This is 100% correct IMO. astrec also lays out a good explanation for why this situation comes about (<a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1099573" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1099573</a>)<p>It may also be worth noting that since the last change of leadership the Liberals[1] went through, we now have an opposition leader who is Roman Catholic (his nick name: "The Mad Monk") and a Prime Minister who is Anglican. This despite a statistic I heard the other day claiming that 9% of Australians actually attend a church on a weekly basis. Fortunately Australian politicians - even the religious ones - tend to retain a greater degree of practicality when it comes to combining religion and politics; compared to what I see from the US. But the fact that we have two guys who are openly religious at the helm has got to factor in somewhere.<p>I might also point out the relatively recent appearance of such groups as the Australian Sex Party, whose establishment seems to have been a reaction to the apparent ascendancy of this ultra social conservatism that we're seeing right now in Australian politics. Google the obvious keywords if you're interested. From memory, the home page of the Australian Sex Party is marginally NSFW.<p>[1] Our further right-wing party is known as the Liberal Party... I'm pretty sure this was done solely to confuse Americans. :P