Page 1379 - Week 04 - Thursday, 4 April 2019
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small child has developed anxiety issues requiring professional counselling. In short, our children and young people sometimes face enormous challenges; at the very least they face challenges that feel enormous to them.
In the midst of such a climate those who provide pastoral care for children should be honoured and supported. Today I am grateful to add my voice of support to the chaplains who serve in our schools. As I mentioned in the adjournment debate on Tuesday I recently participated in a fundraising event for the Canberra PCYC that involved abseiling 93 metres down the side of Lovett Tower.
I sponsored two other Canberrans to join me in this adventure, one of whom brought a school chaplain with her as her support person. This young woman, who grew up in the territory’s care and protection system, finished her studies last year. But this chaplain whom she met whilst a student is still engaged in her life, standing by her side when she needs extra support. Clearly, supporting the territory’s young people, including some of its most vulnerable, is more than just a part-time job for this chaplain; it is a labour of love and loyalty, devotion and dedication.
Like many in our community I was, therefore, surprised when this government announced that they were withdrawing from the national school chaplaincy program from next year, denying the territory’s students access to this specialised support system. We have been told by those opposite that chaplains are incompatible with our secular public schools. But not all students enrolled in our public schools are secular. In fact, as the multicultural population of the ACT grows, the number of students in our schools who have vibrant religious identities is also growing.
I assure this Assembly that a number of culturally and linguistically diverse Canberrans have told me they have found this government’s decision to essentially ban chaplains as a move that leaves them as people of faith feeling less welcomed and less wanted in the ACT.
I note that our two main secular public universities in Canberra—the University of Canberra and the Australian National University—support and provide robust chaplaincy services to their students and staff. This is what it looks like when diversity is genuinely valued and when people of faith are sincerely welcomed into a community.
If this government cares about cultural diversity it would be trying to expand the pastoral care supports available in our schools rather than cutting a program that costs the territory almost nothing and clearly meets the needs of portions of our school communities in favour of a very narrow program personally preferred by those opposite. I put on the public record my thanks to school chaplains and all other pastoral care providers who give of themselves to help kids navigate the difficulties of life.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra—Deputy Chief Minister, Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development, Minister for Housing and Suburban Development, Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Sport and Recreation and Minister for Women) (3.07): I thank Miss C Burch for bringing the
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