Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

The recent budget included funding of $39.8 million to expand the Clontarf Foundation's academy program for Indigenous boys and young men. Unfortunately, there was no money in the budget for similar programs for Indigenous girls. I visited Clontarf academies in five school locations recently: Ambrose Treacy College in Brisbane in the electorate of Ryan; Thuringowa State High School and Heatley Secondary College in Townsville; and Yarrabah State School near Cairns and Trinity Bay State High School in Cairns—which is actually my wife's former school. They were all very impressive, Minister, and the principals of all those schools value the benefits that the Clontarf programs bring to their students—and I say that upfront.

Clontarf academies provide a safe space for Indigenous boys at those schools—a place that is their own. They encourage attendance at school and provide reward through activities. I'm particularly impressed with the transitional program that Clontarf provides for their students as they finish their time at school and move into employment or further study.

Clontarf boys are Clontarf boys for life even when they're men. Their alumni can, and do, come back to the academies years after finishing school for support, advice, assistance or just to say g'day and also to help out those students at school.

I visited some truly remarkable schools when I was in north Queensland last week, including the schools that are lucky to have the Clontarf academies. However, only two of the many schools I visited hosted the Stars academy program for Indigenous girls. This remarkable program is incredibly valuable for the girls who participate in it. I met some great young women at those schools. One senior Stars student who was about to finish this year from hell explained to me the valuable assistance she received from the Stars academy to help prepare her for her transition from high school. She told me that Stars had given her confidence, support and a close friendship group, and she knows that she will always have somebody to turn to if any problems arise after she leaves school. The Clontarf Foundation and Stars Foundation staff do amazing work. I give a big shout-out to the many who I met last week and in the few weeks before that. They do incredible work with these young Indigenous students.

Sadly, while the Clontarf Foundation has received this additional funding announced in the budget, the Stars Foundation has not. One school with the Stars Foundation told me that their numbers are capped, and, although they have many more Indigenous young girls who want to join the program, they can't. At another school, a principal told me he would dearly love to have a Stars Foundation at his school but he has not been granted one. His school has more than 250 Indigenous girls, with no program for them. But there is a Clontarf academy for the 300 Indigenous boys at that same school. It's grossly unfair that Indigenous girls are not being provided with the same advancement programs as Indigenous boys.

The Closing the Gap target that we talk about every year for school attendance is not on track. School attendance rates for Indigenous primary school students are about nine percentage points lower than for non-Indigenous students, and in secondary school that gap increases to around 17 percentage points. There is a gap in school attendance rates for both Indigenous boys and girls, yet, in analysis recently published by The Conversation, between July 2014 and July 2019 nine programs that aimed to improve school attendance for Indigenous students received a total of almost $124 million, but only four of the nine programs were for Indigenous girls, and those four programs received only $40 million, just one-third of the total funding. The four programs for Indigenous girls combined received just over half of the funds provided to the Clontarf Foundation for Indigenous boys—I'm not trying to say either/or; we obviously need to do more for the girls.

I ask the minister at the table: why are Indigenous girls not being provided the same advancement programs as Indigenous boys? Why is there unequal funding for advancement programs for Indigenous boys and Indigenous girls? The minister, like me, obviously values the program run by the Clontarf Foundation, or he would not have provided further funding in the recent budget. Why won't the minister provide the same funding for a similar program such as the Stars Foundation, the Johnathan Thurston Academy or the others—they're just the two that I know about—for Indigenous girls and young women?

See this speech in context