Editing Family First Party (section)

====2007 federal election====
Family First contested the [[2007 Australian federal election|2007 federal election]], in particular seeking to increase its Senate representation. Nationwide, the party received 1.62% of the primary vote in the Senate, and 1.99% in the House of Representatives, both down slightly on the 2004 result. In Victoria, however, both the [[House of Representatives results for the Australian federal election, 2007#Victoria|lower]] and [[Senate results for the Australian federal election, 2007#Victoria|upper house vote]] increased by 0.64%, to 2.52 and 3.02% respectively. No Family First candidates were elected. Sitting senator Steve Fielding's term did not expire until 2011.

Before the 2007 federal election, [[Fred Nile]] criticized Family First for giving preferences (in some states) to the [[Liberty and Democracy Party]], a [[Libertarianism|libertarian]] political party one of whose policies was to legalize recreational drug use, stating "They gave their preferences to the enemy, the anti-Christian party."<ref>{{cite news|title=Christian party's unholy alliance|publisher=[[Herald Sun]]|url=http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22709097-5013904,00.html|author=Steve Lewis|date=2007-11-06}}</ref> This was suggested as a reason for their poor election result.<ref>{{cite news |title=Electorate strips landscape of the bit-part players|work=[[The Daily Telegraph (Sydney)|The Daily Telegraph]] |url=http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22819447-5001031,00.html|author=Steve Lewis|date=2007-11-26}}</ref> Fred Nile's own [[Christian Democratic Party (Australia)|Christian Democratic Party]] had also preferenced the Liberty and Democracy Party before any other major party in the Senate.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aec.gov.au/pdf/elections/2007/gvt/NSW_2007_gvt.pdf |title=NSW_2007_GVT_A4.indd |access-date=2010-06-16}}</ref>

In 2008, some newspapers claimed that Fielding wanted to "relaunch himself as a mainstream political player, beyond Family First's ultra-conservative evangelical Christian support base." The reports indicated that Fielding had tried to recruit [[Tim Costello]] and others around the beginning of 2008 with a view to forming a new party, but had failed to convince them.<ref>{{cite news | newspaper =  [[Herald Sun]]  | title =  Senator wanted to quit| first1 = Ben | last1 = Packham |first2 = Peter| last2 = Jean |department=News | page = 4  | date = 30 September 2008}}</ref> The revelations came after Fielding changed his position on abortion, after being rebuffed by his party for taking a softer approach.<ref>{{cite news | newspaper =  [[Herald Sun]]  | title =  Fielding abortion heat Retreat on women's rights comments| first = Ben | last = Packham |department=News | page = 11  | date = 27 September 2008}}</ref> Fielding denied the claims.