The West Australian Governor’s promotion of religious chaplaincy has pitted him against the state’s public school communities which have called for an end to religious-based discrimination in the funding of pastoral care roles and for the Cook government to allow them to directly hire secular professionals.

Earlier this year, the Rationalist Society of Australia wrote to Governor Chris Dawson, raising concerns about his support for YouthCARE – the state’s dominant supplier of chaplains for the state and federal funded chaplaincy and wellbeing support program.

Governor Dawson (pictured) is Patron of YouthCARE, and he sponsors the annual Governor’s Chaplaincy Awards and promotes school chaplaincy on his taxpayer-funded website and social media channels.

In August, his website trumpeted the work of “treasured chaplains” and claimed that their presence in schools “has a real and positive effect on educational outcomes for hundreds of children across the state”.

As the RSA has reported, the Parents & Citizens committees of Western Australia’s public schools have, on two occasions in recent years, voted overwhelmingly in favour of ending the religious-based discrimination in the hiring of chaplains and of every public school being able to directly employ professional secular wellbeing officers.

Documents have revealed that the state government has turned down the pleas of an increasing number of public schools that want to use state and federal funds to allow them to directly employ wellbeing support officers instead of having to source chaplains through third-party labour hire firms such as YouthCARE.

The documents obtained under freedom of information laws also show that up to 39 per cent of the total funds available for the chaplaincy and wellbeing support program are simply going towards paying the administration overheads of the religious organisations that recruit chaplains.

In the letter to Governor Dawson in March, RSA Executive Director Si Gladman said the Governor’s support of YouthCARE “may give rise to a perception that religious-based discrimination is acceptable”.

Mr Gladman noted that, in 2021, the West Australia Equal Opportunity Commissioner, John Byrne, labelled the practice of restricting the school chaplaincy positions to Christians as constituting “prima facie religious conviction discrimination” under the state’s Equal Opportunity Act 1984.

YouthCARE only employs Christians for the chaplaincy roles, requiring successful applicants to meet religious credentials including that they demonstrate “active engagement in the life of a Christian Church”.

When asked by a Bayswater local councillor in 2022 whether YouthCARE chaplains could be Muslim, the organisation’s chief executive officer, Tamsyn Cullingford, said that, while anyone could apply, “…we employ people who align with our values” and that “… the people who tend to align with our organisation are Christians”.

Mr Gladman also asked Governor Dawson whether the Governor’s Chaplaincy Awards only recognised Christians or whether they were also open to non-Christian and non-religious pastoral care and wellbeing workers.

Governor Dawson has not responded to the letter.

Recent articles on the Governor’s website show that Ms Cullingford and other YouthCARE representatives have, as members of a panel, been meeting at the Government House to decide the winners for this year’s Chaplaincy Awards.

This year’s Governor’s Chaplaincy Awards was held at Government House on 24 September 2026 in conjunction with the WA State Chaplaincy Conference.

In early September, Governor Dawson hosted the Governor’s Prayer Breakfast to “share fellowship and pray for the nation, Western Australia and its people”.

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Si Gladman is Executive Director at the Rationalist Society of Australia. He also hosts ‘The Secular Agenda’ podcast.

Image: govhouse.wa.gov.au