A perceptive observation. Providing scapegoats for unpopular decisions is an important function of the Federal system. Get rid of the Senate and the States and most of the blame game would be over.

As for the chaplains, let those that want them have as many as they like, as long as I don't have to pay for them. In fact the same goes for private education too.

Spin - that is all that religion and it's adherents have.

The most inappropriate feature of the Howard government 's establishment of the school chaplaincy program is that chaplains [ though appointed from one religious denomination or another ] are not supposed to be at the schools in order to teach religion , but to mentor students and listen to concerns expressed by students . Chaplains are no more qualified than any other occupation to perform such functions . If there is a need for any persons to perform such functions , surely they should be properly qualified psychologists or social workers . However , whether the wrong - headed program breaches the Constitution depends on whether it requires a religious test ,in that chaplains must belong to a religious denomination . As it does not establish any religion , it does not beach the Constitution in that respect . It is true that funds for any government expenditure must be provided from a suitable Budget appropriation .

Slightly off topic but my limited research tells me the "opt out" system is the key driver of all the angst about school chaplaincy. If you want your child identified as different from their peers (and who wouldn't like to do that for their kids?) just opt out, otherwise subject them to the jaundiced world view of Pastor This and Sister That. "Opt in" would make all the parental angst go away but unfortunately expose the chaplaincy service for what it is. Ethics classes make so much more sense. Save the silly stuff for Sundays.

An insightful look at the devious workings of law and politics.
I imagine the Federal government will be delighted to be "obliged" to cut NSCP funding. Once Labor's version of Howard (Rudd) was dumped, NSCP could only be an embarrassment to Gillard---as well as a political liability.
It's just a shame the case has to be contested on a constitutional technicality. Being myself a parent forced to tolerate proselytising in my children's State School, via the Chaplaincy trojan horse, I'm only sorry its illegitimacy is not the subject of resounding community outrage. I think it would be if so many parents were not just plain indifferent. The zealots get at their kids enough at home. State Schools should be sanctuaries.
I call the NSCP a trojan horse because it makes way for the raft of other christianising programmes that file in behind it: Shine, Strength, Christian clubs, camps etc. etc.
Of course all these also profess to being faith-neutral, but that is a blatent lie! Whatever their ostensible motives, all these Christian missions in state schools are grooming kids in the hope of securing the next generation of dupes.
I wish Mr Williams well. And once we rid our schools of this promiscuous state-sanctioned ideology, the next case has to be changing tax laws so that religious organisations can be starved, weakened, and eventually prised away from what should be secular government.
No more tax dollars or exemptions for these mealy-mouthed parasites!

One of the things that needs to happen is an inquiry by a Senate Committee and a House of Representatives Committee on the Chaplaincy program, its staffing, the qualifications of chaplains who are clearly – and commonsense would tell you that they would do so – in counselling children and doing so in a religious context: that is why they are there in the first place. The Parliament must bring the program to account as they do in every other field.

The very definition of a chaplain is one who is “a member of the clergy, officiating in the private chapel of a household or institution, on board ship, or for a regiment, school, etc.” [Shorter Oxford English Dictionary]. Chaplains are in schools to convert children.

The form of “officiating” is surreptitious, often one-on-one, without scrutiny, and in the case of the Women of Worth ministry, plainly deceptive. Now, I’m not arguing that chaplains might be good people. At heart most probably are. But they have no business infiltrating secular, government schools. That there is bi-partisan support for funding this flawed program indicates that our secular leaders are prepared to preside over the growth of sectarianism that will undermine secular democracy.