A Queensland father opposed to non-secular programs in public schools has won his High Court challenge against the Federal Government’s school chaplaincy program, throwing the scheme into uncertainty.
In a judgment handed down today, six Justices of the High Court ruled the $244 million program is invalid because it is not supported by a head of constitutional power.
It is a huge win for the “silent majority of parents” around the country who opposed the chaplaincy program, Ron Williams said.
“I think we can call this a 6-nil clobbering,” he told Fairfax Media.
When the Federal Government announced it would continue to fund the school chaplains program in the recent budget despite “slashing education and health”, Mr Williams said he was “gobsmacked”. The Coalition scrapped funding for non-religious counsellors yet under the program, 3,700 schools remained eligible for up to $72,000 funding to employ chaplains.
The Commonwealth and the Scripture Union of Queensland argued to the Court that the payments to schools for chaplains fell under the Federal Government’s constitutional power to make laws for “benefits to students”.
But the High Court ruled that the funding agreement “does not provide material aid to provide for the human wants of students”.
Under the legislation, the payments for chaplains’ wages were to “support the wellbeing” of children. “And the only description of how the ‘support’ is to be given is that it includes ‘strengthening values, providing pastoral care and enhancing engagement with the broader community’,” the Justices said in their joint decision.
“These are desirable ends. But seeking to achieve them in the course of the school day does not give the payments which are made the quality of being benefits to students.”
The contentious program was introduced under the Howard Government and supported by the Gillard government, which rushed emergency legislation through parliament to rescue the scheme following a previous High Court challenge.
The Prime Minister Tony Abbott said in a press conference, “This is a policy that was invented by the Coalition, it was supported by the Coalition … so we very much support it and we want it to continue.”
“We’ve only just got the judgment and the Attorney-General is having a look at it as we speak and there will be a response as soon as we can. Obviously we want our existing programs to continue.”
Ron Williams, a Toowoomba father-of-six, has four children who attend the Darling Heights State School in Toowoomba, which has employed a chaplain under the program since 2007.
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