Then Rod Bower published his autobiography, Outspoken, with great success.
And now the Anglican priest has taken long service leave from the church to run as a candidate for The Senate in the May 18 Federal Election on a platform largely based around climate change.
He will run alongside other climate-focused candidates with Independents for Climate Action Now (ICAN) and launched his campaign in Sydney on April 15.
Fr Bower’s decision to throw his hat in the political ring follows months of deliberation, during which he weighed up growing encouragement to run for office against his duties as an Anglican priest.
“I needed to work out where I can best offer what I have to offer,” he said.
What he has to offer, he hopes, is a fresh perspective in the Upper House, a centralist view to offset right and left wing extremes.
“The political right focuses on order, the left on justice,” he has said. “Neither are bad in and of themselves, but both are bad by themselves. Order without justice is tyranny and justice without order is chaos.
Political centre
“The political center seeks to engage both justice and order in the dance that creates truly liberal democracy.”
Fr Bower has been extremely vocal in his defense of measures to combat climate change for years.
Fr Bower has been extremely vocal in his defense of measures to combat climate change for years.
Most recently he waged a campaign of opposition to the Adani coal mine.
Following the Federal Government’s green light for the project this month, he said: “I will do everything in my power to reverse the criminal damage done to our children’s future by approval of Adani.”
But climate change is not his only platform, although he admits it is “the big issue”, with all policy needing to be “climate-informed” and taken from a scientific, not a political, base.
Fr Bower says policy also needs to be Uluru-informed.
We need to listen more to our indigenous people to come to a greater understanding of who we are as a nation, he says.
Hunan rights and inclusivity are another two of Fr Bower’s passions.
Hunan rights and inclusivity are another two of Fr Bower’s passions.
He has been outspoken on the government’s treatment of refugees, the dangers of anti-Muslim sentiment and a range of other humanitarian issues.
Most of all, he says, he wants to see Australia’s credibility restored on the world stage.
“I want to see the restoration of our national identity as decent human beings,” he said.
Fr Bower is happy to “let the people decide” at the polls on election day and will return to his position at the church if his bid for the Senate fails.
