What's the climate like in Oz in regards to science and unavoidably, religion? I'd love to hear a native extrapolate on that.
While politicians keep their personal beliefs out of important policy discussion such as economic policy, foreign policy and for the most part - healthcare. For some reason we are quite a conservative bunch and that creeps into politics at all some levels particularly in social policy.
Policy debates on discrimination, euthanasia, marriage equality, stem cell research, birth control and the like are all affected by religious influence. It doesn't matter how much public support their is for a policy, or how much evidence stacks up against the governments stance on a policy - the catholic church has enough pawns in parliament to get their way regardless. Just watch them at the moment lobbying for the right to sack people for things like relationship status or sexuality.
You will also be extremely lucky to get through the public education sector in Australia without being confronted with religious proselytizing (99% of which is of the christian brand). The government likes to win votes by granting a small minority of wacko's access to those 'lost souls' in non-christian public schools. It's not a major problem, we can all deal with it - but it is a matter of principle.
In summary, our last 2 Prime Ministers range from a deeply religious man to a non-believing women. The overall policy differences between the two are so tiny, which shows religiosity doesn't weigh in too heavily on Australian federal policy. However at the local level people do feel the effect of religious influence on these "minor" issues - which I listed above.