Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (Senator Carr) to a question without notice asked by Senator Mason today relating to the National School Chaplaincy Program.

It is now confirmed and on the record that the Labor government has refused to commit long term to the National School Chaplaincy Program. That is a great shame. That has been confirmed today in question time and it was indeed confirmed yesterday when a motion was put by Senator Mason and me on behalf of the coalition to say, ‘Yes, this is a worthy valuable program and worthy of keeping into the long term, continuing into the long term.’ I will put on the record my thanks to senators Xenophon and Fielding for their support to get that motion through by 33 to 31.

There are 2,700 schools currently benefiting from the chaplaincy program, and they like it. A survey was undertaken recently and the report of that survey said that 97 per cent of the principals of those schools said, ‘Yes, it is a program worthy of keeping and we really appreciate it.’ That is the record of this program. It was started under John Howard and I am very proud of that fact. It started as a three-year program of $165 million for the first three years. The fact is, the program is working—it is benefiting.

What is it all about? The chaplaincy program provides pastoral care, counselling and spiritual guidance in a range of areas, such as bullying, mental health, family relationships, drug and alcohol abuse and those sorts of matters—practical, helpful and sensible advice. I have known lots of chaplains in Tasmania and others on the mainland and they are great people and they are solid people. They are providing practical helpful assistance in those school communities. They are appreciated by the school communities, not just the principals. That is the benefit of this program. It is fantastic.

Last weekend the Prime Minister went to the annual meeting of the Australian Christian Lobby Conference and said, ‘Yes, I like the program,’ and he announced a one-year extension to the program. That is not good enough. A one-year extension through to the end of 2011 will get them past the next federal election—albeit, we know that it will get them past that—but the question is: what then? Senator Carr has confirmed today that there will be another review—a further review. This government is up to its neck in reviews. They have already done one review and they know the results are fantastic—a 97 per cent result; you cannot get much better than that—yet they are saying, ‘No, we are not going to commit to this into the longer term.’ There is just a one-year extension to get them past the next election.

I call on members of the community—not just Tassie but all around Australia—and say: ‘Come on. Please lobby. Please lobby your local federal member of parliament and express your views in support of the chaplaincy program, because it is worthy of support in the long term and on a continuing basis.’ Labor’s refusal to commit to the chaplaincy program is cause for considerable concern.

A petition was launched just a month or so ago in Tassie and around Australia—with coalition members and senators—supporting the chaplaincy program. I have already got many petitions and signatures from all around Tasmania supporting the program. I want to put on record my thanks to Scripture Union Tasmania for their work in supporting the chaplaincy program and encouraging those in the community to benefit from it.

You see, the government is happy to spend and waste billions of dollars—and the fact is it has been billions of dollars in the last two years; we have hit the anniversary and it is just under $3 billion of waste and mismanagement. They are happy to spend $8 million on the GROCERYchoice website, which is an absolute joke based on a hollow promise. They are happy to spend billions of dollars and waste it on this education revolution. They are happy to put up memorial plaques for the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. But they are not happy to spend the money that is required to continue this program into the future. This is what they should be doing but they are not. So having further reviews rings alarm bells with me—to say, ‘We are going to extend it for one year past the next election.’ That motion yesterday was comprehensive and it was passed. I ask the government to reconsider. This motion is very important and it calls on the government to make a commitment to extend the program to new schools that apply for a chaplain and to retain current levels of funding into the future on an ongoing basis.

The government’s current position is not good enough. So I call on members of the public to lobby their local member of parliament to retain the chaplaincy program. (Time expired)