Socialist Party Australia - What is Family First?

Millions of workers were disgusted that their votes for Labor in the Senate meant their preferences went to the socially-reactionary Family First Party. For example, despite only one fifth of the Green primary vote, preference deals meant Family First jumped ahead of the Greens by the end of counting!

This exposes the voting system for the Senate for what it is, an attempt to prop up the two-party system. Most people vote above the line (the alternative is to tick up to 100 boxes in order below the line) and are in the dark as to how their preferences will go. Another problem is that they cannot just vote for a socialist party – all candidates and parties have to give preferences and therefore every voter has to give a vote for Liberal or Labor at the end of the day.

Family First is not racist in the mould of One Nation or National Action – in fact their national leader is an Aboriginal woman. They claim to oppose the locking up of child refugees and claim to support reconciliation with Aboriginal Australians.

The party is the political wing of the Assembly of God, a fast-growing Protestant evangelical church. Millions of workers and middle class people are forced to work long hours to pay their mortgage and get their children through school. They are not inspired by the lies of the major parties or the old money traditional churches that are tainted by scandals. In the absence of any mass socialist alternative, many people are searching for some meaning in a world of stress and insecurity. Spiritualism and mysticism is making a revival all over the world from the Middle East to Nigeria to the advanced capitalist world. Family First, unlike the traditional Christian churches in Australia, have a significant number of young members and active groups on campus. Many youth are also looking for a sense of meaning in a world of uncertainty.

New religious groups like the Assembly of God attempt to give a sense of community to atomized sections of workers and middle class. When the working class moves into action the divisions inside these organizations between their elite and their searching rank and file will break them wide open. For now, however, they will continue to get an echo.

Family First played down their reactionary social programme and links to the Liberal Party. That latter point, however, was thoroughly exposed in the Federal election. A simple search on the Internet also exposes their social agenda. Leading member after leading member has called for an end of abortion, denounced single-sex couples and homosexuality in general, with one candidate calling for Lesbians to be burnt at the stake! This didn’t stop the Democrats from preferencing Family First ahead of the Greens! Economically they support the market like all non-socialist parties.

Both Liberal and Labor courted Family First before the election exposing their own reactionary policies in the process. Only a socialist programme and socialist vision for the future can take on reactionaries like Family First.