Beneath the gloss: and they call us “extreme.”

Initially unable to understand what was so ‘fundie’ about Family First, I embarked on a minor quest to see if they were as 14^th century as the rest of the GrodsMilitary thought. I googled them, wikied them, went to their website...

Dear God…they’re all over the place. Hatred of anyone even remotely pro-gays rights, opposed to other cultures alternate to their almighty Judeo-Christian values, these people rival the CDP with their bigotry. They make the CEC look somewhat less like a bunch of tin-foil-hat wearing conspiracy theorists. Brace yourselves, boys and girls…you won’t enjoy this.

This is the article that every FF voter should read: so blatantly homophobic it's a wonder that anyone votes for them. Apparently, this is what Fielding and the FF think:

1. That discrimination is based on sexuality is absolutely fine (given that that's what they're doing).
   
2. That discrimination based on private political beliefs is also fine-it doesn't matter that Warrren it perfectly straight...he still supports the gays. So no preferencing.
3. A 'family' needs both a mum and dad-which would, according to them, disqualify my auntie and cousins from being a family
4. Having an affair whilst your wife is pregnant is more pro-family then having an attraction to someone of the same sex.

This homophobia continues:
Ignoring the stupidity of the smear in general, look at the last two (in particular second last) points they make. No, that isn't a joke-the FF really so seem to think that support groups for gay and transgender adolescents counts as "promoting" homosexuality and is an "extreme value". This is literally the sort of stuff I'd expect from Fred Nile.

And it gets even better:

FORMER Queensland MP Pauline Hanson's hopes of re-entering Parliament at the election have been bolstered after a Senate preference deal between her and the Family First party, a move the Democrats have described as morally bankrupt.

The decision by Family First to put Ms Hanson's United Australia Party ahead of Labor, the Democrats and the Greens on its Queensland Senate card overshadowed the party's campaign launch and left leader Senator Steve Fielding struggling to justify siding with her.

A spokeswoman for Family First told The Age there was no serious indication that Ms Hanson could win a Queensland Senate seat and "on that basis Family First preference decisions were based on keeping the Greens and the Democrats out of Parliament".

Family First have placed Ms Hanson 47th out of 65 on their Senate how-to-vote card. Coalition candidates have been placed from 33 to 38 and Labor, Greens and Democrats make up the last 10 places.

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Senator Fielding said: "You have to preference every single party, you don't have to have things in common with those parties, but you have to preference every single party."

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Ms Hanson has said that African immigrants were spreading HIV in Australia and called for a moratorium on Muslim immigration.

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Senator Fielding launched Family First's campaign from an abandoned petrol station at Lower Templestowe yesterday to emphasise the party's key election policy of a 10-cent cut in petrol taxes.

"It is irresponsible not to cut petrol tax … it helps people make ends meet and … puts downward pressure on inflation."

At the rally, attended by about 80 people, the senator warned against the Greens being given the balance of power in the Senate.

"I think most people know that the Greens are extreme. If they really knew that the Greens would have the balance of power, they'd be really concerned about it," Senator Fielding told reporters.

He said the Greens had extreme policies targeted at the mining and timber industries, as well as a drug policy that would encourage a culture of drugs.

"There is a concern about the issue of drugs, and we see when you have a soft policy on drugs in the AFL what problems it can cause. Now the Greens want to see injecting rooms, the Greens want to see heroin medically prescribed. That is a position soft on drugs and it's irresponsible."

The racist twat can't even defend his preferences without dragging out the drug issue. Apparently, the Green's drug policies are more extreme then supporting a politician who demonises every minority under the sun. These three articles are also excellent.

And it still frickin' continues:

TONY JONES: Well, returning now to the potential control of the balance of power in the Senate by the Family First Party.

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And joining us tonight from Adelaide, the city that is apparently the power base of Family First, the party's chairman, Peter Harris.

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TONY JONES: It may only be getting picked up by the newspapers, but there does seem to be quite a lot of a religious nature, for example, do you stand by the material put out by one of your candidates, Pastor Danny Nalliah in Victoria, who called on his followers to pull down Satan's strongholds.

They included, along with brothels and gambling places, mosques and temples.

Most Australians would consider that to be an incitement to religious violence.

PETER HARRIS: Oh, absolutely.

And some people would see it that way but we, you know, we last week totally distanced ourself from that situation.

We received a letter from the Islamic Council of Victoria.

We responded to that letter and our position is simply that we totally promote and believe in the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, the freedom of choice.

And I personally contacted the Islamic Council of Victoria and expressed that view and they reflected a sense of relief that Family First wasn't about that.

TONY JONES: So what has happened here, Peter?

Have some nutters gotten on board your bandwagon?

PETER HARRIS: Oh, look we certainly wasn't aware of the material that was out there at the time.

But, look, any party, I mean, this is a party that didn't exist federally a short time ago, and we fielded 125 candidates.

And we're going to have a situation --

We're going to have a situation where you've got some people on both the extreme left and the extreme right of situations.

TONY JONES: Alright.

Here's another one.

There are posters put about the seat of McMillan, in the La Trobe Valley, that said, "A vote for Christian Disarray" -- he was the Labor member before he was voted out -- "is a vote for Satan".

PETER HARRIS: Well I'm not aware of that and certainly the party had no involvement in that situation at all.

TONY JONES: So the party doesn't stand by what some of its candidates are doing, that's what you're saying?

PETER HARRIS: Well, I mean, sometimes people say things that are not supportive of the policy of the party, and so in those situation situations, we step in, we deal with those issues and we move forward.

But certainly if you look at the bulk of our campaign throughout the past six weeks, we've run a very balanced, logical, focused campaign and people voted for us because they didn't accept the extreme right or the extremist allegations that were made against us by a range of groups and media.

It should be noted that Danny was also known for calling Muslims "demons" and that they are trying to take over Australia. It's not so much that Danny made such remarks, but more that FF didn't boot him out of their party, ie that Fielding is content to have such extremists within his party. With views like that, I'm surprised Dan and Steve didn't join the openly Islamophobic CDP.

There you have it; hatred of gays, a refusal to remove such blatantly prejudiced candidates, and what is so scary about the FF is how good they are at covering all of this up. Look through their press releases and press statements-all feel-good, populist “families families families” policies, with little else other then cutting the petrol tax. However, unlike his cohorts in Queensland or NSW, Fielding knows precisely how to run a proper campaign. Fred Nile is openly hates Muslims and the less said about Hanson and racial issues the better, so they will never have a hope of becoming a genuine political force . Unlike them, you’d never suspect of Fielding of being anything other then a populist conservative, which is what makes him such a threatening force.