In October 2006 John Howard declared that "clearly he reserves the right to say 'No' to somebody who's plainly unacceptable, whatever that person's background might be." He reserved the right to veto anyone not deemed satisfactory by the government.

In order to achieve Howard's aims the Department of Education and Training was to monitor chaplaincy activities.

According to the Catholic Weekly, March 4, 2007. Page 5, the Catholic Education Office, Sydney has rejected the Federal Government's $90 million national chaplaincy program, saying it is "not suitable" for Catholic schools.

In Sydney, Brother Kelvin Canavan, executive director of schools has written to more than 180 schools in New South Wales advising that his office will not support the program. In his letter he said that Catholic schools rejected a guideline that schools may engage more than one chaplain to reflect the diversity of the students and that the Department of Education and Training monitor the program.

Finally we have it.

Public schools, but not Catholic schools may reflect diversity of students in . Yet there is no proper public accountability for the billions of dollars of public money poured into them in the name of diversity every year!

Howard declared in October the right of the State to supervise chaplains placed at State expanse in the nation's schools. But by March, the Roman Catholic Church  has rejected Howard's right to monitor chaplaincy activities.

The latest clash between Church and State in Australia should come as no surprise to those aware of the State Aid debates of the 1870s and 1880s. In that time the Church wanted taxpayers dollars with no accountability or State control over staff appointments. They have not changed a wit. The only difference is that now they have the billions without any religious strings. They  take the cake, eat it, and demand ever more.

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