FEDERAL PARLIAMENTARY INTERFAITH BREAKFAST

Good morning everybody and thanks, Greg. 

 I acknowledge the traditional owners of this land upon which we meet, and I pay my respects to their elders both past and present.

 

It’s a rare thing for parliamentarians to talk about their faith - and that’s probably as it should be I suppose. 

 

I represent an electorate in the north-western suburbs of Melbourne, home to Catholics and Anglicans, Buddhists and Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus, Uniting Church, Macedonian Orthodox faith and many, many more.

 

As a parliamentarian, it’s my responsibility to act in the interests of all those faiths, as well as people of no faith.

 

Just as I would seek to be Prime Minister for all Australians, regardless of the god that they pray to, the colour of their skin, the postcode of where they live or indeed the person they love.

 

Today I wanted to briefly talk about just one Australian, a devout Christian, Betty Cuthbert, who passed away on Monday.

 

In the past 48 hours of online tributes and the news bulletins, we’ve been treated to that glorious grainy footage of her victories at the 1956 Olympics.

 

She was 18 years old, whip thin, a shock of blonde hair, high-knees propelling her down the cinder track, mouth stretched wide as she hit the tape to the roar of 100,000 fans at the MCG –the Golden Girl was born.

 

In an era when amateur status was fiercely enforced, her instant superstardom produced no material reward. When she was awarded a new cutlery set as ABC’s sportswoman of the year, she returned it.

 

And when injury and interrupted preparation cruelled Betty’s defence of her titles in Rome, she decided to retire at 22.

 

But within 18 months, she heard a voice, over and over:

 

 

Betty believed that God was instructing her to make a comeback.

 

And so she did, returning for the ‘only perfect race’ that she'd ever run, a fourth gold medal in the first women’s 400m at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

 

She said,

 

“It wasn’t me running really that day. It was as if my body had been taken over…[God] picked my feet up, and I put them down.”

 

Five years after that perfect race, that display of unparalleled athletic endeavour, Betty noticed she was breaking tea-cups and having trouble applying lipstick. Once so sure-footed, her friends noticed her stumbling at parties.

 

And a decade after Tokyo she was formally diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

 

Betty spent the last two decades of her life in a wheelchair.

 

Yet, for someone who spoke with God often, she never asked why he’d given her this disease. In her mind, she knew the answer.

 

She believed God gave her Multiple Sclerosis to raise awareness for others, to help raise the money to find a cure.

 

Whatever life threw at her, Betty’s faith never wavered.

 

She lost her home to storms in 1993.  

She lost her modest savings to investment scams in 1998.

And suffered a brain haemorrhage in 2002. 

Yet she held true to her beliefs, not just resolute – but grateful.

Counting her blessings and giving thanks that God had sent Rhonda Gillam, her carer and companion, to be with her in the hard times.

In 2015 Rhonda recalled overhearing Betty’s late-night prayer:

“Thank you, Lord, for everything. Thank you for spoiling me so much.”

Even Rhonda, herself of devout faith, who believed God had chosen her to be by Betty’s side, found that hard to credit.

This is the true gift of faith: comfort in hard times, light in the darkness.

Betty’s story shows me that each of us can find something in our faith, each of us learns something.

Faith inspired my parents, my Mum in particular, to make sacrifices so my brother and I could get a Jesuit education.

At that Jesuit school, we were taught, it was the golden rule: in everything do to others what you would have them do to you.

It was at the heart of the Jesuit call, to be a man for others. 

I've been fortunate to spend my working life, both representing workers and as a Parliamentarian, trying to measure up to this standard of compassion and empathy, to answer that clarion call. 

To care for the vulnerable, to speak up for the powerless, to reject hatred and intolerance. To help the poor and to pursue peace. 

Of course, none of these virtues belong to Christianity alone - and nor does a belief in social justice depend upon the teachings of Christ. 

No faith has a monopoly on compassion.

