This article is the first in a series on religion in the Australian Defence Force.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Every three months, Australian taxpayers pay to send a group of religious clerics, including bishops, senior pastors, a rabbi, an imam and other religious figures, to Canberra to meet at a modern hotel next to the capital\u2019s airport. At 8.30 in the morning, they meet over consecutive days to discuss matters relating to religion in the Australian Defence Force (ADF).<\/span><\/p>\n Few Australians \u2013 even members of the Defence Force \u2013 would have heard of the Religious Advisory Committee to the Services (RACS). Many, no doubt, would be surprised to learn of the privileged place this committee holds in Defence and the influence it wields.<\/span><\/p>\n Recent allegations calling into question the behaviour of RACS, centering on claims that it has stifled needed reforms and forced out of the Navy a former top chaplain who was pushing for such reforms, raise serious questions about the appropriateness of the committee\u2019s place in the modern ADF.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Rationale <\/span><\/i>can reveal that new information, obtained from the Department of Defence under Freedom of Information (FoI) laws, adds further weight to the claim that the committee is an anachronism that no longer serves a useful purpose in the modern Defence Force.<\/span><\/p>\n According to its Memorandum of Arrangement with the Commonwealth, RACS is responsible for providing \u201creligious support, including advice, to Defence so as to ensure that the religious, spiritual and pastoral needs of ADF members are appropriately maintained\u201d. <\/span>The committee\u2019s key objectives include: providing a direct link between chaplains, Defence and respective civilian religious institutions; upholding the freedom of all faith groups within Defence; nominating people for the roles of chaplain and principal chaplain; and providing advice and assistance to chaplains and Defence personnel in relation to worship, religious education and pastoral ministry.<\/span><\/p>\n Since it was established as a statutory body in 1981, RACS has enjoyed a direct line to the Minister for Defence and to the Chief of the Defence Force. The 10 members of the committee are nominated by their respective religious institutions for five-year terms. They are each accorded two-star status \u2013 equivalent to that of general.<\/span><\/p>\n While the committee\u2019s ongoing presence appears more like an artefact from a bygone era, it is, perhaps, emblematic of an institution which remains, according to former Army Colonel Phillip Hoglin, \u201c<\/span>overtly Christian<\/span><\/a>\u201d and \u201c<\/span>functionally, if not structurally, non-secular<\/span><\/a>\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Australia as a whole is rapidly becoming less religious, and the same trend is happening in the military \u2013 but even more so. Official Defence figures show that, as of 2019, almost 56 per cent of full-time <\/span>Defence members are not affiliated with a religion<\/span><\/a> \u2013 up from 31 per cent in 2003. With that rate rising at 1.5 to 2.5 per cent a year, the 2022 figure is likely to be around 60 per cent. Notably, <\/span>among new recruits<\/span><\/a> about 80 per cent report that they have no religion.<\/span><\/p>\n Yet religion \u2013 and, mostly, Christianity \u2013 retains a privileged place in the Defence Force, dominating rituals, commemorations and even the <\/span>instruction and delivery of \u2018character development\u2019<\/span><\/a> during formative training for new service personnel.<\/span><\/p>\n Defence uses a religious framework in the provision of pastoral care and wellbeing support, with 160 full-time and 150 part-time clergy embedded in ships and in military units to provide frontline support for personnel. But calls are mounting for the ADF to move away from its reliance on religious-based chaplaincy.<\/span><\/p>\n At Senate Estimates last week, Senator David Shoebridge asked the top brass whether they could \u201c<\/span>see the problem<\/span><\/a>\u201d of Defence relying on Christian-based chaplaincy to support its people.<\/span><\/p>\n In 2020, the Navy did see the problem. It identified the need to introduce non-religious wellbeing support into its chaplaincy branch after <\/span>damning testimony<\/span><\/a> to a Defence Force Remuneration Tribunal revealed that religious-based chaplaincy put up numerous barriers to Navy personnel getting appropriate support.<\/span><\/p>\n Despite the recognised need in Navy for, and subsequent introduction of, <\/span>secular wellbeing officer roles<\/span><\/a>, known as Maritime Spiritual Wellbeing Officers, the other services, Army and Air Force, have so far failed to take similar action.<\/span><\/p>\n