Danny Nalliah - Politics

Politics

In November 2004, Nalliah unsuccessfully campaigned for a seat in the Australian Senate, as a candidate of the Family First Party.

Nevertheless, his candidacy caused considerable controversy when conservative National Party Senate candidate Barnaby Joyce launched a heavily publicised attack on Family First and his own party's preference deal with them the day before the election. Joyce used some of Nalliah's statements to illustrate why, in his words, "these are not the sort of people you do preference deals with" - most notably a quote from one of Nalliah's brochures that asked parishioners to pray that God would pull down "Satan's strongholds", which included brothels, gambling places, bottle shops, mosques and temples (including Freemason, Buddhist and Hindu temples).

In late October 2009, Family First Senator Steve Fielding noted that after the incident cited above, Nalliah was asked to leave the party and did so. In response, Nalliah has argued that Senator Fielding has "let down the Christian cause" and would not receive the "Christian vote" at the next federal election. At the same time, Nalliah argued that the discovery of an adolescent "satanist" black mass site at Canberra's Mount Ainslie indicated that the federal Parliament was "under attack" and referred to witchcraft, liberal abortion laws and legislation that supported LGBT rights in Australia as the "reason" behind an apparent spate of parliamentary marriage crises.