On Thursday, 5th October, Dr Paul Browning broke his silence for the first time since his shocking dismissal as Headmaster of St Paul's School Bald Hills. Talking to the 7.30 Report, he revealed a row with the Anglican Church over $6.5 million in compensation to historical abuse victims.
Sacked principal reveals row with Anglican Church over $6.5 million in compensation to abuse victims - ABC News
Dr Browning revealed in the interview he was shocked and gobsmacked at the decision not to renew his contract and that the Anglican Schools Commission did not provide a good reason for the non-renewal. So, too, was the dissolved School Council, which was told unceremoniously that they were all fired on the presumption they were no longer working harmoniously. School council members have since gone on record to state that this was not the case, and all, including the Chair Rector David Ruthven, agreed to Dr Browning’s renewal.
Since Dr Browning’s removal from the school, the school parent body has been sent numerous letters from Bishop Jeremy Greaves that contradict the reasons previously stated for his removal. On the 14th of September 2023, Bishop Greaves sent a letter to the St Paul’s Parents and Community stating that the decision not to extend Dr Browning’s contract was:
“Due to recognition that the relationship between employer and employee had broken making his employment untenable. For some time, there had been a drift in alignment between the leadership of the school and the ASC. Disagreement around policy and procedures along with other more fundamental differences in purpose and vision for the school, contributed to this. To suggest that the handling of compensation for sexual abuse survivors played a part in this is disingenuous and a distraction.”
Then, on the 15th of September, Bishop Greaves sent another letter to the School Parents and Community stating the following:
“Disagreement around policy and procedures and fundamental differences in purpose and vision for School have been the major factors, including his desire to commercialise Realms of Thinking. It was explained to Dr Browning that as a not-for-profit institution with a charity status, the commercialisation could not happen at the school because it would put Government Grant Funding at risk for not just St Paul’s but for all schools under the ASC. The Commonwealth Education Department and the State-controlled Non-State Schools Accreditation Board (NSSAB) gave advice that commercialisation of Realms of Thinking would put the not-for-profit status at risk”.
Let’s dig deeper into Grant Funding Eligibility for Non-State Schools. The Non-State Schools Recurrent Grant Policy June 2021 v2.4 provides details pertaining to Government funding eligibility criteria and conditions of funding. As of today, the ASC has not provided evidence of the advice they received to show that the commercialisation of Realms of Thinking would put grant funding at risk. A broad statement within the eligibility criteria states, “The school operated by the governing body will not, on or after its accreditation, be operated for profit.”
However, the money acquired from the commercialisation of Realms of Thinking was never going to St Paul's, nor would it be of profit to St Paul’s. The commercialisation was and could be set up to fund only compensation payouts for historical abuse victims specifically. Sure, we could argue this requires some advice from the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission and the ATO to ensure it was set up correctly, but ultimately, if you can prove to the Department of Education and the NSSAB that there is no profit to the school from the commercialisation, then the eligibility criteria still stand. Why didn’t the ASC pursue options on setting this up rather than just receiving a blanket statement from the Department of Education and NSSAB? Why weren’t they aligned to sourcing creative and imaginative ways to work out effective funding strategies as directed by a report from the Executive Director FDSC of the ACSQ as mentioned in the 2019 Anglican Church Yearbook Vol 1 Page 13 – Child Sex Abuse Claims Funding?
Of interest in this section of the Yearbook is the statement from the Executive Director of FDSC that the ACSQ can fund anticipated sex abuse claims. So why was 100% of that cost pushed down to St Paul's? If the ACSQ had followed the recommendation given by the Finance Director and funded the claims 100%, the commercialisation of Realms of Thinking would not have been needed. So why did the ACSQ Diocesan Council reject the Executive Director of FDSC recommendation? Instead, in the same email sent to St Paul's parents on the 15th of September, Bishop Greaves states, “Since December 2020, each school now funds 100% of such refunds.”
So, in 2019, a financial report submitted to the Anglican Church Diocesan Council by the Executive Director of the FDSC, as stated in their 2019 Yearbook Vol 1, pg. 13, states that the ACSQ can fund the claims, and yet that same council voted to push the full 100% costs down to the schools.
So now the reason Bishop Greaves states for removing Dr Browning due to the commercialisation of Realms of Thinking is due to a position he created and backed Dr Browning into, purely by choosing against a financial report saying otherwise, to push all 100% of the funding of claims down to the school.
Moving forward to the 29th of September, the new Executive Principal held meetings open to the parents to discuss the changes occurring in St Paul's. For a recap of those events, please read here.
As you can see, new reasons were presented, including that Dr Browning was not practising Anglican and that there now exists an unwritten policy that headmasters cannot be renewed past 15 years, despite other existing headmasters sitting in roles for over 27 years and 16 years collectively.
Yesterday, the 6th of October, the Executive Principal again held meetings for the parents and, when asked what the reasons were for Dr Browning’s removal, stated, “his contract was not renewed because he is currently attending a Baptist Church instead of an Anglican Church and the reason for bringing forward the date of his removal was due to the commercialisation of Realms of Thinking.”
In the 7.30 report, Dr Browning stated because of all that he had read, all he had heard, and the untenable situation he found himself in, fighting for the rights of the abuse victims to be heard and compensated and for his own sanity and spiritual nourishment he chose to attend a Baptist Church.
So, in effect, due to the conditions the employer placed on an employee, i.e., having to read over 100,000 pieces of harrowing stories of abuse and having 100% of the responsibility of funding compensation despite the ACSQ having the capacity placed on him, he sought solace in a Baptist Church, and now the ASC wants to use this as their primary reason for removing and not renewing him. Let’s also be clear here: this is not the normal roles and responsibilities a Headmaster is placed in, reviewing that type of evidence, placing themselves as a person of compassion for victims, and fighting for the compensation of abuse victims. Dr Browning did all this on top of his everyday roles and responsibilities as a Headmaster.
Dr Browning’s integrity and his drive to seek justice for the abuse victims saw him collate numerous pieces of evidence regarding Gilbert Case’s involvement during the 80s/90s. In the 7.30 report we heard this evidence was submitted, however no action was taken with the reasons provided being there was not enough public interest and a lack of resources to further investigate.
Therefore, this petition is evidence of the public interest in unearthing that file of evidence and investigations to reopen pertaining to Gilbert Case and the Anglican Church surrounding the past historical abuse that occurred.