Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Makin for his question, which goes to the heart of the government's significant commitment of some $222 million to provide the opportunity for some 1,000 schools, including schools in remote areas, schools with high Indigenous populations and schools in disadvantaged areas, to take up the opportunities that the National School Chaplaincy Program provides. My experience reflects the member's experience, which is that there is a strong demand for this program. It is a voluntary program and schools need to determine whether or not they wish to secure the services of a chaplain. When they do that, the guidelines make it very clear that it is not the purpose of the chaplain to proselytise a particular position, dogma or faith but, rather, to provide pastoral support to students and additional support for teachers. A teacher may encounter students within the school community who are experiencing troubling times at home or whatever it might be, and the chaplains are there to take some of that burden from the teachers. The teachers are there to teach and the chaplains are there to provide pastoral support.

I was interested to see that, after the experience that the people in Queensland went through when they had the terrible flooding last year, we received some requests for additional chaplaincy services to be provided in schools in Queensland, particularly those where some of the kids were suffering trauma and upset as a consequence of the floods. The program is well supported and it provides pastoral care and support to students within the school environment, which is appropriate.

We have some 2,675 schools Australia-wide that are funded under the program, and around 43 per cent of them are located in regional and remote Australia. From 1 January next year we will extend that program to up to 3,700 schools, which I think is a significant contribution by the government. It is the case that a review of the chaplaincy program is underway, and I will consider carefully the advice that comes through to me in terms of the consultations that have fed into the review. One of the things I think it is important to say is that the work of chaplains should be seen as something complementary to, not a replacement for, the work of others involved in the school and looking after the wellbeing of students and school communities. It is important to make sure that schools are supported in looking after the wellbeing of their students, and that is what this program does.

I want to make one more point before my time expires. This government has provided specific additional support focused on schools which are in what we describe as low-SES communities, through the Smarter Schools National Partnerships, where we want to specifically identify the kinds of investments that can help teachers in those schools teach the students that are there more effectively. There are a range of initiatives that schools have undertaken. For example, in schools with a high proportion of students with English as a second language, some principals have chosen to use some of that support from the government to increase the number of ESL teachers. Some schools that have people who have recently arrived in Australia, people who may have come from really difficult home countries, where there may be conflict, difficulty and suffering, provide appropriate counselling and liaison with those communities. There are schools where making sure that kids have the opportunity to be able to read and write effectively as they come through their primary school and into high school—but they have not been read to a great deal at school—to provide support for these kids and to take them through personalised learning and reading.

All of these investments have been specifically targeted to make sure that we lift up all of these kids in Australia and give them the best possible opportunities to have a great education. The chaplaincy program provides pastoral support in those schools that choose to have it and enables those teachers to do that other very good work.

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