Many Catholic leaders and agencies would have shared the general expectation of a change of government and made transitional plans. Be that as it may the new government will be faced by a range of new faces leading national Catholic agencies and groups.
Three newcomers have been announced and a fourth vacancy has recently appeared. The National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC), Catholic Social Services Australia (CSSA) and the National Council of the St Vincent de Paul Society (Vinnies) have new chief executives, and Caritas Australia may do so before the end of the year after Paul O'Callaghan stepped down in mid-May. Two of these new appointees are former long-serving federal Labor MPs, and the third has an extensive church agency background.
NCEC is now being led by former Victorian senator Jacinta Collins, who announced her resignation from Parliament in February. After a lengthy trade union background Collins served as a senator for most of the period from 1995 onwards, was a parliamentary secretary for school education in the Gillard government and briefly minister for mental health and a Cabinet minister in the second Rudd government. NCEC has had several executive directors recently during which time the Catholic education sector played a prominent role in education politics, including supporting Labor's proposals at the mid-2018 by-elections which damaged Malcolm Turnbull.
The new CSSA head from July, replacing an outstanding national advocate in Fr Frank Brennan SJ, is Dr Ursula Stephens, one of Collins' former senate colleagues. Stephens was a New South Wales senator from 2001-2013 and parliamentary secretary for social inclusion and the voluntary sector, 2007-2010, in the first Rudd government. Since then she has twice been an unsuccessful Labor candidate for the seat of Goulburn in NSW state elections, most recently earlier this year. She was a teacher, small business owner and public servant prior to entering Parliament.
The new national voice for Vinnies, Toby O'Connor, was appointed in March. His brief is to advocate for Vinnies' aim of a fairer Australia. He himself was a former national director of CSSA and has had 35 years working in the social services sector, much of it for the church, including as deputy to Monsignor David Cappo at CSSA during the Hawke-Keating years. He replaced Dr John Falzon, also a well-known and powerful voice against injustice, who resigned pre-election to unsuccessfully attempt to win Labor pre-selection for the seat of Canberra in the ACT.
The work of church advocates means supporting the government on some issues, but strongly criticising it on others. That is the case whichever major party holds office. The church has something in common with both sides of politics because the Catholic community has a split political personality. Its range of concerns is so broad that they are addressed in various ways by different political parties. It wants to make an impact on government, but it is always highly unlikely that it can have it all in terms of policy because the church is just one voice among many.
After this most recent election some Catholics would have been ecstatic and others in despair, mirroring the response of the larger community. Catholic voters would have supported each of the major options and minor parties as well, showing how varied Catholic opinions and interests are. A majority of church-going Catholics probably voted for the Coalition, reflecting the general inclination of church-going Christians to be politically conservative, but Catholics as a whole probably split down the middle and may even have tilted towards Labor and the Greens.
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On the one hand the Coalition, led by a church-going prime minister and containing prominent Catholic MPs, may have been more attractive to those Catholics concerned about freedom of religion and the place of the church in the public square, as well as the more general matters of safe hands for economic management, job creation and reward for aspiration and entrepreneurship.
Many other Catholics were attracted by the promise of action on climate change, greater support for foreign aid and medical support through evacuation to the Australian mainland for asylum seekers and refugees on Manus Island and Nauru. Labor's promise of greater social spending on health and increasing the wages of child-care workers would have been attractive too, together with the promise of a government enquiry into the low level of unemployment benefits.
All church sectors must engage with the government of the day for the common good. These three new advocates, each well qualified in terms of Catholic principles and personal background and experience, have big shoes to fill in speaking out for traditional church positions. They arrive at a time of great political uncertainty about matters of justice and nagging doubts about the continued ability of the church to maintain its central place in the great public debates.
John Warhurst is Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the Australian National University. He holds advisory positions at both Caritas Australia and Catholic Social Services Australia.