The Australian Defence Force is failing to meet the wellbeing needs of its non-religious service personnel, the Rationalist Society of Australia has told a federal parliament committee.
In a submission to an inquiry of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, RSA Executive Director Si Gladman said it was possible that thousands of Army and Air Force service personnel may be unable to access appropriate frontline wellbeing support.
While Navy introduced a handful of secular roles into its chaplaincy branch in 2020, Army and Air Force still only provide their majority non-religious workforces with religious chaplains as frontline wellbeing support – and with these chaplains increasingly being from Pentecostal and evangelical Christian churches.
The Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade is inquiring into the Department of Defence Annual Report 2023-24. In the annual report, Chief of the Defence Force Admiral David Johnston AC says the Defence Force is committed to achieving “better outcomes for our people” and to “improving the welfare of serving and former-serving members of the ADF”.
In the RSA’s submission, Mr Gladman said many non-religious Defence personnel would not want to seek help from chaplains and highlighted evidence of religious chaplains having theological and ideological views at odds with mainstream society and Defence’s own values.
“While Defence’s public relations line states that chaplains serve ‘all’ people – those of religious and non-religious backgrounds – this is, clearly, a myth. For various reasons, many individuals do not feel comfortable in speaking to religious agents about their problems,” he wrote.
“…it is possible that thousands of Army and Air Force personnel do not have access to the frontline wellbeing support that they want and need.”
Mr Gladman pointed to the recent Defence review that found “strong demand” for Navy’s secular roles.
He informed the committee that the RSA viewed the denial of secular frontline wellbeing support as a human rights matter and, as such, would raise it in a submission to the upcoming United Nations Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review (Fourth Cycle) into Australia’s human rights.
“We support religious Defence personnel having access to religious-based chaplaincy. But the same opportunity must be extended to non-religious personnel to seek secular, or non-religious, wellbeing support,” he wrote.
The Rationalist Society of Australia is actively lobbying and advocating for secular reform of the Defence Force. See the latest updates here.
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Si Gladman is Executive Director of the Rationalist Society of Australia. He also hosts ‘The Secular Agenda’ podcast.
Image: Department of Defence / Commonwealth of Australia