Abbott's woes through Pope's human values lens

04 December 2014

Pope Francis’ recent speech to the European parliament provides a useful lens for reflecting on the priorities and policies of the Australian Government, themselves currently the object of introspection and criticism.

The recent dire opinion polls have focused attention on the Government’s performance and on how it may win back public approval. There has been less reflection on the threads that link its policies on welfare, economic management, the environment, asylum seekers and to government regulation.

The Government has consistently seen the world from the perspective of competitive, self-reliant and economically productive individuals. They, and the businesses of which they are part, are to be rewarded; regulatory obstacles to their enrichment, whether these have to do with climate, mining or finance, are to be neutered.

Those who are not self-reliant and productive are to be disciplined into productive self-reliance. They are to be discouraged by co-payment from visiting doctors, have their benefits cut and required to find work that is not available or study for which they are not prepared. The Government has no responsibility to them as human beings. They are valued only on the basis of their economic contribution.

From this perspective the government naturally sees its relations with other nations and their citizens as competitive and not entailing mutual obligations. Asylum seekers make no claim on Australia and must be disciplined to make them leave us alone. Coal mining is to be encouraged, regardless of its contribution to global warming, because it is in Australian economic interests. Commitments made to resettle asylum seekers in Indonesia do not have to be honoured.

Pope Francis’ recent speech to the European Parliament touches on these attitudes to government. His speech was formal and was presumably composed by the Secretariat of State, referring often to previous church documents with a few characteristically Franciscan emphases. Its reflections on Europe picked up the broad themes of Catholic social teaching, within which human dignity demands respect not only for individual but also for social rights. These rights and responsibilities include respect for the right to life at its beginnings and its end.

His reflections on Europe echo the situation in Australia. He points to the cult of economic growth at the expense of human values and to the emphasis on the individual with no consideration of the relationships that shape our humanity.

We encounter certain rather selfish lifestyles, marked by an opulence which is

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Abbott's woes through Pope's human values lens

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