Australia's national schools chaplaincy program, which will now address "bullying", has had its $250 million of funding renewed on a permanent basis less than a year after federal funding dried up for the controversial anti-bullying Safe Schools program.
A permanent chaplaincy program: the anti-bullying strategy literally nobody asked for #Budget18
Many people were angry that the chaplaincy program received a funding boost when the government's funding for the secular Safe Schools Coalition (SSC) anti-bullying program was exhausted in June 30 last year.
Coalition MPs and the Australian Christian Lobby opposed the SSC anti-bullying program which was launched in 2014 and was adopted by more than 500 schools across the country.
The Safe Schools Coalition went all but unnoticed for two years until, in early 2016, conservative media outlets and politicians hitched themselves to a campaign by right-wing Christian lobby groups against the program.
"Appalling that the government is still spending a quarter of billion on Chaplains in schools when we still aren’t funding the full original Gonski, or even a proper Safe Schools program," Greens MP Adam Bandt tweeted on Tuesday night.
Love to see the evidence based Safe Schools Program – designed to support some of the most at risk youth – continue to be attacked & defunded, while the inconsequential school chaplaincy program is extended and funded in #Budget2018
safe schools? no thx. 🙅🌈 I want an extended national schools chaplaincy program with a focus on bullying! 👌👫#budget2018
"The Government will provide an additional $247.0 million over four years from 2018-19 to renew and continue the National School Chaplaincy Programme." #Budget2018 How much is allocated to secular/non religious school counsellors?
So the chaplaincy funding is to be extended indefinitely but not kindergarten/preschool funding....
Who do I speak to about not having my tax go to any sort of Chaplaincy program in schools? #Budget2018
As a woman with religious-spiritual leanings, I say abolish the chaplaincy network and reinstate the secular Safe Schools program you absolute drongos https://t.co/MWHjAqYmvu
Hey @ScottMorrisonMP if you really cared about tackling bulling in schools, you’d ditch the school Chaplains and invest in building a real Safe Schools to take care of our most vulnerable kids.
Appalling that the government is still spending a quarter of billion on Chaplains in schools when we still aren’t funding the full original Gonski, or even a proper Safe Schools program. #Budget18 #Budget2018
Not everyone was angry.
The Independent Schools Council of Australia (ISCA) welcomed the funding.
“The Chaplaincy Program is a distinctive program that provides care and support to students, staff and families,” the council's executive director Colette Colman said in a statement on Tuesday night.
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