Is this Christian organisation trying to convert kindergarten children now that laws limit their role in Victorian state schools?

The teaching of religion in Victorian primary schools was reaccessed earlier this year after a 2014 report found Education Department guidelines were being breached by Access Ministries.

Lara Wood, the CEO of the Fairness in Religions in School, said the organisation was now targeting children as young as three years old.

“They’re planning to move their indoctrination and proselytising into childcare centres and kindergartens in order to find a new mission field,” she said.

“They’re no longer allowed to use the schools to do that.

“The management of Access Ministries, some of them are personally aligned with other groups and those groups are extremely evangelical and have a philosophy that in order to produce a ripe harvest you need to aim lower which means you need to aim at very young children.”

Access Ministries spokesman Rob Ward said the organisation was not doing anything wrong.

“We’re not pushing it down anybody’s throats or proselytising or any of the things that we’ve been accused of,” he said.

“Parents have asked for it and the childcare centre is responding to the request of parents.

“Some parents came to the centre and said ‘do you offer, amongst a range of optional programs we can sign kids into and out of, do you offer any type of religious instruction?'”

“The principal of the centre then contacted us and said ‘can you help us?’ And we said we probably could.”

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