.




2014/10: Should federally funded school chaplains be appointed to Australian state schools?





Introduction to the media issue

Video clip at right:
An August 2011, ABC News report dealing with a Queensland school chaplain who organised for students to be lectured by a controversial creationist. If you cannot see this clip, it will be because video is blocked by your network. To view the clip, access from home or from a public library, or from another network which allows viewing of video clips.


What they said
‘Chaplains are supposedly not allowed to preach to students and yet they are employed by Scripture Union Queensland…. If that is not a conflict of interest then I don't know what is. Public schools should be secular and free from religion’
From a letter by V. Millson of Burbank, published in The Courier Mail on November 7, 2013

‘School chaplaincy is pastoral care, not pedagogy. It’s not about converting students, but it is about providing social, emotional and spiritual support’
Peter James, a spokesperson for the National School Chaplaincy Association

The issue at a glance
In May, 2014, two developments occurred in relation to the National School Chaplaincy Program. Firstly the federal government pledged to continue funding the program over the next four years. The program was allocated nearly $250 million in the 2014 federal budget in order to allow it to continue to operate over this period. The government also indicated that these funds could no longer be used to employ secular counsellors in the event that a school could not find a suitable chaplain.
On June 19, 2014, the federal court ruled, for a second time, that the provisions being used to supply federal monies to the National School Chaplaincy Program were not sanctioned by the Constitution. Despite this, the federal government has indicated its determination to find alternate means whereby it can continue to fund the program.
In the light of these events there has been extensive recent debate surrounding the value of the program and the desirability of its continuance.