Comment 26 by SonofHades :

@Macropus

The chaplains policy is blatantly wrong for a number of reasons and I'm unhappy about the fact that Gillard's government is continuing it, but perhaps you are being a tad harsh on the PM over this issue.

There's a difference between "supporting the status quo to appease the right wing of her party and powerful (and wealthy) religious interests" and reluctantly abiding by the majority view of the party, and I'm not sure that Gillard falls into the former category rather than the latter. Taking the disagreement outside the party room and into the public arena could well be disastrous. When there are so many important things at stake in how the country is governed, upsetting the apple cart over school chaplains would be daft.

We want atheists and firm secularists in positions of power. If they're in the minority they may not be able to have much of an effect when it comes to a vote, but one less theism advocate is a good thing. The atheists/secularists can operate within the limits of what the majority is willing to tolerate to reduce religious influence, or they can stick their necks out and have their heads chopped off.

We know Gillard is an atheist and is therefore likely to resent this policy. The members of parliament who are the real supporters of this nonsense deserve our ire to a much greater extent.

Sorry, but if Gillard/ALP's policies = Liberal Party policies, then they deserve the same condemnation. Stop trying to rationalise it as an apologist. If anything the ALP deserves MORE condemnation because that's not the direction they should be moving in, whereas we expect that from the Liberal Party.