"One would also expect a conservative government to back well-established public institutions like the ABC…".

'One' would be a silly sausage to expect that. The ABC hates conservatives; it is a weapon of socialism.

And apparently it was OK to kill the enemy during the war, but not to hate them. A big ask, and a silly one.

The view expressed in the very last sentence of this piece is the only one that is useful, and true.

"Without a clear view of what humans are for, governments have no view of the future, they have no plan for the development of a community that strives towards the good."

Oh, but politicians do have a clear view of what humans are for:
they are there to prey on, they are there to serve them, they are there to fulfill their desires for power, money and sex.

What politician would possibly want to study theology, where they might learn and be forced to acknowledge that there is a greater power than themselves which runs the universe?

So called theology is not in any sense a science. It never has been nor will it ever be so. Furthermore just as one can use science to prove or disprove anything, so too one use "theology" to justify almost any kind of human behavior.

Just like conventional science it shares the three fundamental myths about the nature of Reality as described in this reference.
http://www.beezone.com/beezones-main-stack/three_great_myths_questioned.html

Many advocates of conventional self-serving religiosity are just as much convicted on the situation described in this essay.
http://www.dabase.org/up-1-6.htm

This is particularly evidence in right wing Christians who want to re-Christianize both Europe, and particularly the USA.
Such is the case with one well known right-wing "catholic" propaganda hack who scribbles for the Australian "news"-paper. Who is the author of two books on the subject of God and Jesus and is calling for the "urgent case of Jesus" in todays world.

Governments make bad decisions because many of their voters expect them to provide benefits in return for the vote & the bureaucrats scramble to oblige.
In their eagerness to gain the voters support, Conservative Government has to not only try to please their supporters but also their opponents who are the bulk of Public Servants & they sabotage not only conservative administrations but also their own as we have witnessed several times now.
People wanting everything for as little as possible effort are the cause of malfunctioning society hence their voting in the politicians most likely to drop the integrity needed to govern for the betterment of the Nation.