During the week my wife and I saw the movie, “The Help” made only this year of the 2009 bestselling book by Kathryn Stockett. It is an outstanding film. An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960’s … Continue reading →

Simon Smart SMHSeptember 9, 2011 “I’m getting ready to duck, but don’t shoot the messenger. The results are in: religious people are nicer. Or so says Robert Putnam, professor of public policy at Harvard. Described by London’s Sunday Times as … Continue reading →

With a landslide victory in the Lower House, Premier Barry will be frustrated if he finds his progressive legislation blocked in the Upper House, by pressure from his own Religious Right, and the Shooters and Fishers Party and the CDP. … Continue reading →

So many kind people have written to thank me for my leadership of Family First and my nine years in Parliament following defeat in the recent election. They all ask what I am planning for the next stage in my … Continue reading →

Family First is not a Christian Party like the CDP, but a party of people of all backgrounds linked by our commitment to family values. Obviously those who are members of Family First are Christian, but we acknowledge the support of people of many faiths and races that also appreciate Family Values.

Some people believe we are a party like the CDP that boasts of being the “only Christian Party” They are not the first to suggest this and others including Antony Green (ABC pollster) and Barry O’Farrell have argued that Family First should become the alternative Christian party for the expressed reason of once and for all getting rid of the Rev Fred Nile party and Fred himself. Continue reading →

The beauty of a democracy, which so many nations of the world are fighting for today, is that every person is important and every person has a right to express their view about what kind of a Government they want. … Continue reading →

Political parties do not rush to support the carers in our community. Plenty of promises before the election very slow response with cash and support after the election.

I have had a fifty year commitment to helping people called upon to care for others. They may be children, other peoples’ children, disabled people, lonely people, ill people, dependent people, aged and infirm people, mentally ill, and drug and alcohol dependent people.

I knew that situation. Continue reading →

At half past three on the afternoon of Tuesday 22nd, someone rang to say that Christchurch NZ had again been hit by a devastating earthquake. I called my wife and we both saw with tears in our eyes such massive damage. The death toll mounted – two dead, seventeen dead, 65 dead.

Our hearts were awash with grief. We held hands and prayed for everyone concerned – for those still trapped in rubble, those in hospital, those worried relatives still at home, those brave emergency workers risking their own lives. We prayed for them, in all their extremity. In such extremity nothing else seems to count. Continue reading →

Last Monday I spoke at a media conference of radio television and the print media, in support of people in Australia being free to attend the Shen Yun’s performances in the Capitol Theatre.

The Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China had been threatening children and adults who attended. I also was warned but attended the performance with my wife. Business leaders and politicians were all warned not to attend.

The show has magnificent singers, dancers, a full orchestra and stage settings telling the story of 5000 years of Chinese culture. About 150 New York artists present this magnificent show. But it does not praise Mao Zedong and China’s great progress under the Communist Party. This causes the Consulate to condemn the performance and the Falun Dafa who have organised it. Continue reading →

This week I attended the Opening of the Shen Yun Performing Arts evening in the Capitol Theatre before a packed house. It was an evening of 150 brilliant performers, singers, dancers and a full orchestra of Western and Chinese instruments presenting 5000 years of Chinese culture.

Two weeks ago I preached at Parkside Baptist Church Endensor Park to a fast growing lively church with a great ministry. In the congregation were people representing 120 nationalities. A hymn reminded me of Heaven where praises would be sung by (Revelation 7:9) “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.”

For twenty-seven years I was leader of a great church that contained congregations where the worship was conducted in Tongan, Samoan, Rotuman, Fijian, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Sri Lankan, Korean, Indonesian, with members of my staff from these cultures and many others such as Iraq, Egypt, Sudan, and from countries from North and South America, Europe, India and Asia. I thrived in the multicultural atmosphere. Over 5000 people from these cultures attended our church. I learned to free myself from an Anglo-Saxon cocoon and rejoice in our differences. Continue reading →