PRIME MINISTER:
Ladies and gentlemen, I am announcing today that the Commonwealth will fund a School Chaplaincy Program at $30 million a year over the next three years. Up to $20,000 will be available to fund the engagement of a chaplain in each school throughout Australia. The Program will be available for both government and non-government schools. It will be available to fund chaplains of a faith or denomination chosen by the school community. We will expect individual school communities to make some contribution themselves to funding the engagement of chaplains. There will be funding agreements entered into either with local PCs or in the cases where it is necessary with state governments as the legal authority for government schools. This funding will be available to help defray the cost of chaplains that are already working in schools.
We believe that the engagement of chaplains, and this, let me stress, is an entirely voluntary Program. In no way will schools be required to participate in this Program as a condition of receiving the funding. I want to make that very clear. And it is not designed to discriminate in favour of a particular religious faith, but obviously, given the nature of Australia, the great majority of the chaplains that will be engaged will be of Christian denominations. But clearly, it will be funding available to Jewish and other schools to engage chaplains.
Each individual chaplain will need to be formally approved by the Government because we are going to provide funding. It will, I believe, fill a very significant gap in the services available to school students. The chaplains will be expected to provide pastoral care and spiritual guidance and support, comfort, advice in family breakdown situations. Obviously support for students grief stricken by the loss of friends in tragic accidents, or the loss of family members. I think you can all understand from the variety of human experiences the sort of roles that this person will be required to fill. They will be expected to provide support to staff if they want it. And without regard to religious belief, they will be expected to help people who are of no religious belief obviously as well.
So it is a Program that I think will be very warmly welcomed and widely applauded in school communities throughout Australia. At the moment there is a small amount of funding. I think Queensland provides about $3 million, and in the case of South Australia and Victoria and Western Australia, less than a million dollars for supporting umbrella organisations that provide chaplaincy services. We will naturally expect the states to continue that funding and I would hope the states would see fit to match what the Government is doing, because the majority of schools that will become eligible for this funding are government schools, because they comprise the great majority of schools in Australia.
The only other observation I would make in relation to the states is that in no way should this Commonwealth funding be seen as any kind of excuse to reduce careers advice or counselling support that is provided in government schools by existing state government services. All round, I believe a measure, and an initiative that will be warmly welcomed, and it will provide much needed additional support for students in our schools.
And I stress, it's available for both government and non-government schools. It's not restricted to Christian chaplains and there will be consultation with the school community and they will have to make the request direct to the Federal Education Department. And the Minister for Education Julie Bishop, who will administer this Program, will establish a reference group. It will obviously include representatives of parent organisations to give advice on the implementation and the operation of the scheme.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister can you foresee a situation where Scientologists, Jehovah Witnesses, even Falun Gong have chaplains in our schools?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the request has to come from the school community and obviously in some of those cases I think it's very unlikely that that will happen.
JOURNALIST:
Would they be rejected? I mean could...because you are...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we would have to be satisfied that it was in the interests of the school that that occur, and clearly as the paying authority, we're not going to licence and support some activity that would not be acceptable to the mainstream of the Australian community.
JOURNALIST:
Will the checking of Muslim chaplains provide a more sensitive challenge for the Government in its checking process?
PRIME MINISTER: I don't think anything is sensitive here. I think it's just commonsense. I mean, look, the great majority of people will support this as a very sensible initiative and I'm quite sure that Islamic schools and Jewish schools will be as enthusiastic about this as Catholic and Protestant schools and so they should be. And we're not going to discriminate, but clearly we reserve the right to say no to somebody who is plainly unacceptable, whatever that person's background might be.
JOURNALIST:
What influence would you have over what sorts of message they're giving to children, given the debate we're having about things that are being preached from the pulpit? How do you become involved in the content?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well clearly we wouldn't be monitoring every single thing they said because that is impossible but that applies now. I mean what check have we got over what teachers say to children? I mean what's the difference? Why are we looking for negatives in something like this?
JOURNALIST:
In things though sir like the Islamic community where there are concerns about some of the people deeply within the Islamic community, this group that will approve them or not, how do they...
PRIME MINISTER:
No the Government will approve it.
JOURNALIST:
How does the Government assure itself? Will it get an ASIO clearance? Would it get an intelligence assessment?
PRIME MINISTER:
Geof, the request comes from the school community and I have a rather more optimistic view of the commonsense of school communities, and I don't think many school communities will be putting forward the names of unsuitable people. I think they'll be putting forward the names of suitable people and we will devise a checklist, a process that's not intrusive, that's not censorious, but just applies a commonsense assessment of whether somebody is suitable.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, you're calling them chaplains rather than counsellors...
