Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is always reassuring when those of us in this parliament are able to look at legislation and realise that we are at one in seeking to achieve better outcomes for all sections of the Australian community, including Indigenous Australians. While there has been some criticism by the opposition of elements of the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment Bill, all members believe it is absolutely vital that Indigenous Australians be given the same educational opportunities as other Australians and when we do see areas of disadvantage we as a parliament have a responsibility to provide the resources, to give a helping hand, to Indigenous Australians to make sure that they are able to achieve in the same way as other Australians are. To fail to do so would not be equitable; it would not be an appropriate action by a First World country in 2011.

The Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment Bill 2011 is supported by both sides of the House. It relates to programs which were instituted by the former Howard government—the Indigenous Youth Mobility Program, which aims to help young Indigenous people move away from home to gain the skills they need to get a job in their community or elsewhere, and the Sporting Chance Program, which is an Australian government initiative which started operating in schools in 2007. Its aim is to encourage positive educational outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

These are good initiatives; they are initiatives that have worked. There is broad acceptance in the community that they are desirable and that they should continue. However, the situation is that, while this bill enables these programs to have additional funding and to continue, it regrettably does not give permanence to them. The government says that the programs are under review, and I suspect that most people would agree that this is a government by review. There are excessive reviews by this government. By all means review those matters which need to be reviewed but, when there is bipartisan agreement on the very successful nature of the programs mentioned in the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment Bill, why investigate something that everyone agrees is going well?

It is regrettable that the one-year extension of funding for the second year in a row does not give certainty, does not give confidence, to Indigenous Australians, although it does give a measure of reassurance that at least for the time being these important programs will continue to be funded. I suspect that, while a review is underway, ultimately the government will support the ongoing nature of these programs, but since there seems to be a community consensus and certainly a consensus in the parliament, and the results are clear on the board, about these programs they ought not continue to be 'reviewed'; they ought to be the subject of a statement by the minister saying these are good programs, these are programs which will be funded indefinitely into the future. Frankly, as a nation we do not have a lot to be proud of in the area of Indigenous affairs. As I was saying yesterday, we sought to throw money at the problem; we tried to salve the nation's collective conscience by throwing money at the problem without focusing on necessary outcomes.

Like other honourable members I was enormously proud when the member for Hasluck was elected. He is the first member of the House of Representatives to identify as Indigenous. I was really impressed when the Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs crossed the chamber and congratulated the member for Hasluck, who is a role model for all Indigenous Australians. The member for Hasluck—and I do not really like to talk about someone else's philosophy—sees education as being the way forward and the way to address disadvantage. When one sees the success that the member for Hasluck has been in his life, starting from a position of relative disadvantage, it is very clear that education is extraordinarily important.

That is why the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment Bill 2011, which continues funding, at least for the time being, for these programs, is a very important bill. It is a bill that I commend and support, but I ask the government to cease reviewing these programs and give them a tick of permanence. They deserve it, they have got outcomes and they are achieving what they seek to achieve. The result is that young Indigenous Australians have a better chance of taking their place as people who are able to be successful Australians in every sphere of endeavour. So this is a good bill and these are good programs with which good outcomes are being achieved. I think, though, that the community and the parliament need reassurance from the government that these programs are going to be permanently funded and permanently supported, because they are doing such a wonderful job for those Australians who for too long have been disadvantaged. I commend the bill to the House.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Highly respected Aboriginal woman Yvonne Butler said:

Education is the greatest single weapon to overcome disadvantage and the impact of this denial of education affects me and other Indigenous people to this day. Education is the base upon which society relies, passing on our knowledge and teachings from one generation to the next.

Why should one group in society miss out on the wonders of education just because this government cannot commit to a decision of extending its financial aid?

The purpose of the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment Bill 2011 is to amend funding under the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000 to include an additional calendar year, 2013, so that the facilities providing educational assistance can make a long-term commitment to bettering future generations of our Aboriginal population. The bill provides for the appropriation of $133.5 million for non-Abstudy payments over 2013. This funding amount also includes adjustments to appropriations made as a result of previous decisions of government, including in relation to the new federal financial arrangements framework. In accordance with the government's policy, the legislated figure will be adjusted for price movements. The bill also provides $25.5 million for Abstudy away-from-base payments. The total appropriation for both components is $159 million in 2013. The Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000 provides a legislative basis and appropriate funding for a variety of Aboriginal education programs for the tertiary sector.

Sporting Chance and the Indigenous Youth Mobility Program are two initiatives of the previous coalition government that have been continued by the current Labor/Greens/Independents government. Both programs have achieved considerable success in retaining students in school as well as increasing their participation and success rates. However, this Labor government has not committed to long-term funding for these two initiatives. Instead, it has simply provided a 12-month extension in the past two budgets. The extension has been described as being necessary to allow for the completion and release of the Review of Funding for Schooling report, which is due some time in 2011. But by the government's own admission the review is focused on the mainstream. There may—only 'may'—be some implications for the design and operation of programs run by the IETA Act.

