Elections > Federal Election 2007 > Candidates

Ewan McDonald

Christian Democratic Party candidate for Victoria

Why I am standing

CANDIDATE PROFILE

Ewan McDonald (age 41) is married to Rebecca and they have two children. Together with his parents, Ewan operates a mixed farming enterprise at Timmering in Northern Victoria (near Rochester). The farm is a combination dry-land and irrigation farm running beef, sheep (wool & prime lamb), winter cereals, and a fodder operation. As an irrigator in the Central Goulburn irrigation district, Ewan has a good knowledge of the issues facing rural Victorians especially regarding drought and low irrigation water allocations.

A self-confessed "no nonsense conservative", Ewan believes in a separation of the institutions of church and State, but that this does not mean Christian morality should be excised from the laws of the State. Ewan believes the majority of the problems facing Australia stem from the fact that over several decades the atheistic worldview of evolutionary/secular humanism has all but replaced the Biblical Christian worldview in Australian society and hence forth in all of our major institutions especially government. As Ewan says, "Evolutionary Humanism has become the unofficial religion of the State."

Ewan has had a long standing interest in politics having been formally involved in the Victorian National Party during which time he served two years as State President of the Young Nationals. Since becoming active in the Christian Democratic Party, Ewan has previously stood as a candidate in the 2006 Victorian State election. Ewan has an unorthodox approach to politics - rather than compromising principle for the sake of populism, he is more concerned with doing what is right. He believes that the personal liberties, freedom, and prosperity enjoyed by the citizens of Western democratic nations including Australia, is due in large part to a foundational culture built upon Judeo-Christian values. It is Ewan's contention that militant secularism threatens to undermine those foundations.

As a member of Right to Life Australia, Ewan is strongly committed to opposing abortion in all its forms and considers abortion to be one of the most serious issue facing our State and Nation. Ewan has a diverse range of interests from shooting to philosophy and theology. Ewan is a current (2007) participant in the Goulburn-Murray (Fairley) Leadership Program.

_{(Statement provided by candidate)}

Important issues in my electorate

Speech to ACL Vic Senate MYCF
Monday November 19, 2007

The Christian Democratic Party was founded by the Reverend Fred Nile who has been a member of the upper-house of the NSW State Parliament for over 25 years, which makes him currently the longest serving member in that parliament. At this election the CDP is running a Senate team in every State with the exception of Tasmania, which makes us a truly national party. Additionally, in both NSW and WA we have candidates contesting every lower-house seat.
 
The Christian Democratic Party believes that Australia was established as a Christian Commonwealth. The first line of the Australian Commonwealth Constitution preamble reads: [quote] "Whereas the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth" [end quote]. Notice the words "humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God". The Australian Constitution is not a 'secular' document.
 
Furthermore, we maintain that the success of Western Civilisation itself is due in large part to the foundation provided by Christianity. Our liberal democratic system and rule-of-law concept which has provided Westerners with a liberty and prosperity unprecedented in human history, are both concepts rooted in Christian theology. Neither secularism nor any other religion for that matter could ever or has ever provided a similar foundation. Today that foundation is very much under threat.
 
The CDP strongly believes that the institutions of church and State are to be separate as this concept is also Christian in its origin, but we reject the popular misconception promoted by Secularists that politics and religion can be separated. Secularism cannot mean a State devoid of religious influence because to remove Christian morality as the foundational moral code for law, simply results in another non-Christian moral code replacing it and all morality is at bottom religious - including Humanism.
 
The Christian foundations of our nation are now being eroded and progressively replaced with humanism. We understand that Australia has never been a perfect Christian nation, but by and large our laws have in the past reflected Christian morality. For example, laws once founded upon biblical morality that upheld the sanctity of human life have given way to Humanism that says that a woman's right to choose overrides the right to life of the preborn child. Since abortion was legalised in most Western democracies 30 to 40 years ago, multiplied tens of millions of innocent lives have been lost. When governments lose sight of God's laws, people lose their lives.
 
The Christian Democratic Party aims to resist the forces of secularism and humanism, and instead pursue policies designed to restore the Christian foundations of Australia's law and government. We are conservative in nature and place priority on policies designed to uphold marriage and family, as well as protecting life and liberty. We have a much different set of priorities to most other political parties and I don't believe the issues that have been at the forefront of this election campaign such as continued economic growth, IR laws, and climate-change, are the most serious issues facing us as a Nation.
 
I am personally convinced that what we are hearing about climate-change is 95% exaggeration, hype and alarmism, and that it is nothing like the threat to the world that is being claimed. Furthermore, the preoccupation with climate-change is distracting public attention from issues that pose a far more serious threat to our future quality of life and social harmony. I am far more concerned with the collapse of public morality and what Andrew Bolt has termed the "coarsening of our culture". Specifically I am referring to the general acceptance and promotion of abortion, homosexuality, pornography, prostitution, infidelity, profanity, drunkenness and gambling, etc.
 
