Thanks to God and to China for buying up natural resources from Australia, the outpost continent economy is booming. Australian wages outpace American wages … making the former penal colony a world-wide California for folks who are inclined to tan.
NOW, the Aussies are joining America in thanking God. After his government announced cuts to aged care, education, the environment, science, hospitals, and increased doctor fees, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has somehow managed to find $226 million for a school chaplaincy service. Abbott, a staunch Catholic opposed to gay marriage and abortion, defends the school chaplain program as designed to support the “emotional and spiritual well being” of students.
School chaplains are not new in the outpost state. Critics have argued that it’s hard to justify $226 million, an amount equal to over 2 billion dollars in the US budget. Teaching Union Leader, Angelo Gavrielatos: “There is more being spent on school chaplains than there is in dealing with the needs of students with disabilities … surely that is a higher priority?”