The 'Common Good'

Australia’s Catholic bishops say:

Our democratic political process is one that we should value greatly.

We want to focus your attention on some key issues of vital concern to the Australian community.

We encourage Catholics to look beyond their own individual needs to apply a different test at the ballot box – the test of what we call the common good. The good of the individual and the good of society as a whole must be brought together in harmony. When they are, we have the common good.”

The principles of social teaching cross party political boundaries and Catholics may, in good conscience, form different opinions on the candidates and parties standing for election.

As Catholics, we need to take our democratic freedoms seriously and become involved in the political process.”

Read the statement or watch the video here

There is also a pamphlet that looks at election issues from the point of view of Catholic Social Teaching. It lists a set of questions that could be asked of politicians about specific serious issues.
Read it here.

There are some interesting websites that may be useful in separating the spin  & waffle from the facts in the political arena.
It is worth visiting the following sites that claim to be providing analysis of the accuracy of statements made by politicians - Truth-o-meters.
Have a look at these sights and see to what extent they agree on the 'truth'.

FactCheck;

Facts Fight Back;

GET FACT

PolitiFact Australia.

There is even talk of the ABC launching a fact checking website. If they do it would seem to suggest that  they are acknowledging that they are not currently behaving as an independent news source.

And that would be really sad.

It is important to realise that each of the above 'fact-checkers' has its own agenda & built in bias based on ownership.

Interesting times!