Shouts from the desert

Martin Levine has his campaign web site for the 2007 NSW state election up. It is somewhat thin on detail, containing only a home page advocating voting for an independent, a bio page showing his background as a minister of religion and showing that his children have been named after prominent Old Testament figures, and a "meetups" page that is out of date.

It's not a promising start. While as a minister he ought to have skills listening to people, there is nothing to indicate that he has the skills needed for policy and lawmaking, and no policies are actually stated - even in broad-brush terms.

Given that he has a background so strongly influenced by religion, there are important questions that have not been dealt with at all and need to be addressed urgently:

1. Will religious beliefs be influencing his policy positions?
2. Does he accept the following important liberal principles:
   
   1. That the State no legitimate role in enforcing the laws of a religion; and
   2. That the State has no legitimate role in limiting the conduct of people that does no harm to others;
3. Would he support laws making it harder for women to obtain access to abortion?
4. Does he support the Federal Government's position on homosexual marriage and homosexual adoption?
5. Does he support the right of a mentally competent person to choose to die?
6. Which schools of jurisprudential thought is he aware of? Which ones most closely reflect his own positions?