CHURCH leaders are calling on Queenslanders to stand for truth and human dignity as they head to the ballot box this month.
The Queensland Bishops Election Statement, released today, said the sunshine state was a relative safe-haven against the backdrop of ailing democracies overseas, but to remain vigilant.
The bishops said Queensland was at a higher risk than other Australian states of undue influence because it did not have an upper house to check the power of the government of the day.
“In 1989, the Fitzgerald Report recommended an expanded parliamentary committee system and new institutions of integrity; but in the meantime these have been subject at times to partisan executive government manipulation, whoever is in power,” the bishops said.
The bishops warned the influence of polarisation, populism and post-truth was formidable and could spread easily on social media and the internet.
“These ideas and ideologies may be based on lies and disinformation which can have a destabilising effect and make it difficult for any government to govern effectively,” the statement said.
“They can open the door to those who want to dismantle democracy from within by undermining the checks and balances of democratic institutions, by treating the law with contempt, by denigrating society’s experts and calling into question the very notion of truth.”
The bishops said healthy political debate needed to be founded on a common understanding of truth and trust.
From that foundation, evidence and sound reasoning could inform approaches and policies.
Without a foundation of truth and trust, polarisation creeps in to “demonise the other, paving the way to populism and, with it, demagoguery and tyranny”.
“Such polarisation plays on people’s fears by telling lies about the other,” the bishops said.
“The prime lie is that there are people in the world, or in the state, who are less than human or who are fundamentally evil and not worthy of respect or care and not deserving of the rights proper to all people.
“In short, these lies deny the dignity of every human being.
“They are not recognised as lies, because in a world where there’s no such thing as truth, there’s no such thing as a lie.
“This is the dystopian world of post-truth.”
The bishops called on elected officials to stand up for the truth, to work for the good of all and recognise populism for what it was.
Queenslanders will head to the ballot box on October 26.
