Plan B Forum

Labor has demanded the federal government examine the amount of taxpayer funding being handed over to a group of extremist Christian schools after Fairfax Media revealed they were receiving record levels of public money despite benefiting from millions of dollars in tax-free private donations.

It can now be revealed that three more campuses of the Exclusive Brethren Christian Church around Australia are receiving more public funding per student than up to a thousand of the nation's public schools.
In total, up to $24 million in state and federal funding is going to the church's four campuses each year.

The sect's leader, Bruce "The Elect" Hales, has told his followers to maintain an "utter hatred" of the outside world, banned students from physically attending university, preached homophobia and advised one follower to kill himself with arsenic rather than communicate with his ostracised parents.

The sect, once described by former PM Kevin Rudd as "an extremist cult that breaks up families", also has a history of covering up incidents of alleged child sex abuse.

Along with its Oatlands campus in NSW, the church's schools in Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland are all benefiting from tens of millions of dollars in tax free "gifts" from Brethren families per year.

Despite being barred from voting, Brethren families have also donated hundreds of thousands of dollars in secret donations to the Liberal Party, with up to $67,000 being donated on the same day in December 2010, according to documents tabled at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Federal Labor's education spokeswoman Kate Ellis said there were "sharp questions which needed to be answered".

"It's simply not acceptable that the Federal Department couldn't explain what is happening here," she said.

"There also needs to be an account of whether the school is meeting all of the required standards in respect to the curriculum and broader student wellbeing."

The federal Department of Education defended the current funding levels to the network of schools, which have been rebranded as part of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church.

It said the donation revenue of the schools, up to three times what they charge in fees, "fails as a measure" in establishing public funding levels.

"Under the current funding arrangements for non-government schools, the base funding amount is discounted by a school community's anticipated 'capacity to contribute' which is determined by the school's SES score," it said in a statement.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/educatio ... z4DnReqGnZ

Burning Petard wrote:Can you give a quick explanation of the requirements to vote in Australia? How does one ban participants in the Brethren? Are Scientologists banned? I know that group has a long history of trouble with the law in Australia.

The sect, once described by former PM Kevin Rudd as "an extremist cult that breaks up families", also has a history of covering up incidents of alleged child sex abuse.

rubato wrote:

The sect, once described by former PM Kevin Rudd as "an extremist cult that breaks up families", also has a history of covering up incidents of alleged child sex abuse.

Didn't Aus support the Roman Catholic schools which raped children for decades?



yrs,
rubato

The Catholic Church in the United States is part of the worldwide Catholic Church.

With 69.5 million members, it is the largest religious body in the United States, comprising 22% of the population as of 2015. The United States has the fourth largest Catholic population in the world, after Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines, the largest Catholic minority population, and the largest English-speaking Catholic population.

As of 2015 Catholics serve as Vice President (Joe Biden), Speaker of the House of Representatives (Paul Ryan), Chief Justice (John Roberts), Justices of the Supreme Court (five out of eight, including Roberts; the ninth seat in the Court, which was occupied by Catholic Antonin Scalia until his death in February 2016, is currently vacant), and a plurality of Senators, Representatives, and Governors.

Gob wrote:You're right.

I apologise and withdraw my last post.