What did I learn about Rudd and Abbott

The night started with the Prime Minister telling me what was of real relevance to the church. Well I thought that was an interesting way to start a presentation that was billed at helping me, the listener and voter a bit more about his values. He was so focused and definite about what he had to say, presumably because he knew what I needed to hear because he knew what was and what was NOT relevant to the church. I must remember to give him a call next time I am confused about relevance! On my count, he gave me 8 things that his government has been addressing that he thought I should know about, starting with schools. I found out that his government has done a wonderful job with school building programs (yeh right) and in relation to the School Chaplaincy program "I'm pretty confident that this program will continue" Other "advertising" focused on Health and Hospitals, Homelessness and Public housing, Welfare, Workplace, GFC, Climate Change and environment issues, and Global Poverty. Sadly, there was little we learnt about Mr Rudd's values. He did confirm that he believed having a job was a "fundamental dignity" and that his government has set a target of halving homelessness numbers. I did find it interesting that in his opening presentation, which focussed on telling me what was relevant for the churches (presumably relevant for us to be concerned about although this clarification was never given) he did not tell me what he valued in human life nor did he think I would see relevance in the plight of refugees or Asylum seekers. It took a specific question to get anything out of him on this one.

Not that Mr Abbott was much better. I appreciated the fact that Mr Abbott refrained from a party advert, although he did focus on "what the previous government had done" This was an interesting approach. I had to look hard for the assumed values within what was being said, but even more significant was Mr Abbotts justification for asking us for our support at the next election was "what the previous government has done". My recollection is that the previous government was voted out because of a mix of what they had and had not done!

The question time delivered greater value - and demonstrated some of "their values". Both leaders confirmed that the definition of "marriage" as we have it now would remain under their leadership. Mr Abbott was strong on the value he saw in Christian Chaplaincy in schools and committed a Coalition Government to full funding till at least 2014, whereas Mr Rudd, while acknowledging the anecdotal evidence demonstrated the value of Christian Chaplaincy, confirmed his government would undertake a thorough review of the program - "don't be concerned or fearful of the facts" was the strongest thing that Mr Rudd offered us on school chaplaincy. I am still wondering however, about what Mr Rudd actually values when it comes to school chaplaincy.

Both leaders were clear about their personal faith convictions - that was encouraging. How these convictions do or would impact their leadership was less clear. I simply do not know what these leaders stand for (and will STAND FOR) when it comes to issues of justice and poverty(domestic and international), safety and security, family, morality human dignity and fairness. It all seems too situational to me.