There’s a move afoot in our Parliament that needs your attention.

Several weeks ago, I was prompted to look at an issue somewhat different to the subject matter I typically present in my weekly newsletter to Western Australian subscribers – many of whom are not Christians and have little interest in prayer. Much less the fact that in WA we open every sitting day of Parliament with the Lord’s Prayer, as is the practice of all Australian parliaments except for the Australian Capital Territory.

There is more to the Lord’s Prayer than stuffy tradition or an outdated quasi-religious practice.

To put things in context, this subject comes on the back of a recent review of the Legislative Assembly’s standing orders where it was noted that the Lord’s Prayer ‘reflects a long-standing parliamentary tradition and has historically provided a sense of solemnity at the commencement of proceedings’. Something that is true itself but as some of the submissions to the review demonstrated clearly means much more than that.

In part, the review stated that some contend ‘that the exclusive use of a Christian prayer no longer reflects the diversity of Western Australian society or the contemporary composition of the Assembly’. That may be the case and I understand that, for those who do not identify with the Christian faith, it might feel out of place to observe the tradition. And, in fact, the review mentioned that ‘concerns were raised’ that some members were avoiding the chamber at the start of proceedings to ‘avoid participation in a religious observance’.

On the back of this review, the Member for Bassendean, Dave Kelly MLA publicly called for the scrapping of the Lord’s Prayer and replacing it, instead with a moment of silence. His stated reason was that ‘WA is now a proud multicultural community welcoming citizens from all around the world, with many religions and no religion’ and that ‘now more than ever we should strive to make everyone feel welcome and included’.

While for some, the removal of the Lord’s Prayer might sound reasonable, I am very much of view that it isn’t and instead is a view that either misunderstands the purpose of the prayer or has, in my personal opinion, an agenda beyond simply trying to make it, as is the fashion, more ‘inclusive’ by tearing down and replacing anything resembling our founding traditions and values.

As a member of the Legislative Council, this is a matter that does not affect my chamber as we have our own rules, but it is a matter that affects my conscience and offends my sense of who we are as a Parliament and the importance of the traditions behind so many of the things we do.

Those who know me, know that I am very much a committed (even if imperfect) Christian and have been for decades. Although growing up in the Anglican Church, spending my teen years at a Catholic boarding school, and coming to truly know Christ as a young sailor in the Navy, after which I’ve spent many years in everything from Baptist, to Anglican and, for the past 18 years or so as in the Presbyterian Church, it is not simply a case of my personal faith being offended by attacks on the Christian tradition underpinning our state and nation. It runs much deeper than that.

I do not simply identify as Christian, but it is at the core of who I am and cannot be separated from my existence. We as a nation did not simply decide to identify as a Christian nation at our founding, it too was at the very core of our being as a country and built upon the very self-conscious Christian foundation of our English roots.

The cultural, civilisational, and governance structures that we enjoy are inseparable from the faith from which they arose. As T.S. Eliot says in his 1939 book, The idea of a Christian Society, ‘If Christianity goes, the whole culture goes.’ Does this mean that our culture will or should always remain distinctly English? No, that is not what Eliot is saying. Christianity itself did not arise as an English phenomenon but as a faith that, despite its roots in the ancient Middle East, transcends civilisations. It does mean however that, separated from its Christian foundations, our culture does not hold and becomes something else entirely. That something else is likely (not just possibly) to be darker, less free, and, at best, no longer the place for which people sell all and cross oceans for the opportunity to share in its blessings.

As Australians, we have come from and we welcome people from every corner of the Earth. They leave their own nations and come to this country in pursuit of the opportunities, the freedoms, and a way of life of which so many others can only dream. It is too easy to forget that these blessings did not emerge out of a vacuum and cannot be taken for granted. They were the deliberate fruit of a system of government built intentionally from a centuries-old foundation of biblical Christianity.

As the author Os Guinness puts it, our system isn’t founded on raw power like Rome, or on academic logic and rhetoric like ancient Greece. It is covenantal, which means it rests on neither elite rule nor mob rule, but on sacred agreements forged over time, guided by the books of the Old and New Testament. Those in power are there only through the consent of the governed, none are above the law, and all, including the King and Parliament itself, under God.

The Lord’s Prayer in Parliament is not merely a ‘long standing tradition’ nor an empty symbolic gesture of a time no longer relevant, but a real and essential reminder and link to the core of who we are as a nation. Established in the English House of Commons as a regular practice from 1567, the Lord’s Prayer provides the words of Christ which guide us in a time of solemn reflection on who we are as imperfect human beings and is a daily acknowledgement that we are not our own gods. It reminds us that the foundations entrusted to us by the people are not ours to do with as we please.

For those of us entrusted with the laws of this state, it is a reminder that we are just as reliant, just as prone to temptation, and just as vulnerable to failure as every other Western Australian. Our separation of powers, our traditions and our institutions all recognise this truth, and we ignore it at our peril.

The nations that acknowledge and continue to hold to the essential values of their Christian foundations are consistently the most desired places on earth to live. They remain that way because they are the most free because it is these foundations that enable all to be truly included as equals in every way.

Australia is a nation built on immigration, and we are proud of it. But we are also a nation with a heart and a soul of our own. The traditions that bind us in our institutions and as a people are ones we have built upon and are not ours, nor anyone else’s, to flippantly throw away.

In my 0pinion, there are some who seem to think that to make people feel included we must embrace that failing project called multiculturalism and strive to change who we are as Australians to accommodate almost anyone at the expense of ourselves.

I contend that is not just wrong but wrongheaded.

As I mentioned above, and what we intuitively all know, the people who come to this country come because they love it. They love the culture we as Australians all share. And we are able to welcome them so freely because we are a welcoming people, not because we have rearranged our values, our lives, and our identity to accommodate the discomfort of a few.

As enriched as we have been by so many of those who have come to call Australia home, the Lord’s Prayer reflects the heart and soul of our culture and our nation and its presence, whether a Christian or not, continues to strengthen us all.

Hon Phil Twiss MLC for WA