CHRISTIAN PASTORAL SUPPORT WORKERS

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:30): I rise to take this opportunity to place on record my admiration for the tremendous work that I have recently had exposure to, done around the state by Christian pastoral support workers, previously known as school chaplains, and their coordinating body in South Australia, the Schools Ministry Group. The Schools Ministry Group was a body formed by the heads of the 11 Christian church dominations from within the state. The SMG coordinates resources and pastorally cares for about 350 Christian pastoral support workers in secondary, primary and community R-12 schools.

The SMG works in partnership with 86 employing groups, which represent over 1,000 churches in South Australia. The SMG is responsible to the heads of Christian churches in South Australia for the initiation, provision, coordination and support of Christian ministry in all government schools in South Australia. In a recent survey conducted by the Edith Cowan University of 650 schools, 83.7 per cent of schools reported 'mostly positive' or 'strongly positive' support for the chaplaincy program amongst parents. Only 0.3 per cent of schools reported 'mostly negative' feedback.

This represents a tremendous level of support amongst parents for the schools chaplaincy program. Within schools, pastoral support workers provide pastoral care and support, help students at risk, run various activity programs and often coach sport as well. They are much more than volunteers and play an important role as staff, in some instances, at the school. For over 15 years pastoral support workers have run seminars and camp programs (such as the new Detour camp program), and many schools also run breakfast programs for children who go to school hungry. They do so without proselytising or pushing the religious aspects of their faith.

Despite this, last year a Toowoomba man served a writ in the High Court opposing the commonwealth government's funding of pastoral support workers in state schools. He is being backed by the Australian Secular Lobby. The school mentioned in the complaint is the Darling Heights State School near Toowoomba in Queensland, but the ruling will affect all schools in Australia of course that use the chaplaincy services, including 375 schools within South Australia.

The defendants in the case are listed as being the Commonwealth of Australia, the Minister for School Education, Childhood and Youth, the Minister for Finance and Deregulation and the Scripture Union of Queensland, which is the accredited employing authority for school chaplains in that state. However, recently the states of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland have actually intervened in this process in support of the chaplains. South Australia has not yet intervened in this case, despite the fact that per capita South Australia has the largest percentage of schools with Christian pastoral support workers in the nation.

Indeed, we have 375 schools with chaplains, which is the second largest number of schools with these workers in the country, only bettered by Queensland. We are therefore a significant stakeholder in this issue. I put on record my tremendous admiration for the work that Christian pastoral support workers do and call on the government to indicate their firm support for the work they do by joining the other states which have already done so in their opposition to this High Court challenge.