Transcript of interview of Dr John L. Perkins,
President, Secular Party of Australia
with Bill Birtles 2SER 107.3 FM

Dr John L Perkins (JLP):
Well, the Secular Party has been formed because we wanted to bring a new type of discussion to Australian politics. We want to raise issues that are currently not being discussed and we believe it is of critical importance that they are discussed. And if you like, I'd like to make a statement to illustrate the type of thing that we would like to bring to politics. Consider the following statement - Religions are delusions and they're leading the world to destruction.
Now that is a statement that you won't hear any politician make. It is a statement that even in the newspapers you are unlikely to see. Now we believe that that is a true statement. We can put forward a lot of rational arguments to say why that is the case. And given that it is the case, it's a statement of critical importance, but it is something that is beyond discussion at the moment.

INTERVIEWER:
Well I want to get on to your key policy of the separation of Church and State. Many Australians would probably assume that the link in this country between the two isn't that strong. How strong is it?

JLP: It's commonly believed that Australia is a secular state but in fact it's not. When Australia was federated, for example, education was universal, secular and free, whereas at the moment we have 70% of federal government funding going to religious schools, and also at the moment, we have all sorts of intrusions of religious views into political policies into Australia. So the separation of Church and State in Australia is more apparent than real. So one of the key objectives of the Secular Party is to reassert that separation of religion from politics.

INTERVIEWER:
Now I refer to a text written recently by Marion Maddox called God Under Howard, where she claimed that these days politicians to try to directly court the religious vote, and we've seen this through various leaders appearing at Hillsong Churches and so forth, but on many key issues which are important to religion, abortion being the key one, the PM has refused to open up a debate. So do you think that there really is a need in politics at least to formally separate the Church and State?

JLP: Yes definitely, I think there is. And on this issue in particular, people put forward various opinions, but underlying these opinions, there is a religious persuasion which influences their view. And it is what we regard as being an unnecessary and unhelpful intervention of religious views in politics, and it is not an openly acknowledged one, but it should be.

INTERVIEWER:
But surely there's always going to be the problem that politicians have their own religious views which will influence their decisions in politics, and even if you separate church and state, that's always going to be there, their own religious views?

JLP: Yes, I agree. But the problem here is that the religious views are having influence but the religious views are not being acknowledged, so people are putting forward their moral ideas on abortion or the contraceptive pill and so forth, but they will not acknowledge their moral views in these matters derive from a religious doctrine, and we regard these religious doctrines as being unhelpful in forming a balanced moral view which is the way political judgements in these things should be formed.

INTERVIEWER:
Now religion has always been an important part of Australian society, and in the 2001 census, over 70% of Australians still identified with some form of religion. So do you think that secularisation of the state could still win some form of popular support?

JLP: That statistic also leaves open the alternative that there's 30% of people who don't identify with a religion. Now, those people don't have a voice at the moment. We hope to provide it for them. I think once these views are aired, people will hopefully begin to look at the situation differently. We hope to put forward the view that people don't need to identify with a religion, and that in fact the identification with a religion is causing a whole lot of problems in the world and within our own society that are not helpful and not necessary.

INTERVIEWER:
I want to ask you about your other policies. You seem to put forward a mix of progressive social policy combined with a mix of progressive economic policy. Where would you say you stand on the political spectrum?

JLP: Well we stand right in the middle as regards to left and right issues and we deliberately take a policy stance in that area. We believe that the old left and right battle between labour and capital and so forth is an anachronism. And these issues can simply be resolved by a balance between the interests of the private individual and the public good. All parties, no matter what identification they have, they all seek to achieve a balance in that area. And we believe we can seek to achieve that balance based on rational arguments and judgements and we believe that the primary issue now is based on where society is going between this division between what we'd say is religion-ism and rationalism or secularism, and that's where we stand - putting forward the argument in favour of secular values and increasing the value of secular values in society.