Right: a chaplain at a Queensland school. Opponents of religion in state schools also object to the federal government-funded chaplains in schools program.
Further implicationsMuch of the current controversy appears to have been promoted by the Humanist Society of Victoria which has written to all state primary schools informing them that they do not have to offer religious instruction. The society has set up a website to collect views on the issue.
The Humanist Society of Victoria has also lodged a complaint with the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission on behalf of a group of parents who believe that the manner in which special religious instruction is given in Victoria is discriminatory. On April 15, 2011, The ABC's 7.30 (Victoria) reported that the case would be heard by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal later this year.
In 2008 it was reported that the Humanist Society of Victoria had developed a curriculum to give 30-minute lessons each week of humanist applied ethics to primary pupils. Accredited volunteers were to be trained to teach their philosophy in the class time designated for religious instruction. As with lessons delivered by faith groups, parents were to have been able to request that their children not participate.
In November 2010 the then Victorian Education Minister, Bronwyn Pike, declared that humanism could not be taught via the 'special religious instruction' provisions of the Victorian Education and Training Reform Act 2006, as humanism 'cannot be defined as a religion.'
The current debate may represent a further bid by the Humanist Society of Victoria to displace the religious instruction program offered by ACCESS Ministries with their own program. If that is the case it appears unlikely to be successful.
On April 8, 2011, the newly elected Baillieu government announced that it would increase the funding to ACCESS Ministries by $200,000 in the next budget. ACCESS Ministries currently receives approximately half its funding from government. The funding increase may be read as a vote of support for the work being done by ACCESS Ministries.
The results of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal's hearing of the Humanist Society of Victoria's appeal will be interesting. If the Tribunal finds in the Society's favour, this would seriously undermine the position of ACCESS Ministries.
New South Wales has this year begun an ethics program of the general type proposed by the Humanist Society of Victoria, taught by volunteers in the same way special religious instruction classes traditionally have been. The classes are available to students who choose not to take special religious instruction classes. Some years ago a bid to institute a similar program in Queensland could not attract sufficient political support.
The new National Curriculum to be implemented in all states at all levels has a substantial values component. Ultimately what may occur is that government schools cease to contract out their values education and develop an ethics and comparative religions course that can be taught by teachers they already employ.