This principal should indeed be sacked! But of course this kind of long-term indoctrination by stealth takes place in many state schools. At my kids' school, grade seven is a 100% Christian zone, while the principal coordinates and runs the RI! The fundamentalist chaplain warns his charges about fire and brimstone (I had this from the deputy), and programmes like "Shine" (designed to develop the celebrated Christian virtues: meekness and intellectual quiescence) are ushered in as salubrious and ostensibly disinterested--there are extracurricular camps that the little princesses can attend later, when all such pretentious garb is cast off and the whole rude beast is revealed. The Shine programme comes at a price by the way--funded both by the government and parental charges.
All this in our state schools where, as Philo reveals, secularism and reason are ridiculed.
It leaves me breathless with rage! The despicable defenders of all this are a mob of deceitful, cringing, ignorant and dangerous lemmings. Avast! You reprehensible pied pipers!

CJ Morgan,
1. The holiday programme was run by volunteers from the Church and was held in the Church buildings and grounds. The parents brought their children to the Church and registered them for the holiday club. The programme was not promoted in the school!

2. The school Principal that has employed the chaplin does not attend any Church and is as far as I know not of any Christian faith. It is just that she respects the professionalism of her staff and witnesses the benifits the children receive by the programme.

Again it shows the anti-social meanness of heart that you wish to sack Principals who run programmes to improve childrens experience.

Mr Gerrit H Schorel-Hlavka,
What other countries do as far as taxation is concerned is irrelavent here, those Governments are responsible to their citizens. Years ago while employed in a Union site I had to contribute unvoluntarily to the Workers Union fees from my wage otherwise I did not have a job. They were of a political persuasion I did not support.

Our Church receives no Government funding to promote the faith, or run programmes. Tell us what taxes we should pay beside the personal taxes of employed staff of the church?

It would be good, Philo, if the religious community paid their share of taxes and council rates.

It would be good if the pastor/vicar/minister was not able to sneak away from income taxes by having up to $60k taken as a tax free fringe benefit.

The problem with school principals, at least in Qld, is that their union has a clear policy supporting secular public education, which they ignore as they promote the free and open access to evangelisers and proselytisers in our public schools.

There has been no work undertaken by DEEWR, the Gillard body that dishes out $165m of our taxes, tax free, to fund these generally unqualified chaplains (I do appreciate your spelling of 'chaplin' though Philo, very keen sense of humour there) to measure for any improvement in schools attributed to having 'chaplains' in place.

Let's be honest, our schools are so poorly organised, as 19th century factories and penal institutes, that it is no wonder our children find the adults that run schools to be so 'unbelievable' and barely credible. Inject an 'independent' person into the mix whose role is to recruit for Jesus, by appearing to be pleasant and trustworthy, and of course, some students will respond positively.

But the redundant Telstra worker, an old tub thumper unionist who never thinks of any gods, never mind God, but who has a cheery character and a willingness to listen and be friendly, will have the same effect.

The organisations that run school chaplains are rubbing their hands with glee as they lobby Rudd for a fully funded chaplain in every school, at a cost of at least $60k a year, naturally just enough to avoid income tax, and an increased access to public school students.

There is absolutely nothing noble going on in schools with chaplains that could not be achieved through the P&C and a few caring parents, be they Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Buddhist, agnostics or atheists.

The benefit of having non-Christians in public schools is that there will be no evangelising going on for ulterior motives.

The Blue Cross,
No evangelising going on for ulterior motives! What? You are running an emotive champion campaign here to change opinion and educate in your views. If you can do better I suggest you apply for the position on the credentials of your past community service record.

Philo,

Once again you have failed to provide any argument as to why the church should get tax exemption.

Both the Taliban and Hamas use community service and welfare to shore up public support and financing for their organisations, and while these localised community efforts are staffed by dedicated compassionate people, the larger organisation as a whole is far from benign.

As you have yet to describe what contribution you make (if any) I will only mention that we contribute financially to several charities and get involved in fund raising. These charities as non profit organisations pay no tax.

As the church does make substantial profit, they could not work within the non profit regime. Some of the funding goes to fund extremely harmful programmes such as those that try and prevent condom use. So some of the money that goes to the chuch is killing people far away.

Shadow Minister,
It is good that you give and support tax free charities. The church is not a business having an ABN for charging or selling goods or services to the public. I give and support several charities myself as well as being as a volunteer on the administrative board of two. I give to my church funds after paying tax on my income and sanction the use of gifts the church receives for maintenance of its programmes and expenses. I suggest you research the income and expenses of a local church in your area and determine upon what they should pay tax. Then report it here.

A quote "A young Zambian woman, economist Dambisa Moyo, has written a book called Dead Aid. She does not say all Overseas Aid (OAid) is wrong, she is engaged in some grass roots aid organisations herself, but she is very clear that the large amounts of OAid given through things like ‘Live Aid’, through government handouts and the UN have, in fact, created more, rather than less, poverty in Africa.
She states "In the past fifty years, more than $1 trillion in development-related aid has been transferred from rich countries to Africa. Has this assistance improved the lives of Africans? No. In fact, across the continent, the recipients of this aid are not better off as a result of it, but worse—much worse."
She is very clear that corruption at government level is the crux of the problem along with lazy governments. Governments who rely on OAid rather than design programs to get their nation out of the reliance on OAid mentality.

..We need to be far more discerning about glib support for sound good platitudes like 'Stand up for Poverty", "Make Poverty History" "Millennium Development Goals" that, according to Dambisa and a growing number of other discerning people, are actually make things worse rather than better."