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RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am.

If you don’t believe in God, then heaven help you in the ADF.

Those are the words of Senator David Shoebridge, who’s argued that our military is putting too much faith in religious chaplains to provide support for service members.

The military employs 158 full-time chaplains, 150 of whom are ordained Christian ministers.

But as the military becomes more diverse and more secular, who are these chaplains serving?

Today, contributor to The Saturday Paper, Amy Fallon, on the role of religion in the ADF and what happens when it’s challenged.

It’s Tuesday, November 29.

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RUBY:

Amy, you began looking into chaplains in the military after you spoke to a former chaplain, Collin Acton. So, can you tell me a bit about him and why he became a military chaplain in the first place?

AMY:

Yeah, so Collin Acton was in the ADF for about 34 years.

Archival tape -- Collin Acton:

“It's pretty much anything a person wants to talk about.”

AMY:

Spent almost 25 of that as a chaplain.

Archival tape -- Collin Acton:

“you know, problems with parents, problems with loss of sense of, you know, what am I going to do next?”

AMY:

And then I think about four years as director of chaplaincy services.

Archival tape -- Collin Acton:

“So, you know, that trusted friend angle, you know someone who'll come in and one sit down alongside you and just listen is really important.”

AMY:

He's actually an ordained Anglican minister. He's of the belief that ADF is not secular enough.

Archival tape -- Collin Acton:

“We're looking at the wellbeing of our workforce versus not upsetting the church.”

AMY:

And that this is an issue of mental health and wellbeing and that at the moment the force currently doesn't have a wellbeing and pastoral support care model to cater for, you know, its workforce.

The majority of them are non-religious, 64 per cent of the workforce have no faith.

So he argues that it's about increasing diversity of range of options for people in the ADF if they need to go and speak to someone about an issue that they might have.

RUBY:

And so can you tell me a bit more then about what happens as Collin Acton starts to, I guess, come to this realisation that the ADF needs to have more secular involvement?

AMY:

Yeah. So Collin Acton joined the Navy when he was 16 and it's actually after that that he became religious and he said that it was mainly because he found a community in it. Over time after, you know, seeing events in Afghanistan where he served in other places in the world, he eventually lost his faith and he did an ABC story early this year.

Archival tape -- Sarah Kanowski:

“He left the military the way he came in - as an atheist. Hi, Collin”

Archival tape -- Collin Acton:

“Hi Sarah.”

AMY:

Which was not well received.

Archival tape -- Collin Acton:

“As to what we're doing there, as to the way in which the Afghan civilians, a lot of death amongst them, just didn't appear to be going anywhere from what I could see and what I was hearing. And I just thought, you know, this didn't once again square very well with a kind and loving and benevolent God who's in control. Didn't seem like there was much control going on at all.”

AMY:

So it's after that that he was called in and, as he would see it, hauled along the coals for speaking out, describing himself as an atheist and humanist in that interview, but he'd actually been waging this four year battle to bring in secular chaplaincy options in defence, and he eventually succeeded, to his credit.

So, Collin Acton did successfully introduce what are called maritime spiritual well-being officers in the Navy. So basically, they're secular chaplains.

So he was successful in that, although he describes it as a very ugly battle. There was significant opposition, he said, and things didn't improve after that from his point of view.

RUBY:

Right. Okay. So Collin Acton, he's introducing different types of support for soldiers. And as he's doing that, he's encountering significant opposition to that from within the ADF. And around the same time it sounds like he's also starting to lose some of his own faith and he does this ABC interview, which essentially is him going public with that. Can you tell me more about the response that he gets from the ADF after that interview?

AMY:

The response generated, he says, a written number of complaints. He describes it as vociferous written complaints about him.

Archival tape -- Collin Acton:

“I was a voice for the growing majority of non-religious people in defence. And I’ve been kicked in the guts and told to go.”

AMY:

Several weeks later, he was summoned to a meeting and it was only then that he actually learnt what he describes as a high level investigation into him.

And he was spoken to by a defence figure who basically gave him an ultimatum and they said to him, “Col, look..”

Archival tape -- Collin Acton:

“Either shut up and continue or if you want to keep speaking out about this matter, you know, you probably need to resign from the navy.

You know, there was a gun on the desk and he was meant to go out. And I was meant to use a gun on myself. And that's just what it felt like. Felt like I was being basically, you know, told to resign if I did that. And I thought that was a really awful way to finish up 34 years of service in the Australian Defence Force.”

AMY:

And he feels that the reforms were, the reforms that he brought in for instance, a Buddhist and Hindu chaplain were very well supported by the Navy, but instead he was, you know, treated as some sort of rabid atheist trying to get rid of religion and as a result of that, told to leave the ADF.

RUBY:

We'll be back in a moment.

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RUBY:

So Amy, we know Collin Acton feels like the Chaplaincy program in the military is not secular enough. But, can you tell me about who’s actually behind the program? Who does our military turn to when it comes to religious policy?

AMY:

Yeah so there’s currently this body called RACS, which is the Religious Advisory Committee to the Services, otherwise known as RACS.

