Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to his announcement last Saturday that the National Schools Chaplaincy Program has been given an 18-month stay of execution with funding of $44 million. Why won’t the Prime Minister support school chaplains into the future, as the opposition did on Friday when it proposed a $165 million funding package over three years, rather than the government’s bandaid measure to get it through the next election?

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, perhaps I should repeat the second part of that question. Why won’t the Prime Minister support school chaplains into the future, as the opposition did on Friday when it proposed a $165 million funding package over three years, rather than the government’s bandaid measure to get it through the next election?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The good news is that it was 26 days since we had the last question on education, 33 days, by the way, since we last had a question on the economy and 101 days since we had our last question on jobs. We should all say to give Joe a job, let him have a go, let’s get some questions rolling. But I go back to the question which was asked by our personal House favourite, the member for Sturt. He asked about school chaplaincy. How does all this resonate with some of the debates we have been hearing in recent times, because I sense the build-up of an attempt at a little bit of a fear campaign in the lead-up to the next election—a fear that, somehow, the government will not be committed long term to school chaplaincies.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Pyne interjecting

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He says, ‘They are not.’ Can I say to the member for Sturt, as he constantly interjects, that so deep and profound were the previous government’s commitments to this that they put it into the forward estimates for only three years. When challenged about whether it was to be a permanent feature of long-term allocation under the previous Howard government, they ran for cover. It was not entrenched in the forward estimates, there was no forward budget for it, it was not brought into the future operations of the budget. It was treated as a one-off for three years and then dropped dead. That was how it was funded. It might be uncomfortable for those opposite, including the member for Sturt, to admit the reality as to what the budget papers actually said, but they simply dropped dead—three years!

I am so sorry that the member for Sturt now will not be able to whip up his fear campaign in the next 12 months or so. I am always delighted when the member for Sturt says that somebody squibbed it. Can I say to the member for Sturt that what I have done, what the government have done and what the education minister and Deputy Prime Minister has done is to say to the schools chaplaincy organisation for Australia, ‘Here is certainty of funding through 2010-11.’ During the course of 2010 we are going to work with the sector on this. How do we provide more chaplaincies in the future for people in rural Australia who are not getting a fair shake at the moment? How are we going to provide more chaplaincies in the future for those from the most disadvantaged areas of Australia? Because at present, of the 2,700 chaplains who are funded by this program nationwide, there is an underrepresentation of those from rural areas; there is an underrepresentation from some of the most disadvantaged parts of Australia.

We actually would like to see this program extended to other parts of the country. That is why we are going to take time working our way through this with the sector during the course of 2010. That is why we have responded to the request from the sector to provide certainty for the year ahead and the year following. That is why the sector have welcomed the statement made by the government over the weekend. That is why honourable members from all around Australia, in Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and other states, in response to their school communities have been receiving phone call after phone call over the last several days saying that this is fantastic news and that we have certainty for the next two years ahead.

Can I say to those opposite, the only one who seems to be disappointed by this outcome is the member for Sturt, because the member for Sturt has had his own little attempt to whip up a fear campaign on behalf of his marginal seat members collapse from underneath him. We support school chaplaincies, that is why we are funding them to the tune of an additional $42 million on top of that which was provided by the previous government. We provided certainty for the future and we will get on with the job.