Family First
Apr. 13th, 2025 10:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
b_auspolFamily First Party Australia
Website: https://www.familyfirstparty.org.au/
This Family First party is not the original South Australian party of Steven Fielding and Bob Day. It’s a recent creation led by Lyle Shelton, covering a very similar territory but formed from a split from South Australian Labor. That said, they’re still Protestant religious conservatives.
Party Analysis
Family First are not actually running much of a visible platform this election so far, however what they do have at the moment is pretty characteristic of them.
Family First have their lead policy being their opposition to Drag Queen Storytime. Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of fearmongering and quoting of the Cass Review. Their main objection appears to be that it might confuse children and expose them to “dangerous” adult themes and discussions of gender. Now personally I think the level of confusion a small child, who likes to play dressup, will feel is approximately on the level of wondering if the person reading the book is ALSO playing dressup. But conservatives have to panic about things.
Speaking of the Cass review, they’re mad about children receiving gender affirming care at gender clinics including puberty blockers and the fact any treatment is covered by Medicare.
Family First are also outraged about the removal of religious freedoms from schools (that is, religious schools being expected to provide a proper health and sex education to students) and are convinced this would end Christian education in Australia. It feels just a LITTLE overblown. They also don’t like the current anti-discrimination legislation and the fact that the religious discrimination legislation has not been passed.
There’s a very general anti-abortion platform: they think women are being coerced into abortion by men; that sex-selection abortion is happening; and are mad that abortion is accessible at all. It’s all in emotive language.
NSW’s lead candidate for the party is Lyle Shelton, most famous for his opposition to marriage equality, leadership of the No campaign during the plebiscite, and for the phrase ‘eat shit Lyle’ that circulated after the marriage equality vote passed. Shelton is a classic ‘got too conservative for the Nationals’ Queenslander who ran the Australian Christian Lobby from 2013 to 2018, joined Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives in 2019 and ran for the senate in QLD with them, then entered discussions to take over the Christian Democratic Party from Fred Nile in NSW in 2021, only for this to fall apart over Shelton not following Nile’s directions and "irreconcilable differences" in opinions, and then joined Family First in 2022, running and failing to win a seat in the NSW Legislative Council in 2023.
Is this party trying to kill me?
Look, I cannot see any policies about hoarding guns or failing to vaccinate people. But they are anti-abortion and they want to harm the mental health of trans kids, which does lead to higher suicide rates.
Is this party trying to harm me?
Absolutely. Family First are so conservative that all of the policies currently on their website revolve around how much they hate queer people, how much they hate abortion, and how they want their right to be religious bigots protected.
Conclusion:
I think basically everyone is aware of the level of religious conservatism that Family First exist to promote. Even if you’re a conservative bigot, I would look at other party options, because Family First can’t be bothered putting together a policy platform on their website outside of straight hate for people to sign petitions about.
Website: https://www.familyfirstparty.org.au/
This Family First party is not the original South Australian party of Steven Fielding and Bob Day. It’s a recent creation led by Lyle Shelton, covering a very similar territory but formed from a split from South Australian Labor. That said, they’re still Protestant religious conservatives.
Party Analysis
Family First are not actually running much of a visible platform this election so far, however what they do have at the moment is pretty characteristic of them.
Family First have their lead policy being their opposition to Drag Queen Storytime. Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of fearmongering and quoting of the Cass Review. Their main objection appears to be that it might confuse children and expose them to “dangerous” adult themes and discussions of gender. Now personally I think the level of confusion a small child, who likes to play dressup, will feel is approximately on the level of wondering if the person reading the book is ALSO playing dressup. But conservatives have to panic about things.
Speaking of the Cass review, they’re mad about children receiving gender affirming care at gender clinics including puberty blockers and the fact any treatment is covered by Medicare.
Family First are also outraged about the removal of religious freedoms from schools (that is, religious schools being expected to provide a proper health and sex education to students) and are convinced this would end Christian education in Australia. It feels just a LITTLE overblown. They also don’t like the current anti-discrimination legislation and the fact that the religious discrimination legislation has not been passed.
There’s a very general anti-abortion platform: they think women are being coerced into abortion by men; that sex-selection abortion is happening; and are mad that abortion is accessible at all. It’s all in emotive language.
NSW’s lead candidate for the party is Lyle Shelton, most famous for his opposition to marriage equality, leadership of the No campaign during the plebiscite, and for the phrase ‘eat shit Lyle’ that circulated after the marriage equality vote passed. Shelton is a classic ‘got too conservative for the Nationals’ Queenslander who ran the Australian Christian Lobby from 2013 to 2018, joined Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives in 2019 and ran for the senate in QLD with them, then entered discussions to take over the Christian Democratic Party from Fred Nile in NSW in 2021, only for this to fall apart over Shelton not following Nile’s directions and "irreconcilable differences" in opinions, and then joined Family First in 2022, running and failing to win a seat in the NSW Legislative Council in 2023.
Is this party trying to kill me?
Look, I cannot see any policies about hoarding guns or failing to vaccinate people. But they are anti-abortion and they want to harm the mental health of trans kids, which does lead to higher suicide rates.
Is this party trying to harm me?
Absolutely. Family First are so conservative that all of the policies currently on their website revolve around how much they hate queer people, how much they hate abortion, and how they want their right to be religious bigots protected.
Conclusion:
I think basically everyone is aware of the level of religious conservatism that Family First exist to promote. Even if you’re a conservative bigot, I would look at other party options, because Family First can’t be bothered putting together a policy platform on their website outside of straight hate for people to sign petitions about.