RACS were formed in 1981. Ten members include a rabbi and an imam, although half of its members are Christian. They have a two star status, so that's the same as a General. They're appointed by the Minister of Defence and they're paid $778 a day for their advice. And this includes attending committee meetings, contributing to policy advice, providing religious, spiritual and pastoral support to the respective chaplains, and assisting with recruiting in ADF chaplaincy. And the time spent performing duties varies from a base of 40 days. What Collin Acton has been trying to highlight is that they do have the ear of the Defence Minister. You know, he said make no bones about that. They have the ear of the Defence Minister, they have the ear of other top ADF figures, senior defence figures.

So the current chair of RACS is Bishop Grant Dibden. Now, in an Anglican news magazine, shortly after his appointment to the committee in 2020, he was quoted as saying, “I want to encourage the chaplains to make disciples who make other disciples.” And then in a speech to Anglicans to mark Defence Sunday last year, Bishop Dibden said chaplains are quote “missionaries in the Defence Force.” And then he also added quote “our heart is to minister in the Australian Defence Force, be ambassadors for Christ and to represent the Anglican Church in a complex secular context that is defence. Any time we do anything in Jesus’ name, we are participating in the mission of Christ and pointing to people of God. We're missionaries in the Defence Force.” Unquote. So Collin Acton and others such as, you know, rationalists inside of Australia who have been campaigning on this issue for at least a year, are arguing that RACS appears to be operating outside its purpose and responsibilities as stated in the memorandum of arrangements with the Commonwealth by encouraging proselytising in Defence.

RUBY:

And so these chaplains, the majority of which are Christian, are these the people that you're told to turn to if you're part of the ADF and you’re seeking help?

AMY:

Well, yes. I mean, this is certainly what they encourage because these are people who work with defence, you know, deploy with defence, they’re at sea with defence. And then it sort of does come down to an issue of supply and demand. I mean certainly there are other options, social workers that defence provides. But the problem is, as Collin has pointed out, they're not, while there's a 24/7 helpline, they're not available in person on the weekend. They’re limited in numbers and in some cases it may take at least a few weeks or months to actually get in to see one of these social workers. So there's a problem there. And he's also argued, you know, as they don't deploy with the ADF, they don't have that insider knowledge of the military. So as it stands at the moment, you are sort of limited to, you know, seeing the chaplains or the padre. And there's just a, you know, significant number of people who may not want to see a religious chaplain for all sorts of reasons as Collin Acton has said.

RUBY:

And I imagine the issue there is that we know that mental health is something that that a lot of people within the ADF struggle with I mean, there's a royal commission underway into veteran suicide right now and so, what does it say to you that the money that defence does have for help is going into a programme that might not really be suitable for everyone?

AMY:

Yes, I think it says a lot, Ruby. As Collin has said, they're not evolving.

Archival tape -- Collin Acton:

“We're talking about the mental health and well-being of real human beings in the Australian Defence Force, the majority of whom now are not religious.”

AMY:

You know, there's a growing number of people who are not, who just don't want to see a religious minister for whatever reason. Yet, you know, there's an overwhelming number of Christian chaplains and then this RACS body, who he has described as being handsomely taxpayer funded, who have the ear of the top brass.

Archival tape -- Collin Acton:

“My issue is you've got this Commonwealth funded religious lobby group in defence pushing all the protection of religion and all the rest of it, and religious chaplaincy pushing for increasing numbers. But Defence's growing majority of non-religious workforce has no equivalent voice to senior levels of defence.”

AMY:

It does very much go back to, you know, mental health and well-being and just having those options. And as Collin has pointed out, you know, he never sought to remove religion from the ADF. If anything, he introduced a Hindu and a Buddhist chaplain and brought them on board. So for him, it's not about getting rid of religion and he's not anti-religious, and he actually says, you know, secularism is just about all of us working together.

Archival tape -- Collin Acton:

“It just means it's got to be a genuine separation so that all of us can live together and we don't privilege one group over another. I think that's the big thing.”

AMY:

But it would seem at the moment when you consider 64% of the workforce have no faith. And this is rapidly increasing because 80% of those joining the ADF also don't have a religious affiliation. The nature of the services that they're offering just don't match up.

RUBY:

Amy, thank you so much for your time.

AMY:

Thanks so much Ruby. Thanks for having me.

RUBY:

In a statement, the Defence Department said that it has a range of professionals to support its workforce, including doctors, psychologists, social workers, counsellors and chaplains.

A spokesperson said:
“ADF members who do not want to engage a religious chaplain always have options for other support.”

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RUBY:

Also in the news today,

Reserve Bank boss Philip Lowe has apologised to Australians who took out mortgages based on his comments in November last year that the RBA would not likely raise rates until 2024.

Since then, Lowe and the rest of the RBA board have lifted rates for 7 consecutive months in a row.

He said, quote: “at the time, we thought it was the right thing to do – and I think looking back, would have chosen different language.”

And…

Anthony Albanese has announced that the Cabinet has decided to bring a censure motion against Scott Morrison for his secret appointment to multiple ministries.

The motion will be voted on by parliament, and bears no legal repercussions, but if it passes, it would be a rare formal act of disapproval by the parliament against a sitting member.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am. See you tomorrow.

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