Not sure that Bill Shorten's religion has any relevance in politics? And our Parliament all the better for it.
Tony Abbott however, is a very different case, as his religious beliefs inform many/most of his decisions? (Abortion, same sex marriage?)
Rhrosty.

I suspect there will always be a higher proportion of churchgoers in politics than in the population as a whole, simply because politicians and churchgoers are both committed to the idea of collectivism; they believe in getting together in groups and working towards consensus. I don't know if the Catholic ideology will influence Abbott's government, but I don't see how it can do much more damage than the Labor government's ideological commitment to pay off whatever group or individual happened to be threatening them most loudly at the time. After all, we've had 2000 years to come up with ways to combat Catholic doctrine.

'Tony Abbott however, is a very different case, as his religious beliefs inform many/most of his decisions? (Abortion, same sex marriage?) '

thank God for that. We see the wreckage daily by the god deniers and it aint pretty.

We see the wreckage daily of the God deniers, please explain Runner,
A persons own religion has no place in politics, politicians are there to represent the public they serve, not their religious beliefs.

Religion has no place outside the home, period !
Even less in Politics.
When people lost faith they invented religion, just look around at all the hypocrisy. Some of the most useless but corrupt bureaucrats I deal with go to church every sunday to worship or rather be seen to worship whilst rorting in the protection of the public service.
I still wonder why they raved on about Joh's Goverment being corrupt & kicked him out only to replace him with Goss, Beatty & Bligh. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

I suspect Individual is correct.
I think many politicians like to be seen going to church, so they can be sure of the Christian votes. I would hope that there aren't too many voters out there that would vote for a politician simply for their religious beliefs alone.

Maybe I'm a bit cynical, but I too have known many so-called Christian church-goers who are the nastiest people around!

One does not have to be a Christian, or indeed any God believer, to have favourable morals and ethics, and that goes for politicians too.