Generosity towards asylum seekers, solidarity with firefighters,
charity for elderly, and a plan to address climate crisis is the wish
list we can only dream of
Scott Morrison wanted three things for Christmas: to stop doctors deciding on the medical treatment refugees receive, to reduce the power of workers to organise for better wages and to make sure Australia could cheat on its global climate crisis exams.
He’s locked in two out of three gifts – with medevac laws overturned and climate talks in Madrid frustrated – and returned to Santa’s lap hoping he can convince Pauline Hanson to have a change of heart on the ensuring integrity bill over the holiday break.
There’s precious little Christmas spirit evident in the government’s agenda – no spirit of solidarity with the volunteer firefighters and their families who “want to be there” risking their lives for their communities; no spirit of generosity for people seeking asylum who’ve been cut off from income and housing support; and no spirit of charity for elderly Australians spending Christmas waiting for a meaningful response to the crisis in aged care.
What spirit, then, is this government possessed by?He’s locked in two out of three gifts – with medevac laws overturned and climate talks in Madrid frustrated – and returned to Santa’s lap hoping he can convince Pauline Hanson to have a change of heart on the ensuring integrity bill over the holiday break.
There’s precious little Christmas spirit evident in the government’s agenda – no spirit of solidarity with the volunteer firefighters and their families who “want to be there” risking their lives for their communities; no spirit of generosity for people seeking asylum who’ve been cut off from income and housing support; and no spirit of charity for elderly Australians spending Christmas waiting for a meaningful response to the crisis in aged care.
Could it be the Holy Spirit proclaimed in Pentecostal and other conservative churches that Morrison has been so careful to court in the second draft of the religious discrimination bill?
The spirit of aspiration that he believes is the essence of “quiet Australians” is certainly present in the such congregations – the often mentioned “prosperity doctrine” is a Pentecostal version of this. Whatever phrase best describes this theology, the foundational idea was that if a loving God is on your side, that God wouldn’t want you poor, oppressed and insecure.
Over time, as this concept was infected by capitalist individualism and the free market was conflated with an old-fashioned Protestant work ethic, religious conservatives bought the idea that aspirational freedom was found in a government that leaves everyone to their own devices – that is, if you trust God, work hard and adhere to the right moral code, then success is on its way.
Morrison has been very clever at telling this story for a secular audience – he imagines an Australia where anyone who has a go, gets a go.
Where jobs are available for anyone who wants one badly enough; where not only God but the government is on your side and where drought, fires and climate catastrophe will all be alleviated through a mixture of thoughts, prayers and righteous endeavour.
Newspoll results suggest that Morrison has landed on a spiel that describes an Australia most people want – and obscures the truth that none of his policies will help create it.
The Christmas Myefo budget update reveals a sluggish economy, flatlining wage growth and higher than anticipated unemployment. Our standard of living is in decline.
We head into summer surrounded by the fury of an environment responding to decades of neglect. People on Newstart are told that alleviating their suffering is not a budget priority; through the smoke, those experiencing discrimination because of their diverse sexuality or gender see the prime minister announcing that protecting the right to be a jerk in the name of religion is more important than protecting their rights to medical care, employment and freedom from harm. There are no plans to address the climate crisis or the lack of water in the Murray Darling Basin – and the government has doubled down on its refusal to allow refugees stranded in offshore limbo to be resettled in New Zealand.
The spirit of Christmas absent; the spirit of aspiration crushed.
Throw in the Morrison government’s long determination to grow its coffers via the impersonal, inaccurate and illegal robodebt scheme, and reluctance to return money wrongly repaid, we come to this conclusion: the Liberal-National government is simply mean-spirited.
Under this regime, a valid Christmas wish list for Australians could include these miracles: an unspent budget surplus somehow improves the lot of working people; “carryover credits” have a meaningful mitigating relationship to climate devastation; or that the true spirit of Christmas overwhelms our prime minister as he ponders the baby in a manger at a church service this week.
As pastor John Martin says: “If your Christianity makes emperors feel comfortable and oppressed people feel unsafe, it’s time for a grand reversal.”
Waking up to such a grand reversal this Christmas would be a transformative gift to our nation.
- Brad Chilcott is a pastor at Activate Church and founder of Welcoming Australia
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