Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Prime Minister’s initiative, announced on the weekend, of $42.8 million to extend the National School Chaplaincy Program to December 2011. The National School Chaplaincy Program provided $165 million over the past three years to school communities across Australia. Queensland had 782 schools in the program, and they received a total of just over $42 million. In my electorate of Blair, there were 50 schools in the program, and they received just under $2.2 million. I want to commend the chaplains and the schools in my community for the great work they do. The assistance, guidance and support that the chaplains provide in the community are helpful not just to the students but also to the teachers, staff and parents.

I have spoken to almost all the schools in my electorate today. The principals and deputy principals have said the following in relation to this program and the extension of the funding. Deputy Principal Graeme Goodger of Bremer State High School said that the program was ‘useful to parents and staff and loved by the students’. He commended Kelly Pedersen, the chaplain at that school. I spoke to Principal Jouwana Habash of Boonah Primary School, who described the chaplaincy as a ‘valuable service’ to the school community. Geoff St Clair, who has been at Gatton State School for many years as the principal, described the service as ‘very helpful to the school community’ and praised Ros Ballin, who is the chaplain at that school and the wife of Graham Ballin, the Baptist minister in Gatton. Peter Doyle, the Principal of Brassall State School, the third biggest state primary school in my electorate, described—at a chaplaincy dinner, some months ago—chaplaincy services as something that ‘should continue’ and said the funding was important. He said it was very helpful, not just to himself but to the staff and the students. That dinner was to raise funds for chaplains in four schools in the Ipswich area. The chaplains there were from the Catholic, the Anglican, the Baptist and the Uniting churches.

The chaplains in school communities in the federal electorate of Blair—in Ipswich and in the rural areas outside it—are involved in a number of different programs. Some of the programs they are involved in and the assistance they have given have been tremendous. There are programs to increase awareness of poverty and other terrible issues, such as child exploitation, in the Third World, particularly in Africa, and to assist in raising funds for the relief of poverty and the terrible issues that afflict African children. Those programs are in Ipswich State High School, in particular.

There are breakfast programs for students who, sadly, come to school without adequate nutrition. There are programs teaching students about self-esteem. There is also assistance in the Mystery Tours, a non-alcoholic alternative to binge drinking at school graduations. I am pleased that the Rudd Labor government, of which I am proud to be a part, funded Ipswich State High School $40,000 for that model program. That program has been replicated at Bremer State High School and Redbank Plains State High School. In the canoe race at Bremer State High School, at the junction between the Bremer and Brisbane rivers, the chaplaincy canoe is always held in high esteem. Sadly, the Shayne Neumann canoe never seems to win that race, but the chaplaincy canoe gets the biggest cheer, in my experience.

The chaplains help with school morale and have been tremendous in times of bereavement, loss, suicidal ideation and issues concerning drug and alcohol abuse and separation. The chaplains perform a great service, and I have been a strong contributor personally financially to the chaplaincy services in my area. I commend the government for the extension of the program, which has funded 2,700 schools across Australia. I look forward to the services and the stakeholders playing a role in a review of this program.

I want to show one example of how the service is tremendous. My own church, Ipswich Baptist Church, provides six chaplains across a variety of different schools in Ipswich and the rural areas outside it. Ashley Saunders, the senior pastor, says this:

Please pass on our appreciation as a church for the decision to continue School Chaplain funding for another 12 months.

He says that six chaplains is a fair number from one church. I think that is pretty important. I commend the Rudd government, particularly the Prime Minister, for this initiative. This is a great initiative which will help the school community in my electorate.

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