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes I am calling them chaplains because that has a particular connotation in our language, and as you know, I am not ever overwhelmed by political correctness. To call a chaplain a counsellor is to bow to political correctness. Chaplain has a particular connotation. People understand it, they know exactly what I am talking about. If a particular school with a non-Christian affiliation thinks the word chaplain is unsuitable and would like to call them, you know for want of a better expression 'lay Rabbi' that's fine by me. But for generic purposes, it's a Chaplaincy Program.
JOURNALIST:
Would you expect them to be people of faith though....
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh yes, you will see in the guidelines that are issued that the person has to have certain qualifications and to be identified and has to obviously match up to a certain background and standard. The person doesn't have to be obviously formally an ordained priest or minister because that would be plainly very limited. But I could see circumstances where quite a number of the chaplains could indeed be ministers or priests, just depending on the circumstances. But it wouldn't be limited to them. The expression chaplain will be most widely used, and people understand what that means. In the armed forces, there have been Jewish chaplains in the armed forces and I think in the police as well as Jewish, there have been Islamic chaplains as well. So it's a concept that has a generic understanding in our community and I don't think we'll have many problems with that.
JOURNALIST:
So Mr Howard, does this reflect your belief that there's a lack of spiritual care currently in Australian schools?
PRIME MINISTER:
It reflects my belief that people want this. It's not something that I am trying to force on people, it's an extra support level of a personal kind that we are making available. It's voluntary. Communities don't have to take it up. My belief is that they will. They will see it as a method of providing personal and emotional support and also clearly spiritual and ethical guidance. And my assessment of the Australian community is that whatever its view about formal religious adherence may be, that it does hunger for additional ways of looking at the spiritual and pastoral side of life. And people with this background can be of great help to school communities when there are devastating accidents, when children's parents break up, at such a sensitive and emotional age for them. And the more capacity a school community has for that, and what's really good about this is that it's going to be available to all schools. I mean these services are available in many of the independent schools at the moment, but they're not as available in government schools. And this is another way in which we are demonstrating that we are even-handed in our treatment of both government and non-government schools.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, can I ask you, on television this morning Julian Moti was suggesting that he was virtually being persecuted by the Australian Government. He's suggesting that he is in fact an independent person, that what the Australian Government wants as the Attorney General in the Solomons is a docile person that it can boss around. And he's suggesting that he's already answered all these charges in relation to the allegations of child sexual abuse. What do you say to those remarks?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I am not running the prosecution. As you know, in our country prosecutions are run independently of the Government. All I want is the law to take its course. That's all I want. I am not going to enter into a debate about his guilt or innocence, that's a matter for the courts. But he is being prosecuted under our law. I support our law, I uphold our law. I don't implement it, I don't interfere in prosecutions and I support what the law enforcement authorities are trying to do.
JOURNALIST:
Are you looking for a docile Attorney General?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I support the law running its course.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Moti also suggested that something...
PRIME MINISTER:
I beg your pardon?
JOURNALIST:
Mr Moti also suggested that if he was brought back to Australia to face these charges at a trial then something nefarious could happen to him. Do you have...
PRIME MINISTER:
Let the law run its course. Simple principle. Prime Minister's don't launch prosecutions in Australia, they're done independently by the Crown Law authorities and that's how it will remain.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, do you think the push to deport Sheik al-Hilali back in the 80s, does that go...as a missed opportunity?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I remember that very well and plainly the Hawke Government at the time took a blatantly political decision and if you look at the record, you will find there was quite a lot of comment made at the time. But it's happened now, and he has rights as an Australian citizen, and those rights have to be respected. But let me just take this opportunity of saying that the responsibility to resolve this matter sensibly rests with the Islamic community. I don't appoint imams, and neither I should, any more than I appoint cardinals or archbishops. The separation of the church and state recognises and respects that. If this matter is not properly handled by the Islamic community, I am concerned that their failure to do so will do lasting damage to perceptions of that community within the Australian community. That is the biggest concern I have. I do not want the Islamic community to be isolated, I do not want it to feel separate and apart. It must hear what the Australian community, whatever its religious manifestation may be, is saying about this issue. And I ask them to discharge their obligations as members of the Australian community and as followers of the Islamic faith, which I respect. But they have a very heavy responsibility. If the matter is not satisfactorily resolved, it will create a very significant problem, I fear, and I do not want that. I want the Islamic people of Australia to feel part of our community.
JOURNALIST:
What about the issue that he should stand down if it was proved that what he said was deliberately offensive?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look Craig, you know what I'm saying. I don't appoint him, I can't dismiss him. There's no point in people in my position calling for this or that, other than to call upon those who have the power to resolve this matter to resolve this matter in a way that promotes the interests of harmony in our community and promotes the view that Islamic Australians are fully integrated into Australian society.
