Barnaby Joyce claims Australia is a ‘Christian nation’ and says many First Nations people would agree

Barnaby Joyce says Australia was ‘premised on Christian principles’, marking a further definition of One Nation’s views on the country’s identity. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP View image in fullscreen Barnaby Joyce says Australia was ‘premised on Christian principles’, marking a further definition of One Nation’s views on the country’s identity. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP Barnaby Joyce claims Australia is a ‘Christian nation’ and says many First Nations people would agree One Nation MP refines party’s view on national identity as he accepts award for ‘political courage’ at anti-abortion gala organised by Joanna Howe Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast One Nation’s Barnaby Joyce has claimed First Nations people would agree with him that Australia is a “Christian nation”. The New England MP made the comments at an anti-abortion gala – where he accepted a prize for “political courage” – in Sydney over the weekend. In an exchange posted on social media, Benjamin van der Linden from a group called Make Australia Christian Again asked Joyce if Australia was a Christian nation. How Pauline Hanson courts UK’s far right – and builds a global brand – with ‘pseudo events’ and publicity stunts Read more “Yes, it was premised on Christian principles,” Joyce said. “A lot of Indigenous people would tell you straight up and proper Australia’s a Christian nation.” Adherence to Christian denominations has been consistently falling over many years, while the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, and others insist Australians live in “predominantly a Judeo-Christian society”. The gala organiser and controversial anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe said on social media that Joyce and the party’s Hunter candidate, Stuart Bonds, had accepted the “political courage” award for One Nation. Joyce was the headline act at Howe’s Sydney rally in June to push for reduced access to abortion in New South Wales. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email Howe has praised Hanson’s call for a “monoculture”, saying it would include “immigrants like me and my family who assimilate and contribute to Australia”. Howe is of Indian and Portuguese descent, and moved to Australia from England. At the Sydney event Van der Linden also interviewed Howe’s husband, James Howe, who said anything “good” in Australia was because of its Christian roots. Asked what he thought of Islam, James Howe said: “It’s a shit religion, mate. “It’s a primitive, barbaric religion, it’s false, and it has no place in this country,” he said. The Howes were jointly interviewed recently on the 2 Worlds Collide podcast, where Joanna Howe said she had “no national pride” in India. “If our kids started calling themselves fucking Indian Australians, I swear they’d be grounded,” James Howe said. Asked about Joyce’s comments, Prof Anne Pattel-Gray, a Bidjara and Nguri woman and the University of Queensland’s academic director of Aboriginal and Tor