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A senior ALP official who helped Kevin Rudd to power in 2007 has described same-sex marriage as “not normal” and urged conservative Christian voters to join the ALP to undermine its support of marriage equality.

A video has emerged of ALP official Damian Power speaking at a 2012 Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) conference in Queensland. In the video Power details his history in the party, including serving as the state treasurer of the Queensland ALP and the local coordinator of the Kevin 07 campaign, as well as describing the party’s support for same-sex marriage as a sign of corruption.

“We have allowed the culture of the party to become dominated by a progressive, inner-urban, Left perspective. Most Australians value normal things. ‘Normal things’ is not same-sex marriage,” Power says in the video.

A self-described “party machinery person,” Power urged same-sex marriage opponents to engage with the ALP in order to propagate their views, boasting of having helped defeat an amendment at the 2011 ALP National Conference that would have compelled Labor MPs to vote in favour of same-sex marriage.

“There were senior members of the Party who I spoke to that morning who said, ‘we’ve got to stand for something’,” Power said.

“Don’t think that the ALP has walked away from accepting a Christian view of the world, of life – Christ’s message…There are people in the ALP – parts, branches, MPs, elected officials – who are worth supporting… not everyone in the Party is corrupted.”

In particular, Power described ALP Senate President John Hogg as “key to the battle against same-sex marriage,” noting that at the time Hogg was the ALP’s leading Senate candidate in Queensland.

Hogg announced in April last year that he would not contest the upcoming federal election. However, the top spot on the ALP Queensland ticket is now being filled by Chris Ketter, the current secretary of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA), a union known for its hardline stance against same-sex marriage and other social issues like abortion and euthanasia.

Power encouraged the room of ACL-inclined voters to join the ALP in order to fight the “aggressive, violently secular, Green forces” he sees as infiltrating the party, comparing such forces to the former Australian Communist Party.

“Come and see me, join the ALP. Help me stack a branch or three – that’s an offer by the way,” Power said to laughter.

The Prime Minister’s sister Loree Rudd, who is on record urging her brother to enact laws similar to Vladimir Putin’s recent anti-gay laws, also appeared at the conference.

“God wanted me to be involved in the Labor Party…If the good guys give up, the bad guys win,” Power said.

Watch the video here:

[vimeo id=”47140558″ width=”620″ height=”360″]