 2004, then party leader Andrea Mason said that "we are not a Christian party" - a sentiment echoed by others in the party at that time.

Co-founder Andrew Evans was the General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God in Australia for twenty years. In the first South Australian election and the 2004 Federal Election, Family First fielded a number of candidates from churches, including a number of Assemblies of God churches. In New South Wales, 11 of their 23 candidates for the 2004 legislative election were from a single Assemblies of God church, the Hawkesbury Church in Windsor.

South Australian Family First Member of the Legislative Council Dennis Hood, the party's state parliamentary leader, is a member of the evangelical Rostrevor Baptist Church. When Sunday Mail columnist Peter Goers stated that Hood was an anti-evolution Creationist, Hood did not deny this in his response, while he did attempt to set the record straight on issues of policy.

In the 2004 election, the Family First-Coalition preference arrangement caused some controversy when, the day before the election, Queensland National senate candidate Barnaby Joyce publicly slammed the party, calling them "the lunatic Right", and stating that "these are not the sort of people you do preference deals with". Joyce's comments came in response to a pamphlet published by one of the party's Victorian Senate candidates, Danny Nalliah who in his capacity as a church pastor had criticised other religions and homosexuality.

In 2004, Family First Federal Secretary Dr Matt Burnet issued a press release entitled 'Setting the Record Straight' contending:

"The party is not a church party or an Assembly of God party, nor is it funded by AOG churches. It does see itself as SOCIALLY CONSERVATIVE, with Family Values based on Christian ethics. Like any main-stream party we do not have on record the religious affiliations of any of our members. The Board of Reference in South Australia includes business-people, members of the medical profession, as well as ministers and people from Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Uniting and other church groups. The rapid national growth of the party leading into this election and the late decision to contest in all seats possible, has meant that in some states there are candidates, with strong family values, who have been introduced to the party through the personal relationships they have from their involvement in community/church networks".

Federal Parliamentary Voting Record

A tally of the Australian Senate voting records since Family First were elected reveals the following patterns: Senator Fielding has an attendance record of 75% of all Senate divisions, which can be compared to other independent Senators of recent times, such as Ex-Australian Democrats Senator Meg Lees (69%), Senator Brian Harradine (48% between 2001 and 2005), Ex-Labor Senator Shayne Murphy (43%) and One Nation Senator Len Harris (40%).

If non-contentious or procedural divisions are excluded and a tally taken of the times that Family First voted with one major party and against the other (that is, on votes of substance where the major parties disagreed) then Family First favoured the Opposition (Labor party) 175 times (30% of all votes) as opposed to the Coalition (Liberal/National party) 119 times (20% of all votes).

Relations with other parties

Family First and the Australian Greens are often at odds, with Family First often referring to the Greens as "extreme" in their media statements. The two parties are in competition for Senate preferences, particularly from the Labor Party, and ideologically opposed on many issues. In the 2006 Victorian election, Family First's limited television advertising campaign specifically singled out the Greens for criticism .

Notes

1. This Hood's hardly one of the boyz; Sunday Mail (Adelaide). August 13, 2006
2. Family First far from extremists; Sunday Mail (Adelaide). August 27, 2006

External links

• Family First Party website - includes official policies
• Senator Steve Fielding's website
• Family First Wikispace - unofficial; maintained by a party member
• Family First Media blog - "Dedicated to keeping a record of media articles, press releases and speeches by or about the Family First Party"
• Paradise Community Church - birthplace of Family First
• ABC RN report
• The people behind Family First, The Age, 16 October 2004
• Crikey Media's Family First files
• One Assemblies of God Church member's views of the party and their conduct in the 2004 Federal Election
• An analysis of Family First's Federal voting record since elected
• Pre-2004 election review of some Family First candidates
• ABC Radio National transcript of The Religion Report - featuring Peter Harris and Andrew Evans

• Political parties established in 2002
• Political parties in Australia
• Conservative parties