Lastly, another issue of concern to the CDP which is being ignored by most political parties, is that of radical or militant Islamism and the 'war' against terrorism. Let me stress that we have no problem with peace loving Muslims, our concern is that Western governments take appropriate measures to deal with the radical element within Islam which has become an intractable problem within many European Nations.

To that end we are proposing an immigration policy that aims to give priority to Christians of any race fleeing persecution. We would also place a moratorium on Muslim immigration at least until the government and the domestic Islamic community have had time to implement policies that will effectively deal with radicalisation. Let me stress that this is not a race based policy for the obvious reason that neither Christianity or Islam is a race - they are religions with adherents representing every nation on earth.
 
So on November 24 Vote 1 Christian Democratic Party for decency and Godly government.

_{(Statement provided by candidate)}

Important policy documents

CDP-V Campaign Launch Speech
by Ewan McDonald
October 15, 2007


A little about me

For those who don't know me I am a farmer from Northern Victoria. I grew up in the Presbyterian church and have been a committed Christian for most of my adult life. I'm married to Rebecca and we have two young children with an intention to have more. I have been active in politics, also for most of my adult life, having been previously involved with the Victorian branch of the National Party for about ten years, during which time I served on their State Council and State Management committees and was also involved with the Young Nationals as their State President for a couple of years. I left the National Party over philosophical differences, and after a couple of years of no direct involvement in politics, about three years ago I joined the Christian Democratic Party. I believe the CDP's approach to politics is philosophically and biblically sound.


Secularism - A false religion?

I want to sound an alarm tonight. Many are beginning to wake up to the threat posed by militant Islam, but how many are awake to the threat of militant Secularism? If a false religion had taken over our governments, our political parties, our schools and universities, our courts, our media, our entertainment industry, etcetera, we would be rightly alarmed. We would hopefully even be found fighting against it. But this is exactly what has happened and most Christians haven't even noticed, but they have felt the effects of it. The false religion to which I am referring is most commonly known as 'Secular Humanism' but I personally prefer the more accurate description of 'Evolutionary Humanism' or simply 'Secularism'.

Having already achieved the dominant status in our culture, the supporters of Secularism are making every effort to consolidate their influence. In politics and government in particular, the secularists are entrenching their power by actively opposing all other religious views, especially the Christian view, from having any influence on public policy. It is in the Secularists interest to misrepresent the relationship between 'church and state' or 'religion and politics' by presenting it as a dichotomy of 'religion versus reason'. But this isn't true. Secularism is a religion in its own right, and a godless one at that. The fact that secularism is a worldview or religion in its own right, either escapes them or it is one they are deliberately concealing.

Just as there is no neutrality in the Kingdom of God - we are either for God or against Him - neither can there be any neutrality in politics and government. That politics and religion are inseparable is clear to anyone who understands that: politics is about government; government is about legislation; legislation is about law; law is about morality; and morality clearly relates directly to somebody's worldview or religion.

The CDP believes that Australia was established as a “Christian Commonwealth”. If Australia was meant to be a so-called 'secular' state then someone forgot to tell the original authors of the Australian Commonwealth Constitution who proclaimed in the preamble to be “humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God”. As any historian will confirm, this is clearly a reference to the God worshipped by Christians, not some universalist notion of god.

Why a Christian Party?

But why do we need an overtly Christian party? Can't we challenge the Secularists through Christians becoming involved in the established major parties? Of course we can, but times have changed. Back when the present major political parties were formed, 50 to 100 years ago, it would have been unnecessary to have an overtly Christian party like the CDP, because in those days the majority worldview in Australian society was Christian. Therefore all political parties at one time reflected this worldview. So we could consider the Labor, Liberal and National parties as once having been Christian, if not in name at least in outlook. But they are Christian no more, and although Christians are still active in those parties, their influence is minimal.

As I've already said, the Secularists have taken over the major parties and unless Christians decide en masse to join those parties then I don't see any hope of change at least in the short term. So there is today, more than ever, the need for a party that is overtly Christian in outlook, that can boldly promote the Christian position on a host of issues, and can provide discerning Christians an alternative at the ballot box.


Whose Family Values?

Is it right for Christians to disguise their motives and run under the banner of secularism? Maybe in some circumstances, but it certainly is confusing and leads to a host of philosophical contradictions and inconsistencies. For example, some Christians have taken the view that we shouldn't be overtly Christian, that it is enough to say we just promote 'Family Values', but I don't believe there is any such thing as universal 'Family Values'. For example, Islam has different family values to Christianity - polygamy is permitted in Islam - and Secularists generally support same-sex marriage by appealing to notions of equality. It is therefore a nonsense to say we support family values unless we are also prepared to state openly whose version of family values we are wanting to uphold. There is no such thing as 'secular' or neutral family values. When the CDP says, "we support marriage and the family", what we are meaning is that we support Christian concepts of marriage and family.


