Challenge to chaplains' constitutionality

SYDNEY (AAP) - A group that provides school chaplain services believes a High Court challenge is only to the funding model, not whether chaplains should be in schools.
Scripture Union Queensland says if the High Court upholds the challenge to the national school chaplaincy program, it will ask politicians to find a new way to fund chaplains.
The High Court is hearing a challenge from Queensland man Ronald Williams, who believes the federal government should not spend taxpayers' money on school chaplains.
His four children attend Darling Heights State School in Toowoomba, where chaplaincy services are provided through the program by Scripture Union Queensland.
Mr Williams' lawyer, Bret Walker SC, told the court's full bench on Tuesday that the program was unconstitutional because it imposed a religious test on officers of the commonwealth.
Mr Walker also told the court the appropriation of program funding had not been done correctly and that the federal government's executive powers did not extend to funding such a program.
Scripture Union Queensland chief executive Tim Mander said his group would contest the claims that chaplains were commonwealth officers and that a religious test was applied to their receiving funds.
"Our concern is that if that and the other claims are upheld, it would mean that we would lose half the chaplains we have in the country overnight," he told AAP.
"We don't think that's a good result for our kids so that's why we're fighting it."
He believed the High Court challenge was primarily about how the chaplaincy program was funded, not whether chaplains should be in schools.
Scripture Union Queensland has gathered more than 70,000 statements of support for school chaplains which it will present to Schools Minister Peter Garrett.
"If the High Court found eventually that federal funding was against the constitution, we're basically saying to the politicians you need to find another way of funding this," Mr Mander said.
"We're certain that there are alternative arrangements that could be made."
The Australian Greens are hoping the High Court upholds the challenge.
"This is of course a program where Australian taxpayers spend hundreds of millions of dollars on staff to support students who can do so without appropriate qualifications," youth spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said.
The hearing continues on Wednesday and Thursday.