The National Civic Council is an Australian Conservative Christian lobby group, founded by B.A. Santamaria in the 1940s. The NCC publishes a weekly magazine, News Weekly. The NCC promotes policy based on Santamaria's Catholic values, including opposition to feminism, abortion, same-sex marriage and supporting Christian values along with "the integrity of human life", "the family unit", decentralism and patriotism. It is usually considered socially conservative, while in economics it is critical of both socialist and economic-rationalist trends. The group organised support for Tony Abbott before the spill motion in February 2015.
History
The NCC evolved in 1957 from the Catholic Social Studies Movement which was founded in the early 1940s by prominent Catholic layman B.A. Santamaria. The Movement worked closely with the Industrial Groups, which were formed within the Australian Labor Party to combat the influence and infiltration of the Communist Party in trade unions. The Movement, and later the NCC, had close links with the original Democratic Labor Party. The organisation's website states that its "primacies" are "The family as the basic unit of society," opposition to "excessive centralization," the "right to life" from fertilisation to natural death, patriotism, and "Judeo-Christian values."
Publications and influence
The NCC publishes a national magazine, News Weekly, as well as a journal of religious opinion called AD2000. Various states maintain their own smaller publications, such as Action, Comment and FACTS. Peter Westmore, the current national president of the NCC, was a candidate at the 1975 federal election for the original Democratic Labor Party. The Australian Family Association is an affiliate of the NCC which maintains a high profile on a range of social issues. It was created as a conservative Catholic political party in the 1990s by the AFA and the NCC. In 2014, Peter Westmore attended a "strengthening the family" conference organised to support the World Congress of Families. Tony Abbott, who was Australia's Prime Minister from 2013 to 2015, became interested in politics in 1976 after attending a National Civic Council conference. Abbott represented the Democratic Club in the 1970s, which was sponsored by the NCC. Gerard Henderson describes the NCC as Abbott's "original spiritual and political home in politics". Various media sources have reported that a NCC email campaign helped in part to secure Tony Abbott's position as Prime Minister before the spill motion in February 2015. Senator Eric Abetz stated before the spill: "In the last few days the emails have been overwhelmingly flooding the office saying all this nonsense about leadership has gone far too far, and the emails are now overwhelmingly saying 'stick to the team you've got'" In 1999, Abetz was a speaker on "the family" at Family Council of Victoria. Abetz also spoke at the NCC in November 2011.
Organisation
The NCC has its national office in Melbourne, as well as ones in Brisbane, Townsville, Adelaide and Perth. The current NCC National President is Peter Westmore, who succeeded B.A. Santamaria following the latter's death in February 1998. The National Vice-President is Pat Byrne, and there are also a number of State presidents, who co-ordinate local groups in each state. In November 2014, Westmore attended his daughter Trish's marriage to her female partner Christy in New Zealand, where same-sex marriage was made legal in 2013. He said his daughter's wedding had his blessing: "She always has my blessing in everything she does". Asked on 24 March 2015, if he still supported the NCC's opposition to same-sex marriage, he said: "Of course I do". Westmore did not respond when queried about the apparent inconsistency between his personal and his political positions on the issue. He asked Fairfax Media to "respect" his family's privacy.
