Home > Beliefs Survey > WA Legislative Assembly Election 2008
List of Candidates for Merredin (WA)
= previously sitting member
Ballot PositionCandidatePartyQ1Q2Q3Q4Q5Q6Q7Q8Q9Q10Total

FamilyVoice survey scoring rewards openness and honesty. Failure to acknowledge the survey scores zero. A response to the survey is scored separately for each question: full agreement (Yes Definitely) scores 10, Probably = 7, Unsure = 5, Unlikely = 3, total opposition (Definitely Not) = 2, and No Comment = 1. The total score for all 10 questions thus ranges from 0 to 100.

Questionnaire

Candidates were asked to indicate how they would vote or did vote on these issues by answering the questions. If they are bound by party policy on a particular question, they were asked to provide an answer in accordance with that policy.

1. Prayers in parliament
Prayers in parliament are an important daily reminder that we must all ultimately answer to the higher authority of Almighty God. The prayers, which consist of the Lord's Prayer and a request for God's guidance, are an expression of the Christian foundation of our nation. According to the latest census, about 60% of Western Australians identify with Christianity.
Would you vote to support the continued opening of parliament with Christian prayers?

2. Adoption
Children have the right, all things being equal, to know the love and care of their natural mother and father. When children are relinquished for adoption, their right to grow up in an intact family with a mother and father who are married to one another should be upheld wherever possible. Same-sex couples cannot provide a child with both a father and a mother.
Would you vote to repeal the WA law which currently allows same-sex and unmarried couples to adopt babies?

3. Reproductive Technology
Same-sex couples cannot naturally produce children together. Artificial reproduction should not be allowed to be used to produce children where it is intended to deny the child the right to either a father or a mother, as is the case where a single woman or a woman in a lesbian relationship is allowed to use this technology. Birth certificates should state the name of the mother, and of the father if his identity is known. A woman should not be falsely described as a "parent" in the place of a father.
Would you vote to repeal the WA law which currently allows single women and lesbians to access reproductive technology?

4. Abortion
The WA abortion toll of over 8000 deaths per year - about one third of all births - is a tragedy. Studies show that pregnant women who abort their unborn babies - often because the women wrongly believe they have no other option - are more likely to suffer depression, other illness, accidents and even death in the months or years that follow. Centres supporting pregnant women with abortion alternatives deserve funding for ultrasound scanners and other assistance, and the law needs to protect unborn children from abortion.
Would you vote to restore protection for unborn children from abortion?

5. Cannabis
There is increasing evidence of the harm done by cannabis use to the human brain, causing greatly increased risks of depression, short-term memory loss, schizophrenia and psychotic episodes. The WA government should send a clear message that cannabis is dangerous, enforcing significant penalties for possession and growing plants, as well as providing rehabilitation programs for addicts.
Would you vote to make the possession of cannabis and the growing of any number of cannabis plants criminal offences with substantial penalties?

6. Age of consent
Homosexuals often target teenage boys, plying them with gifts, pornography and alcohol or drugs in order to "groom" them to accept homosexual activity. Increasing the age of consent for homosexual activity to 18 would provide an important protection for such boys.
Would you vote to increase the age of consent for homosexual acts from 16 to 18?

7. Prostitution
Prostitution problems - including drug abuse, street and child prostitution - have escalated in states which have legalised or decriminalised the prostitution trade. The current government proposal is to legalise brothels in selected 'entertainment and tourist precincts' possibly including Fremantle. This is likely to lead to an increase in prostitution problems as experienced elsewhere.
Would you vote against any law to legalise brothels in 'entertainment precincts'?

8. Euthanasia
Human life is precious from conception until natural death. Doctors need training in palliative care, which is able to relieve the pain and emotional distress some dying patients experience, and the right of all patients to refuse treatment which is burdensome. This is not the same as euthanasia, which means the provision of drugs with the deliberate intention of killing the patient, and should never be legalised.
Would you vote against any proposal to allow doctors to intentionally kill their patients?

9. Sunday trading
West Australians do not need to shop every day. Families need at least one day in the week when they can be reasonably sure that every one can be together, to worship or to relax. The "day of rest" is an important part of our heritage. Its abolition would put further pressure on the already fragile family unit.
Would you vote to support the continued restriction on Sunday trading to provide one "family day" per week?

10. Gambling
WA has fewer problem gamblers than all other states and territories for one reason - poker machines, the most highly addictive form of gambling, are not available in local pubs and clubs. Restrictions on poker machines should be kept, and other even more highly addictive types of machines should not be allowed into the Burswood Casino.
Would you vote to retain the ban on pokies in any part of WA outside the Burswood Casino?