Tell the federal government they’re dreaming. That’s the message on the High Court’s schools chaplains decision from the actor who, as Darryl Kerrigan in the hit film The Castle, became one of the country’s most famous High Court victors.

Actor Michael Caton’s utterances entered the vernacular from his performance as the knockabout Kerrigan, a tow truck driver and greyhound trainer who fought off an attempt by Melbourne Airport to compulsorily acquire his home in the 1997 film. The actor has been described in the media in recent days as a supporter of Ron Williams, the Queensland father who successfully challenged the federal government’s program to fund chaplains in schools, in the High Court.

Caton told Crikey that while he was not heavily involved in the case — he thought he might have signed a letter of support — he backed Williams and was delighted with the High Court result.

“I’m all for it,” he told Crikey. “I sometimes feel like David rather than Goliath. I just think that the forces of oppression are there, the conservatives, the bishops.

“It is probably a lesson to the Commonwealth to just keep their noses out of people’s private lives really.”

Caton called on the government to follow the High Court’s decision by ending the chaplains program. He laughed — almost as much as Kerrigan did at Hey Hey it’s Saturday in the film — when asked if he was seen as Australia’s go-to man on constitutional battles. “It’s true isn’t it, I cannot deny it,” he said.

Caton says his antipathy to the chaplains program stems from his Catholic upbringing. He was picked on at school for his religion, and witnessed hostility between Christian denominations in the playground.

“I think one of the main causes of dissension in the world today is religion,” he said.

Parents who want religious instruction for their children should seek it out, perhaps by enrolling in a religious school, but “don’t lay it on the rest of the people who might want to be much more neutral”.

In The Castle, the modest Kerrigan family home, built on lead-tainted land near Melbourne airport, was threatened with compulsory acquisition for an airport extension. Kerrigan launched a legal challenge that went all the way to the High Court where, with the help of QC and fishing companion Lawrence Hammill (Bud Tingwell), Kerrigan carried the day and saved his home, complete with pool room.

As for the reason Williams was successful — in real life this time — in taking on the chaplains program in the High Court? Perhaps that can be put down to the vibe of the constitution.