Wednesday, 29 November 2023

Spiritual care

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (18:22): (644) I want to raise a matter for the attention of the Minister for Health in the other place, and it concerns the Spiritual Health Association and funding for chaplains within our health system. This is an incredibly important issue. The Allan Labor government has decided – disgracefully, in my view – to discontinue all funding for the Spiritual Health Association and for the chaplain program in our public hospitals.

I am very familiar with this program as a former health minister. I fostered and supported this program ‍– indeed I put in additional money to support the program to ensure that it not only continued into the future but was able to do very significant work. To explain to the community – and indeed the minister, it seems – the way this works is that there is a chaplain in each of our major public hospitals. The chaplain is there to support people of all faiths – if necessary, to bring someone in from outside – and to provide basic spiritual support for people, some who may be dying, others who are in difficult situations. People have strong faiths and want to have someone there who can assist them at these points of often significant trouble.

I am aware that the organisation has written an open letter to the Premier of Victoria, Premier Allan, dated 13 November and asked for her urgent intervention in the continuation of funding for the Spiritual Health Association. The program is administered through the Department of Health, so this is strictly for the health minister, but I note that the specific letter that has been circulated has been sent to the Premier.

For 70 years chaplains in our public hospitals have performed this important role. The letter is signed by Archbishop Dr Philip Freier; Archbishop Peter Comensoli; Mr Dinesh Weerakkody, president of the Buddhist Council of Victoria; Ms Agnes Sheehan, the CEO of CatholicCare Victoria; Makarand Bhagwat, the president of the Hindu Council of Australia; Adel Salman, the president of the Islamic Council of Victoria; Daniel Aghion KC, the president of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria; Bishop Lester Priebbenow, Lutheran Church of Australia, Victorian division; His Eminence Metropolitan Petar, the diocesan bishop of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, diocese of Australia and New Zealand; Reverend Ian Hutton, the moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria; Jasbir Singh Suropada, the chairperson of the Sikh Interfaith Council of Victoria; and Reverend David Fotheringham, the moderator of the Uniting Church in Australia, synod of Victoria and Tasmania. This is a nasty, harsh little cut.