No religion ‘owns’ tolerance or charity or love.

Australia is a remarkable country, and  I acknowledge the presence of the Prime Minister and his words today. 

We are a country full of decent and generous people of good conscience, drawn from all faiths and none.

And Australians rightly expect our national leaders, to respect the constitutional separation of Church and State.

Remember John F Kennedy’s, famous response to the allegations that he was the ‘Catholic candidate’?  

He declared that as President he would be: ‘responsible to all faiths, but obligated to none’

I think that is the only religious test Australians apply to their leaders.

Sometimes people describe our modern, multicultural, multi-faith Australia as ‘tolerant’. But the society we have built beneath the Southern Cross surely goes beyond this.

We do not just ‘tolerate’ difference, we celebrate it.

Of course, we expect people to leave behind their old conflicts, to respect our laws, uphold our values. But we do not endure diversity under sufferance - we embrace the contribution that all those who’ve come from across the seas have made to their new home.

And the greatness of our nation is that every person is free to be proud of what they believe.

 

For Australians of faith, religion is a base to build upon in public life, even if it is also a destination for retreat, solace and sustenance in private life.

 

And no faith, no religion, no set of beliefs should ever be used as an instrument of division or exclusion.

 

Those among you of the Christian faith know, far better than I, the Bible teaches us that we are all immutably imperfect.

 

Condemning anyone, vilifying anyone, discriminating against anyone, is a violation of the values that we all share.

 

Freedom of worship does not mean freedom to vilify.

 

Freedom of speech does not mean freedom to express prejudice or hatred.

 

In our society, under our laws, whether we be Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists or atheists – we are all Australians and we are all equal.

 

I believe that values of faith, Christian values for those among us who are Christian can still guide us through the modern world: seeking optimal conditions for raising and educating of our children, whatever their economic circumstances and whatever the personal circumstances of their parents.

 

There is nothing old-fashioned or out-of-date about compassion or respect. Nothing out-dated in the idea of seeking peace, caring for others, contributing to society and loving your family.

 

There's nothing obsolete about wishing to treat everyone as we would wish to be treated ourselves.

 

Indeed, it has never been more relevant and more important.

 

And so finally friends, if we can agree on these things, if we can agree that our duty is to help the vulnerable, to speak up for the powerless, to gather in those who feel marginalised and excluded - how we can continue to draw a line based on who people love?

 

How can compassion, charity, love, recognition and endorsement continue to be restricted to heterosexual Australia?

 

I believe in God and I believe in marriage equality under the civil law of the Commonwealth of Australia.

 

I know that some of you do not share my view - and I recognise that for some people of faith, this is a most vexed question. It is one of the reasons I believe that we should have a free vote in Parliament. 

 

We are a free society, we are entitled to share our views – and I am happy to share mine with you.

 

At its heart, marriage equality is a question of legal recognition and legal support for couples committed to each other regardless of their gender.

 

It's one of my reasons for voting for change are based upon the broad ideal of equality, an Australia that includes everyone. 

 

Our current law, I believe excludes some individuals.

 

It says to them: your relationships are not equally valued by the state, your love is less equal under the law. 

 

Currently we exclude young and not-so-young same-sex attracted Australians.

 

Young people for example, who look at their government, look at their own society and then look at themselves - and see a system, a nation that does not yet accept them or the person that they love. 

 

I believe faith is an opportunity to allow us to recommit to building the foundation for a fairer, more equal society, a more decent and more generous world.  

 

As Pope Francis said in an open letter to the British Prime Minister three years ago on the eve of the G7 summit:

 

 

I don't think there is anything uniquely Catholic about the Pope's comments, nothing exclusively Christian about that statement.

 

Yet I do believe for people of faith, the view of the world that looks beyond ‘treasures stored up on earth’, that rejects the ravages of unfettered mercantilism and empty materialism - I think that can help guide us in our public life.