Religious Right Groups
Australian Christian Lobby
(formerly Australian Christian Coalition)
| Leadership: | Brigadier Jim Wallace is the Executive Chairman. John Gagliardi, Founding President of the ACC, is now Patron of the ACL. Pastor Carolyn Cormack of Queensland has been influential for several years. |
| Date formed: | ACC was formed in 1995, becoming the ACL in Oct. 2000 (New Life, 10 Apr. 2003) |
| Area of operation: | Theoretically a national body, but strongest in Queensland, the ACT and northern Tasmania. Minor presence in Victoria, WA and NT, weak in NSW and seems to have abandoned SA to Ros Phillips’ Festival of Light and Andrew Evans’ Family First Party. |
| Estimated membership: | Fanciful claims of up to 100,000 members (Age, 12 April 1997); in fact, a ‘book membership’ of 2-3,000 of whom only a small proportion are active. |
| Finances: | Sufficient to support a small number of salaried staff, although the salaries are low. Donations are important to this group and some gifts are quite substantial. |
| Main objectives: | ACL ‘aims at defining Christian values in the way we are governed, the way we do business, and in our relations together as a community’ (New Life, 5 Sept. 2002). In practice this translates as ‘the promotion of standard Religious Right causes, especially concerning sexual morality’. For example, ACL favours heavier censorship and strongly opposes abortion and gay rights. A number of the leading personalities hold creationist beliefs. |
| Main activities: | ACL tries harder than most to work through existing denominational structures in order to influence politicians. However, it has far more success with Pentecostals and conservative Baptists than with mainline churches. ACL makes submissions to Parliamentary inquiries etc. and bombards politicians with emails, letters and faxes. Jim Wallace accepts public speaking engagements all over the country. |
| Links with other groups: | ACL’s closest allies include the Australian Family Association, the Fatherhood Foundation (with which two bodies ACL concocted the ‘National Marriage Coalition’ in July 2004), the Festival of Light in SA and Salt Shakers in Victoria. |
| Publications: | A national newsletter appears on the ACL website about once a month, along with an occasional commentary etc. Queensland is the only state which regularly produces its own material. |
| Sample quotes: | ‘… [T]he great majority of Australians do not support homosexual adoption or marriage and see no reason why society needs to roll over to incessant homosexual demands to invade every institution and dash every community standard …’ (J. Wallace, ‘Homosexual marriage not going to win Labor middle Australia’, media release, 12 Mar. 2004, 1) |
| ‘We certainly aren’t saying vote for the Libs or Nationals, as we don’t tell people who to vote for, however it is hard to go past the Libs and Nationals on family policy issues in WA.’ (ACL Newsletter, Oct. 2003, 6) | |
| ‘Jim [Wallace] and Carolyn [Cormack] also visited with the Leader of the [Queensland] Opposition Lawrence Springboard …’ [N.B. try 'Springborg'] (ACL Newsletter, Jul. 2003, 5) | |
| ‘Firstly and most importantly, please continue to pray for both the Rev. Gordon Moyes and Rev. Fred Nile in the NSW Upper House. Without them there would be little if any Godly influence in the NSW Parliament.’ (ACL Newsletter, May 2003, 4) | |
| ‘ … Australia’s capital city is quickly becoming a cesspool of iniquity.’ (ibid, 3) | |
| Assessment: | Jim Wallace seems to work on the principle that, as about 70 per cent of Australians are nominally Christian, 70 per cent of Australians will therefore oppose abortion, gay rights and feminism and support high levels of censorship etc. He also seems to think that all Christian denominations will automatically support the ACL in its efforts. He is wrong on both counts. |
| Far from being a national organisation representing Christian viewpoints, the ACL has measurable influence in only three regions: Queensland, which seems to exert a degree of independence from the Canberra HQ; the ACT; and the area around Launceston. While Wallace is a Baptist, the group is in thrall to its large Pentecostal component, which leads the major denominations to keep ACL at arm’s length. | |
| However, this organisation enjoys access to a number of senior politicians and business leaders. Its prospects may be uncertain but it bears a lot of watching. | |
| Contact details: | National Office Suite 9, 1st Floor, National Press Club, 16 National Circuit, Barton ACT 2600 www.acl.org.au |
