reh said:
It is clear that the christian allusions plague parliament and the constitution as well as general society (ie. it is a christian minister to prays at the dawn service on anzac day every year), and so in that sense, the constitution was 'influenced by' christian values.
'Plague parliament and the constitution' or are integrated components of them? I certainly think that the values on which they are based are Christian and were created in a Christian framework, our current empathy and acceptance of different religions, I think arises from Christianity, yet now we have the choice to reject them. These values have, if you will, transcended the religion, and so now it's easy for atheists to be moral and criticise religion. In the past though, Godlessness didn't just mean without a God, it meant without morals, selfish, greedy.
The idea of the Good Samaritan for example can be seen in many of our values of forgiveness, helping a mate; and I'm told that's what Australia was founded on.
And as to an Aboriginal PM, I don't think so. I would certainly vote for one if they promoted policies that I liked, but any more Native Land Title Acts and the likes and they would lose my support very very quickly. I think lots of Australian's would question how detached an Aboriginal politician could be from these policies. It would depend on this person's ability to represent the majority, not the minority of Aboriginal people which would be very difficult.
I suggest that if there were an Aboriginal PM, that unless he/she could show they were Christian, supported democracy, society, not radical etc. that they could be elected. There would be a degree of racism to overcome... but then there are the idiots who would vote for him/her for the simple fact that he/she is Aboriginal to try and prove that they're not discriminatory. They don't see the hypocrisy of this... but yeah.