PARRAMATTA Bishop Kevin Manning has rejected claims that his criticism of the Work Choices legislation is politically based.
Bishop Manning told The Catholic Leader his opposition to the laws was based on the Church’s official teaching and it was irrelevant to him which party had created the legislation.
The bishop’s comments followed Federal Minister Tony Abbott’s speech to a conference organised by Australian Catholic Student’s Association earlier this month.
In the speech Mr Abbott said that “clearly (the bishop) had a political disagreement with the government, but was it a moral one?”
Bishop Manning said that the Church’s official position on the relations between employers and workers was clearly stated in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.
“It does not matter to me whose policy or whose legislation it was: whether it’s Coalition policy or ALP policy.
“In that sense my position is apolitical.”
Mr Abbott, in his speech also challenged Bishop Manning and “his supporters” to “explain why there’s more justice in unemployment at 10.9% (under Labour) than at 4.2%.”
Bishop Manning said he believed the minister’s line of reasoning on this issue was “flawed”.
The bishop said matters such as the “cost to the human person” needed to be considered.
