Inside the secretive church school facing modern slavery claims
The Redeemer Baptist Church in Sydney’s west is an organisation obsessed with control.
Under the veil of doing God’s work, its hierarchy unduly influences – many say completely dominates – the day-to-day lives of its members.
Redeemer Baptist School is located in North Parramatta. 60 Minutes
For anyone who tries to escape the church’s authority, a form of hell awaits.
Three months ago, in a joint 60 Minutes, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age investigation, former insiders made damning accusations of coercive control, exploitation and questionable financial dealings against the Redeemers.
Such was the seriousness of the claims that a NSW parliamentary inquiry was set up.
While the church’s leader, Jonathan Cannon, declined to attend the hearings, he wasn’t as successful in evading scrutiny when 60 Minutes caught up with him.
Watch the full story on 60 Minutes on 9Now.
Statement from Russell Bailey, Headmaster, Redeemer Baptist School
Overview
Redeemer Baptist School has been proudly educating children for 45 years.
Many of our students – about 95 per cent of whom are drawn from outside of the Redeemer Baptist Church community – achieve wonderful results, have nothing but good to say about the School, and go on to do wonderful things.
There is a lot of misinformation about our School at the moment, much of which is being driven by a small cohort of long-term anti-school activists; some of which includes claims that have been tested and rejected in court; and a lot of which are focussed on the church not the School. It is important to note that many of the issues raised in the Inquiry are focussed on the Church and not the School.
Let me state from the outset, the school takes any allegation of reportable conduct seriously, with matters reported, investigated promptly and sensitively in accordance with the law.
I welcome the opportunity to correct the record and to provide insight into our compliance with the relevant rules and regulations.
Accommodation
Occasionally families seek assistance from the School with regard to care of their children for a specified period of time.
The School refers these requests to Redeemer Baptist Church families. Any arrangement is between parents or guardians and the family.
Mr Adam Gibson
Arrangements made between church community members about where people live is a matter for each family involved.
In our original submission to the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry, we said:
The School is concerned that the misleading and untrue statements and impressions made by Michael Jones, Alexandra Garth, Edward Garth and Adam Gibson as outlined in the [confidential supplied] Appendix may give a false impression to the Inquiry about the nature of relationships in Redeemer Baptist School, particularly as their concerns are directed towards Redeemer Baptist Church and relate to situations after they left the School.
Coercive control
The school responded in detail to this in our original submission. More broadly, as Headmaster I feel compelled to state that any form of abuse or coercive control is abhorrent to our School. This issue was raised in the Inquiry but it was with reference to the Church under the guise of asking questions about the School.
Anti-slavery commissioner
In relation to Dr James Cockayne’s testimony, the Parliamentary Committee itself identified the very limited circulation of the Commissioner’s survey to a very small selection of like-minded people, such that its findings cannot be given any credence.
That said, as Headmaster, and also a member of the church community, I will categorically reject that volunteer work can be equated this way with modern slavery practices. Volunteering is a service to others, offering help, and fulfilling a community need.
Attendance at the Inquiry
Redeemer Baptist School provided the Inquiry with a detailed initial submission, and have followed that up this week with a second submission responding to further statements which have been given during the hearings.
The advice is that the School should not physically attend the hearings, for reasons including that regulators are currently investigating Redeemer’s compliance with legislative requirements.
As per questions and issues examined by the Inquiry, the Greens-led Inquiry has continued to conflate School and Church and appears to have a predetermined view.
Additional comments
Children at Redeemer Baptist School learn in a highly supportive community. The School has an unblemished record of compliance with State and Federal government regulators across 45 years.
Some 94% of students attending our School are not from the Redeemer Baptist Church community, so it is very important to not conflate our school and church.
Redeemer Baptist School’s volunteer model is not unprecedented and we understand it reflects models in some other religious schools.
Statement from Jonathan Cannon, Principal, Redeemer Baptist School
As I said, we have nothing to hide. Regarding recurrent funding, we are fully compliant with the NSW and Federal Government and have been so for 45 years. And regarding homestay arrangements, these are occasionally organised between the families involved and are not a matter for the School.
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