Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Senator Scullion. Will the minister inform the Senate about his recent visit to the APY Lands in South Australia and, in particular, how schools there act as a focal point for community engagement and activities?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for her question and her continued interest in this area. Two weeks ago I travelled to the APY Lands on the northern edge of South Australia and spent almost a week in that area. I wanted to spend as much time as I could in a number of communities, meeting with community members and key stakeholders to see how our initiatives were progressing in some of our key priority areas. Everyone would know in this place that getting kids to school is a key priority area in my portfolio, and this was certainly a big focus of my time in the lands. I wanted to talk with parents to see first hand the impacts on the lands of poor attendance and find out what local initiatives had increased attendance in some schools but had not been applied elsewhere or had not increased attendance to the same extent.

I had the privilege of visiting the community schools at Amata, Fregon, Ernabella, Mimili and Indulkana. I participated in many activities with the parents, students and teachers to gain an understanding of some of the local issues. As I am sure everyone would appreciate, each community has its own different challenges and that is why this strategy encourages communities to come up with their own particular initiatives. Almost all the schools, with a couple of exceptions, were able to demonstrate to me their particular local strategy for engaging with families and communities and encouraging them to support their children's education and participate in school activities. At most schools, breakfast is provided for the children while the parents and teachers get together at the same time. I think it is becoming very much a focal point. Originally it was just for the students, but now that breakfast time for the whole community provides an incredible focal point. (Time expired)

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister further explain how the government is working with the communities on the APY Lands to support school attendance?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We believe that the focus point of a community should be the school itself. In Indulkana and Mimili, the new Taj Mahal is the school itself. The existing school grounds have now been turfed, and you cannot lean down and casually pick up a missile, as young men and women tend to do at school. These changes have made the most incredible difference not just to attendance at school—the school is something that the people want to go and see. The community want to be in that school and in that place. I would like to take this opportunity to commend those communities for that initiative. I was also there when the entire school—teachers and students—did a walk around the community to talk to anyone at home who had not quite been convinced. The entire school population of some 80 people went down the road to encourage people to make sure their children attended school. (Time expired)

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Could the minister further advise on and extrapolate for the Senate any other initiatives that he has put in place to further increase school attendance in the APY Lands?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is an area where we cannot just set and forget. There have to be changes in those initiatives and strategies as time progresses, particularly in those areas where the statistics are showing that we are not getting the same sorts of results as we are in those places that are improving. I would like to thank the APY lands education advisory committee, who were kind enough to spend some time with me and provide some advice about the school attendance officers and the levels of support that they may need in a couple of areas. I listened to them and am going to consider what more can be done to improve school attendance throughout the lands. They have asked for heavier duty compliance over particular areas and this will be taken into consideration. We understand that it is now a small number of families that are involved, and I would take this opportunity to thank the committee for that advice. We will be making some announcements in that regard in the next coming months.