Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's passing strange that, in a world like the one we're living in today, with all of the challenges households and businesses face, we'd be debating something at least in the public domain like their prayers said at the beginning of any parliamentary session. But, now it's up for debate, I'm going to put on record my personal views around the prayer, and as a Christian I'm very proud to be doing so. As we know, of course, participation in the Lord's Prayer at the beginning of any session of parliament and on any sitting day is a voluntary thing. It's something I encourage others to do, but, certainly, as I say, as with all commencement proceedings it is voluntary; it is not compulsory.

Recognising that we as humans can use all the help we can get is, I would have thought, something that would receive broad support in the community. Acknowledging that we don't have all the answers, that we don't get everything right, that we are, in fact, fallible is something I think that most people out there in the real world would agree with. That's what this prayer that we say every day is all about. It's important to acknowledge that the job we do here is so crucial. On behalf of the Australians who elect us to come here and to represent them, we have to get the job right. So, to that end, asking God to help us can't be a bad thing, in my view, and I wouldn't have thought that, even to atheists, it would it be a bad thing.

As Nick Cater said today in the Australian, in his rallying call for conservatives to unite around causes like this, amongst others, recognising that there is something bigger than ourselves is a good counter for human hubris—again, something I think most Australians would agree with when it comes to representative democracy. As it says in the good book, in Romans 14:16, do not let what you know to be good be spoken of as evil.