Published 30th June 2014
Dear Letters Editor,
The federal government seems to have gone out of its way to blatantly defy the High Court on National Chaplaincy funding. Didn’t they rule last week, for a second time, funding for this wasteful program was unconstitutional?
Now, it seems, the feds have paid all the chaplaincy providers ‘in advance’, to December this year. Isn’t that a bit cheeky? One would have thought the unexpended $37m, for the period July to December should be refunded — despite Mr Abbott issuing a urgent waiver of the funds.
Why has he gifted the churches this extra $37m, in this austere budgetary climate, when the whole dodgy program should be scrapped. The Chaplaincy Program was never about kids — it’s been an ideological scheme to Christianise public schools, since John Howard and a few Christian MPs had a thought bubble in 2006.
Next time the feds decide to run a schools program make sure there’s qualitative research published so the public knows it’s a genuine plan to benefit schools — and students — so their next $670 million can be spent on kids, not religion.
Sincerely,
Brian Morris
Director, Plain Reason