JOURNALIST:
But do you accept that there is a difference between making inadvertent remarks and seeking to be deliberately offensive? Do you accept his point?
PRIME MINISTER:
Could you repeat that? I couldn't hear it.
JOURNALIST:
Yes, sorry. Do you accept that there is a difference between making inadvertent remarks or saying something that is deliberately offensive? That seems to be the point.
PRIME MINISTER:
Craig, his remarks were totally unacceptable full stop.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard several times in recent days on the Hilali question you've appealed to the distinction between church and state. Do you think some Australians might find it a little rich that you're now talking about the state employing chaplains in schools, presumably to push religious messages?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it's entirely a voluntary decision and it's providing a service which is part of, I believe, the holistic services that should be provided to school students. And it is optional whether the school community has a chaplain in the first instance and it's obviously optional whether anybody uses that person's services. I don't see a problem, and bear in mind that when we talk of a secular society in this country, what we mean is we don't have an established religion. We don't have an official religion. As Islam is the official religion of many countries like Pakistan and Indonesia, and Anglicanism, or the Anglican Church is the established church of the United Kingdom, and the Catholic Church is the established church of many European countries. We do not have an established church, and when I talk of a secular state in this country, I have that in mind. But that does not mean that we do not recognise of all the influences of Australian society, none has been more potent than the Judaeo-Christian ethic.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, Labor is planning a billboard campaign attacking you on interest rates.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good, good. I'm going to put up, let me say this; I have got a billboard for you. 'Beazley and Keating 17 per cent, Howard and Costello seven-and-three-quarters per cent. What about that hey?
JOURNALIST:
You did have advertising Prime Minister that says you would keep inflation under control and keep interest rates....
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah well it is under control.
JOURNALIST:
It's rising though. And you said on Friday that it was your concern about inflation that meant that you would rather have a small rate rise now than a large one later. How do you respond to suggestions that you haven't kept your promises?
PRIME MINISTER:
Karen, inflation by historic standards is still extremely low, so are interest rates. My billboard will be 'Keating and Beazley 17 per cent, Howard and Costello seven-and-three-quarters'.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, East Timor is back on the radar again because of this latest outburst of violence. Do you have anything you can say on that and is Australia likely to respond in any particular way?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I have every confidence in the Australian military forces and the police and I have no doubt that they and their presence is very warmly supported by the local community.
JOURNALIST:
But concerns though that they, I mean they did apparently attack the Australian compound, the residential compound, and the...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Geof, our troops wouldn't be there if there weren't some people that needed, in an appropriate way, to be dealt with. And what this underlines is the importance of our forces staying there until their job is finished. It's always a good principle.
JOURNALIST:
What do you make of the newspaper headlines in Timor suggesting Australian troops may have been involved in violence? What do you make of...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I do not accept that.
JOURNALIST:
Are there any implications in the overnight news out of the States that President Bush and the Prime Minister of Iraq have agreed to speed up the training of Iraqi security forces?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I don't think there's any doubt that President Bush is looking at his tactics and he's looking at different ways of advancing the situation in Iraq. And he's been doing that all the time and he will go on doing that. But there's been no fundamental change in strategy. But that doesn't mean to say that tactical changes, different approaches within that strategy won't constantly be examined. But I don't believe that there will be any fundamental change in strategy, and I repeat that. And I will answer the question that Mr Beazley failed to answer this morning on the Channel Nine program. I will say that if it is alright for Australia to go, it's alright for Britain and America to go, and if we all go, the country will descend certainly into greater bloodshed and chaos, and that is the fundamental flaw in the argument. We all ultimately want to go, of course. Nobody wants to stay there indefinitely. But you can't go until you are satisfied that the Iraqis can look after the situation. And if we go and condemn the country to civil war and greater bloodshed, history will rightly condemn us. And if it's okay for us to go, then it's alright for the Americans and the British to go. It's a hard question to answer Mr Beazley, but you have got to face the reality of answering that question because that is the consequence of your policy.
JOURNALIST:
Do you think history will condemn us for going in in the first place?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I don't.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard I think you've acknowledged that the current spike in violence in Iraq is probably a political response in Iraq to the fact that there are American elections, mid-term elections coming up. Do you worry about that if we stay in Iraq, those responsible for the violence now might see a greater urgency to attack Australian troops next year in the run to our federal election, knowing the political impact it might have here?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Tim, Australia has been a target for terrorists for a long time, and long before the war in Iraq. But in the end, no self-respecting country will have its foreign policy dictated by threats from terrorists?
JOURNALIST:
But we could be a greater target Mr Howard next year?
PRIME MINISTER:
I wouldn't concede that.
[ends]