church and state update: Pyne added to health portfolio

Further to this post about the increasing influence of religious groups on the Government, yesterday’s cabinet reshuffle has promoted MP Christopher Pyne to the newly created position of assistant minister for health.

Pyne, like the health minister himself, is a devout Catholic and has in the past likened stem cell research to medical research work done in Nazi concentration camps and also prominently agitates on the issue of abortion. He was outspoken in his defence of Abbott during the controversy over the approval (or lack thereof) of the drug RU486.