Liberal MP Andrew Hastie clashes with Anglican priest after bid to rally religious support

Liberal Andrew Hastie has clashed with an Anglican priest in his local area of Mandurah after the conservative MP sought to rally support among religious leaders before the election.

The Canning MP held a meeting of more than 30 church leaders at the Eastlake church in Greenfields in late January, warning that their religious freedoms could be at risk from an incoming Labor government.

Queensland senator Amanda Stoker was at the meeting and warned that a Labor Bill aimed at preventing discrimination against gay students in schools was a threat to their work.

But the push from Mr Hastie was resisted by one Anglican parish priest, who gave a sermon to his congregation on the Sunday after the meeting suggesting political interference on the clergy.

“After the meeting, I made it clear to my congregation that I would not be directed in what I preach at the pulpit,” Father Ian Mabey, from the Anglican parish of Mandurah, told The West Australian.

“I made the focus of the next sermon ... that we needed to learn to love one another in our differences and in our different points of view and I will never stop preaching that.”

Peter Abetz, from the Australian Christian Lobby, also presented at the meeting and said he encouraged the church leaders to get engaged in politics given the proposed laws could affect their work.

“It is really important that church people involve themselves in politics because if one subset of the community doesn’t involve themselves in political debate, we can’t complain if others make decisions we don’t like,” he said.

“I think religious freedom is something that ministers of religion and priests should be most concerned about.”

Mr Hastie hit back at Father Mabey, who ran as a Liberal candidate in the 1990s, saying he should focus on gospel work rather than “briefing falsehoods for the Labor Party”.

“Father Mabey is a failed political candidate now pushing his own politics from the pulpit,” Mr Hastie said.

“Truth should be his first calling — not partisan politics.”