A coalition of justice, education and welfare groups have come together to urge all Australians to consider carefully, not only their values, but all they hold sacred, to rebuild justice, to strengthen the community and to vote for the common good.
The election kit, Voting for the Common Good, was launched last week. The kit and the video were created to amplify the needs of the broader community and to remind all of us that we are all really in this together.
“Paul Keating once said when we change the Prime Minister we change the nation. I don’t think so. I think when the nation changes so do politicians,” said Julie Macken, one of the project coordinators. “Since the last federal election, our communities have lived through historic bushfires, floods, and of course, the pandemic. Add to this the horrors we’re witnessing in Afghanistan and the devastation in Ukraine, and there is no doubt that this is an election like no other. It is time for the community to become the leaders we have been hoping for.
“This is an extraordinary moment in our nation’s life and we have to start the work of re-building all that has been broken in recent years; our environment, our jobs, our homes and our communities. In this moment, we are called once again to claim our fundamental beliefs in the good of community, to prioritise those who are vulnerable, to speak truth to power, and to engender new conversations.”
“We’re impelled to take action,” added Joelle Sassine, Research and Project Officer at the Justice and Peace Office at the Archdiocese of Sydney.
“As a young Australian, it is my generation that faces a catastrophic future if we don’t act. Climate change, a housing crisis, and a crisis of confidence in our political system, are now part of our inheritance.
“We know that it is those who are most defenceless who are most immediately affected by the devastation we are causing Earth – to say nothing of the defenceless members of our community who are suffering grief and serious harm – older Australians, First Nations Peoples and asylum seekers and refugees, among others,” she said.
“The network of supporters are committed to working together, within the diversity of our communities,” said Sr Jan Barnett from the Josephite Justice Network.
“We need to sharpen and deepen our understanding of what it means to vote for the common good – and not just for what benefits us personally; not that which ignores or sidesteps those most vulnerable in our society, or the global crises of war, asylum seekers and refugees; not that which flouts or discounts the climate emergency; but the precious sense of community, the reality that we are all in this together, and that caring for each other will lead to new trust and hope, and a new beginning for us all.”
You can download the kit at this link.
