In her excellent study God under Howard: the Rise of the Religious Right in Australian Politics Marion Maddox describes in admirable detail the Howard Government’s use of religion for political ends. Since she is less concerned to study the religious right than to analyse the use of religion by the political right, she leaves open questions about the changing relationship between religious faith, secular philosophies and churches in Australian public life today.
By her account, the Howard Government’s major goal has been to promote economic change based on liberal theory. Individuals are increasingly more responsible for their own welfare in a competitive economy, and can expect less support from their own associations or from government programs. These changes create anxiety. The Howard Government has deflected that anxiety by espousing a conservative social order. It is then able to champion Australian values and to focus popular resentment on ‘people not like us’—those distinctive by race, gender or plight.
In developing her thesis, Maddox describes how this political program derived from the United States and was adapted for use in Australia. Australians are suspicious of an overt appeal to religion in political speech. But they speak easily of values and social attitudes, and are interested in individual spirituality. The influence of explicitly religious groups on public issues is therefore usually masked.
Maddox describes in some detail the importance of the Lyons Forum in the Liberal Party and its strategies. It created cross-party alliances that criticised the ABC coverage of the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, and later overturned the Northern Territory legislation on euthanasia.
Other religious groups have also invited politicians to their gatherings, and have established informal networks among them. Large religious conventions have also allowed government ministers to endorse these groups and to praise their social values.
The Government has been less accommodating to the mainstream churches, which have generally been critical of the social effects of liberal economic policy. It maintains close connections with institutes, like the Institute of Public Affairs, that are sponsored by business groups and work to counteract church criticism of liberal capitalism. Representatives of these groups often comment in the media on public and religious issues.
The Government also tries to divide the church constituency. It questions the right of church leaders to take moral stands on social issues like refugees or the Iraq war, on the grounds that many church members would not support them. It has