What we are for? / What we are against?

So what kind of things does the CDP stand for exactly? Because many of our policies are seen to be opposing so many so-called 'progressive' policies ('progressive' being just leftist code for small 'l' liberal), the CDP is often accused of being overly negative, but this is just a matter of perception. It is precisely because the institutions and concepts that we most strongly defend also happen to be the ones that are under the severest attack, that we appear to be always on the defensive. But let me give you a list of the principles we support:

We are for the Sanctity of Human Life - which is why we are opposed to abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and euthanasia.

We are for Families and Children - which is another reason why we are against abortion, and why we are against adoption and IVF for singles and unmarried couples whether they be homosexual or heterosexual.

We are for Marriage - which is why we are against anything that undermines marriage, including government recognition and support for de facto heterosexual or same-sex relationships.

We are for Decency - which is why we oppose all forms of pornography.

We are for Justice and Righteousness - which is why we resist the trend for leniency in our Criminal Justice System.

We are for Godly government - which is why we are against corruption and self interest;

We are for Prosperity and Economic Growth - which is why we are against big government and high taxation;

We are for Truth - which is why we are against the dogmatic teaching of evolution and why instead we promote the academic freedom to both critique evolution and allow for the teaching of Creationism in schools;

We are for Religious Freedom - which is why we are against all forms of religious vilification law.

We are prepared to take sides - which is why we preference the Coalition parties ahead of Labor - not because we endorse everything the Coalition does but because Labor has some explicitly anti-Christian policies such as their intention to introduce Federal religious vilification laws.

We are proudly conservative - socially, economically, and theologically.


Preferential voting

In conclusion, let me remind people that a vote for a minor party candidate is never a wasted vote even if that candidate is not elected. Preferential voting has the great advantage of ensuring that no vote is wasted. If your first preference candidate is not elected then your vote is transferred to your next preference until one candidate achieves a majority in the case of the House of Representatives, or in the case of the Senate, until all of the quotas are filled. To the winning candidate, a second or subsequent preference vote is not a discounted vote but can be as important as a primary vote. I therefore ask you all to support Christian values in government and Vote 1 CDP on November 24.

_{(Statement provided by candidate)}

Contact Details

Other Candidates

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* ALLISON, Lyn - DEM
BAPTIST, Tania - SEP
BARRETT, Jenny - SOL
BHATHAL, Alexandra - GRN
BOWN SEELEY, Ann - FFP
BYRNE, Peter - SEP
CHIPP, Greg - DEM
CLANCY, Steve - LDP
CLARNETTE, Dallas - CDP
COLLINS, Jacinta - ALP
CONWAY, Andrew - IND
CREA, Paul - DLP
DI NATALE, Richard - GRN
EVELYN-LIARDET, Teresa - DLP
FEENEY, David - ALP
* FIFIELD, Mitch - LP
FLOOD, Gerry - DLP
GIBILISCO, Peter - CA
GRAHAM, Matt - ASP
GROVES, Llewellyn - ONWA
HALL, Brendan - NCP
HEATH, Clare - FFP
HENLEY, Emma - GRN
HOWARD, Ainslie - CCC
ISHERWOOD, Katherine - CEC
KALINIY, Joseph - IND
KARADIMOS, Patricia - CA
KLEIN, Amanda - IND
KLEIN, Tony - IND
KROGER, Helen - LP
LA MANNA, Pat - DLP
LEWAND, Viesha - CCE
LEWIS, Marg - ALP
LOVE, Madeleine - WWW
* MARSHALL, Gavin - ALP
MCCUBBIN, Jo - DEM
MESARITIS, Koulla - IND
MULHOLLAND, John - DLP
O'BRYAN, Darryl - IND
O'CONNOR, Jenny - GRN
PARKER, Brett - ASP
PERKINS, John - IND
PHAM, Hoa - GRN
PIERCE, Jude - IND
PLUMRIDGE, Gary - FFP
PODBURY, Monique - FFP
RASKOVY, Steve - CCE
RAWSON, Miriam - FFP
REIHER, Jim - GRN
RHODES, Junelle - CA
ROSE, Robert - SOL
ROZAIRO, Sashikala - CCC
RYAN, Scott - LP
SAW, Geoff - LDP
SENER, Tejay - IND
SHORE, Daniel - ON
SMITH, Jeremy - SAL
STEEL, Nick - ON
SWAYN, Simon - NP
THOMPSON, Robyn - WWW
TOSCANO, Joseph - IND
WALKER, Norman - IND
WELLS, Ken - DLP
WILLIS, Chris - FFP
WINDISCH, Margarita - SAL
ZABANEH, John - NCP

* incumbent

Previous Elections

Ewan has also been a candidate in the following elections:

Victoria Election 2006