Senator Joyce today said, “The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Harry Jenkins, has proposed the removal of the time honoured tradition of reading the Lord’s Prayer before Parliament.”

“This is an action that unifies a bipartisan response.”

Senator Joyce said, “It won’t be the only one Harry can expect as the Labor, National and Liberal Parties, along with Independents, will be overwhelmingly circumspect of the benefits to be gained from such a process of removal.”

“Firstly, it should be noted that saying the Lord’s Prayer before Parliament is not compulsory. Furthermore, to recognise your own inevitable flaws for at least a short period of the day through shared prayer among a unified and not partisan group is a positive thing. To contemplate that, as a politician, you are not the centre of the world, but rather a small but significant part of wider community engagement is a grounding activity. It should not become the victim of a contemporary renovation of Parliament.”

Senator Joyce went on to say, “While the Lord’s Prayer reflects a Christian ethos, I cannot think of anything in it that would be inflammatory to other faiths.”

“The last thing anyone would want, although I am doubtful to believe this would happen, is for this matter to become a partisan dispute. This is not a political point scoring issue. I do not believe that reading the Lord’s Prayer at the commencement of the day is in any way detrimental to the activities which follow.”

“While participation in reading the Lord’s Prayer is encouraged, it is certainly not compulsory. As such, I find Mr Jenkins’ desire to remove this activity an extraordinary and peculiar move.”

Ends