World Congress Hails Election Outcome as a Smashing Victory for Australia's Pro-Family Forces
All Children, Parents, and Families Are Winners in Australia
ROCKFORD, Ill., Sept. 9, 2013 /
Christian Newswire/ --
World Congress of Families Managing Director Larry Jacobs said the people of Australia had a clear choice in Saturday's national election. "Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Labor Party are dogmatically committed to re-defining marriage and family.
Tony Abbott and the Liberal/National Coalition he leads strongly support the
natural family, including marriage."
Abbott's coalition won a landslide victory. With 95% of the votes counted, the conservative coalition will have at least 91 seats in Australia's 150-member lower house, compared to only 54 seats for Rudd's Labor Party. Before the election, the ruling Labor Party and Abbott's coalition were separated by a single vote.
Abbott is a former Catholic seminarian who once observed: "I'm not someone who wants to see radical change based on the fashion of the moment."
Besides opposing marriage-deformation, Abbott has proposed what has been called the world's most-generous paid maternity leave. When asked by an interviewer a few years ago what advice he'd give his three daughters on sex before marriage, Abbott replied: "It is the greatest gift you can give someone, the ultimate gift of giving and don't give it up to someone lightly."
The Labor Party introduced a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in Australia's national parliament in December 2011.
Warwick Marsh of Dads4Kids (a World Congress of Families Partner) called it "a dark day for Australia's children," because it would "effectively destroy a child's biological right to a mother and a father and confirm the Labor Party as a political party totally committed to a fatherless Australia."
Peter Westmore, President of the
National Civic Council of Australia and a leader of the
Australian Family Association (a WCF Partner), commented: "The overwhelming victory of the coalition of Liberal and National Parties in Australia will strengthen the pro-family voice in Australia, blunt the push for 'same-sex marriage' and put the Australian economy back on track to provide sustainable growth which will benefit millions of Australian Families."
Babette Francis, National and Overseas Coordinator of
Endeavour Forum, Inc. (also a WCF Partner), congratulated Tony Abbott and his soon-to-be governing coalition "for standing firm on the issue of marriage." Francis added, "We hope the Labor Party and the Greens will now abandon their obsession with homosexual 'marriage.'"
Jacobs noted, "The
so-called same-sex marriage bill was defeated last year, due in part to the tireless efforts of our three Australian Partners – the Australian Family Association, Endeavour Forum and Dads4Kids. The Australian pro-family movement is vibrant and stunningly effective."
Among the more than 100 distinguished speakers was
Australian MP Kevin Andrews, a dedicated advocate of the natural family and civil society, who's slated to hold the families portfolio in the incoming Abbott government.
Andrews and his wife, Margaret, also addressed
World Congress of Families I (Prague 1997),
II (Geneva 1999), and
V (Amsterdam, 2009). A long-time
WCF leader, he was profiled in the April, 2010,
World Congress of Families News. Andrews also serves as a special World Congress of Families International Ambassador for the
natural family.
Jacobs added: "We congratulate Tony Abbott and our three Australian Partners and look forward to working with them to advance the interests of
the natural family following their stunning success in Saturday's election."
World Congress of Families VIII will be held in Moscow, the Kremlin, and Russia's Christ the Savior Cathedral, September 10-12, 2014. The theme is "Large Families: The Future of Humanity."
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What is the Howard Center and World Congress of Families? The Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society (www.profam.org) is located in Rockford, Illinois and is an independent, non-profit research and education center that provides sound scholarship and effective strategies to affirm and defend the natural family, thus renewing a stable and free society. The Howard Center is the publisher of the journal, "The Family In America" and is also the organizer of the World Congress of Families (WCF) project which is an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, leaders and inter-faith people of goodwill from more than 80 countries that seek to restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit and the 'seedbed' of civil society (as found in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948). The WCF was founded in 1997 by Dr. Allan Carlson, President of The Howard Center. To date, there have been five World Congresses of Families – Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004), Warsaw, Poland (2007) and Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2009). World Congress of Families VI was held in Madrid, Spain in May 25-27, 2012. World Congress of Families VII was held in Sydney, Australia, May 15-18, 2013, www.wcfsydney2013.org.au. WCF VIII Moscow 2014 will be held September 10-12 in the Kremlin. www.worldcongress.ru.
