Its still a threat. They haven't gone away just because they were seemingly unsuccessful in getting what they want. LOok at their leverage on private school funding just for starters.

There is undoubtable some cheer to be gained from this analysis - however I believe that the point raised in the previous post is absolutely valid. The religious right has not gone away, and I fear will be constitute an ever increasing threat to liberalism, fairness, and logical analysis. When we have thousands of children without homes and left to the tender mercies of the various church charities- not to mention the apparently bungling inefficiency of 'docs' - how anyone can deny ratification of same sex marriages - a ratification that would substantially alleviate this problem is utterly beyond my comprehension - unless of course the mindless stupidity of the self styled 'holy' bible is invoked. Then of course it all makes sense. Such people would obviously rather see defensless children sexually assaulted, brutalised and alienated, as has happened to so many, than see them in a loving and secure same sex relationship.

As an aside, it should be remembered that Mr Nelson supports the introduction of so called 'Intelligent Design' into school curriculums - a fact that seems to have retreated into the backwater of the public psyche. Don't be fooled - Nelson is a Howard clone with intelligence, and all the more dangerous for that.

"Nelson is a Howard clone with intelligence, and all the more dangerous for that."

True, which is why he'll try and do what Howard did and gain support issue by issue, split by split. But it won't be on the same issues Howard did. There's no point. This election demonstrated that, contrary to beliefs in the sealed off world of Canberra, Australia is not, and has never been, America.

As the article pointed out, the influence of the religious lobby might have been strong on the Howard government, but it didn't convince the electorate and it's the electorate that matters. The next election has already started and neither side is about to ignore the majority view in favour of small handfuls of nutters. Not anymore. Our brief flirtation with fundamentalist whackjobbery is over.

Rudd has already drawn a distinction between your average christianity and the 'dangerous sect' type. These oddball American import extremists won't last the distance. There's just not enough misery and fear in this country for them to get a foot hold.

Certainly both Howard and Costello, though apparently both members of the more traditional churches, did attend the Hillsong Church occasionally, possibly to gain more favour with fundamentalist voters?

Maybe in doing so, they did lose votes through it?

Cheers - BB, WA.

There haven't been many articles that cheered me as much as this one did.

I was quite pleased when I saw Abbott's popularity was languishing on 9 per cent. I'm quite happy to take that as a sign Australia is rejecting this weird hardcore conservatism which has sprung up over the last half decade.

The astounding thing about Christians conservatives' involvement in politics is that they strain at gnats and swallow camels. They supported a party that sent asylum seekers to their deaths, that kept children in immigration detention after it was know to cause lasting depression, that put forward the idea that the national interest could be part of the justification for war, that put workers with bad employers in a position where they could be forced to lose their time with their families, that deliberately fostered new and old prejudices, that allowed the SIEV X passengers to drown, and that supported Saddam Hussein through the AWB corruption. They wupported a party that engaged, that is, in undeniably great evils. So much for their Christian values.