The financial, physical and emotional survival of rural and remote Australia requires a commitment to a comprehensive long-term national strategy for economic regeneration in the bush the Uniting Church said today.

Flexible, affordable child care should be a priority of the next Federal Government to ensure all families are able to balance the needs of work and family life.

Uniting Church National President, Rev Dr Dean Drayton, said the Church wanted to see a child-centred approach to children's services that focuses on what is in the best interest of children and recognised their developmental, spiritual and social needs.

The Uniting Church today said that Australia's asylum seeker deterrence policies have failed because they have not addressed the causes of refugee flows and they have institutionalised violence against vulnerable people.

The Uniting Church believes that it is time for the issue of global poverty to make a splash in this election campaign. "We do our country's future no good while we continue to play around the edges of ending global poverty," Uniting Church President, Rev Dr Dean Drayton said today.

In a time of violence Australia must lead the way for peace. The Uniting Church is concerned that in response to terrorism, defence and security are becoming synonymous with the idea that violence is acceptable.

The Uniting Church believes that it is time for our political leaders to redefine the meaning of the national interest.

Uniting Church President, Rev. Dr Dean Drayton today said that the environment is in crisis and ensuring responsible behaviour by industry must be a core priority for the next Federal Government.

It's time for our political leaders to find answers for the tens of thousands of homeless Australians who have no safe place to sleep each night according to Uniting Church National President, Rev Dr Dean Drayton.

Rev Drayton said homeless people were among the most marginalised and disadvantaged in Australia and had no voice in the political landscape.

The economic growth of the last two decades has passed many Australians by and Australia now ranks fourth in the developed worl in the United Nations Human Poverty Index.

The Uniting Church has called for a fresh policy debate around aged care in Australia to ensure quality of life and quality of care for older Australians.