An Election Victory
As has been said so often, the result of an election favouring the Christian Democratic Party is evidence of the grace of God.
The bad news is obvious. We certainly do not have the budget of the other parties, nor the efficient administration, nor the brainpower given freely by advertising agencies. We are strong on last minute acceptance of candidates because we have not planned in advance, we lack numbers of volunteers, do not have an effective grass roots organisation and our decision making processes are too centralized and slow. So much of our election processes and procedures are not documented and live within Rev Fred Nile’s retentive memory. If that was lost overnight, we would have to start from scratch. In fact, if we lost Rev Fred Nile overnight, everything would stop.
The good news is that these deficiencies can be overcome by some good management. The place to start is with a competent state party director who has skills not only in the management of branches and elections but in fund-raising and team-building. I have such a person in mind and will bring it to our State Council meeting in May. From my travels around the state I have discovered many – but not enough – wonderful people of experience and Christian commitment. I discovered many hard-working people who really believe in our cause.
I also discovered many people who have never heard of us, but who, having heard, supported us. I discovered many churches who have given up on us and which have to be wooed back into the fold. The entire North Shore and Hills area have to learn to support us. We have not yet penetrated most of the larger denominations. Our policies are a mixture of policy, wishful thinking and strategy, and some good teams of experts in their fields need to be engaged in re-writing our policies and procedures.
I see the Christian Democratic Party performing outstandingly in its Parliamentary duties. But we need a state organisation that is truly representative of our people and potential members, and which takes responsibility for elections, media and public presentations.
Many of our candidates were outstanding, and I would single out Rev Ross Clifford for special mention. Ross belongs to our Parliament and I will continue to work to get him there. Our State needs him. Many of our Legislative Assembly candidates are amazingly committed people who worked hared for our results. But mostly they had too short a period to become known in their communities which impacted their results.
Rev The Hon Fred Nile MLC says: “Our Upper House vote, which is still being counted, far exceeds all the minor political parties except the pagan Green Party. Our NSW Upper House vote is double the Australian Democrats, One Nation and the Unity Party! In spite of media censorship, our Upper House vote was far higher than the high profile media personalities Pauline Hanson and John Tingle.
We are confident that the relative percentage positions of the Upper House parties will not change dramatically. We are also very pleased with the results of our 52 CDP Candidates. A number of our CDP Candidates received an excellent result, especially from the blue collar Christian vote. Rev Bob Bawden – Blacktown 5.36%; Joe Wyness – Mt Druitt 5.88%; Karen Reid – East Hills 4.47%; Karen Pender – Granville 3.55%; Richard Harris – Illawarra 4.77%; Greg Tan – Riverstone 4.51%. A number of our CDP Candidates also exceeded 4% including Tania Piper – Baulkham Hills 4.51%; Brian Grigg – Blue Mountains 5.41%; Owen Nannelli – Epping 4.39%; Jim Bowen – Heathcote 4.17%; Neville Mammen – Tamworth 4.65%; Ken Gregory – The Hills 4.51% and Sam Baissari – Wentworthville 4.4% .”
I have indicated that I intend settling up a School For Candidates that will start this June. We will help candidates stand and get elected for municipal and shire councils. We will seek CDP appointments to statutory bodies, trusts and boards. We will start now for the next Federal election. I have in mind three extremely high profile candidates for the Senate ticket. We will map out a yearlong campaign for that election. We will then appoint candidates for the next State election in plenty of time to get our publicity into the community.
In The Legislative Assembly, 54,000 people gave their first preference to the Christian Democratic Party, and hundreds of thousands gave their second preference. Even more voted for us in the Legislative Council. That means we have a good base on which to build and with the right State Director, it can be done. In the meantime we give thanks to God for another miracle of election grace.
The Christian Church as a whole must realise the times are changing and dark clouds of secularism, humanism, aggressive paganism and fundamentalist multi-culturalism threaten our way of life. It will soon be too late. Only the Christian Democratic Party is standing up, and we need the support of all the churches and people who desire our values. It is up to us to earn that support.
THIS IS GORDON MOYES.