The Australian government, along with all state and territory governments, endorses and promotes the 21 common and agreed national goals of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy. Labor is paralysed by endless reviews. It has described this year as the year of delivery and decision. I say it is the year of more debt and more delay. At least the Prime Minister got the Ds right. A one-year extension of funding for the second year in a row by the Gillard Labor government limits the funding and therefore holds hostage future planning for more successful programs and long-term funding prospects. It seems this uncommitted government is trying to drive a wedge in good programs which re-engage Aboriginal students with learning and bettering their future.

The original initiative was a great initiative, introduced by the coalition government in 2000. The act allowed the minister to make an agreement with education providers, or other persons or bodies, authorising payments during the 2001 to 2009 calendar years. There is enormous frustration that this Gillard-Rudd government is simply without ideas. We have had 4½ years of Labor rolling off figures about Aboriginal disadvantage; however, even when the solution is handed to it from the previous coalition government, it still does not seem fit to implement it. It may want to set a 'closing the gap' figure for 2020, long after this government is gone and hopefully some of its mess is cleaned up; however, it will be unable to account for its lack of action. That will lie in the hands of future generations.

Following from this, if there is not proper funding for the education of Aborigines then we may not see a future generation. This government is quite happy to apologise for the actions of others generations ago, but it seems it is unable to face up to its own inaction and apologise for it. There are many opportunities for Aboriginal youth to do better and to involve themselves in the community, and with help from government a re-engagement with learning can be instilled into these children. But, if this government will not commit to ensuring long-term education funding, how can the children commit to their own education? This government is not really showing a good example. Given opportunity, Aboriginal children are just as capable as any other children of succeeding in our community.

In the Riverina there are just so many sporting opportunities, and we should be doing everything we can to involve Indigenous youths in one of their passions: sport. It is a passion that they are so very good at. Too often Aboriginal youths are overrepresented among those displaying antisocial behaviour. That seems to occur across Australia and it certainly occurs in the Riverina. It is because in some cases they do not get the proper parental direction, or because they have nothing meaningful to do with their lives because there is not the opportunity that should be encouraged more and more by government, or because, in some instances, they just do not know how to be involved in the wider community.

There are avenues other than sport, and one that comes to mind is participation in the Australian Defence Force Cadets. Those young Aboriginal men and women who do join cadet units have the time of their lives. I encourage Indigenous youth to participate. We have seen over many, many years—over decades—how Aboriginal men and women have engaged in our defence forces and been remarkable participants in keeping our nation safe so that today we may live in peace and in a democracy. In Wagga Wagga we have an Army cadet unit, and cadets of all races and ethnicities have risen to the highest ranks of this service. It is a mark of just what can be achieved. I never fail to be impressed with the young men and women in the cadet forces. They are future leaders of our country, and by continuing the funding at great length we can and will encourage Aboriginal Australians.

There is no denying the commitment both sides of the chamber have to Indigenous programs. The Gillard-Rudd Labor government has made a lot of promises under its Closing the Gap initiative; however, we and they, the Aboriginal population, need more than just words. Aboriginal Australians are counting on the Prime Minister to deliver real action and real results in education, housing, health care and, of course, sporting opportunities. Unfortunately this government has proven too many times to be nothing but talk.

The bill today provides more funding for a successful coalition government program. This is highly commendable and I thank the government for supporting the coalition initiative that has been developed over so many years. The previous coalition government was committed to Indigenous programs and in the 2007-08 budget $4 billion was put aside for Aboriginal programs and services. There was a 67 per cent real increase on the amount that had been spent by the Keating Labor government in 1995-96. The coalition government was particularly committed to Indigenous education through initiatives such as the Clontarf Foundation. From 1998 to 2005, the participation of Aboriginal students in year 12 increased from 32 per cent to 40 per cent. Participation in year 11 increased from 52 per cent to 62 per cent. But we can always do better and we must do better. Education is one of the many ways to the future for Aboriginal Australians.

These are just some of the outcomes of some of the projects carried out by the previous coalition government. The Labor-Green-Independents government has professed the same commitment but we have yet to see any real positive action. There is a long way to go in Indigenous education. On such an important issue, the government needs to do more than just expand coalition initiatives. However, it seems that this government just wants to take the easy option and that is costing Aboriginal students the right to a better life.

In recent times, this has been evident with the suspension of the live cattle trade in the north. The largest population per capita of Aboriginal Australians is in Northern Queensland, the Northern Territory and Northern Western Australia, the predominant areas for live export. Many Aboriginal men and women have worked long and hard to gain experience in managing all aspects of the live cattle trade industry. Jobs have not just been lost in droving the herds onto boats. There are also bookkeepers, jackaroos and jillaroos, farm managers and drovers. And many of those workers are Aboriginal people, who through the benefits provided by the coalition government, have re-engaged with the need for better education and worked their way into good jobs—only to have them suspended in another misled decision by this government. And what is the government's solution to this suspension? They have banned the live cattle trade. They have sent all of these Aboriginal workers to Centrelink for compensation—the very place that many like to avoid.

More programs such as the Aboriginal Environmental Education Centre in Brungle in New South Wales in the Riverina in my electorate need to be operated. This is an area in my electorate where education on Aboriginal tradition is threaded into the curriculum. Brungle Public School, which is close to Gundagai and Tumut, has developed programs and the grounds to provide a better understanding of Aboriginal culture. I commend them for the work that they are doing. Students will experience traditional greetings and meet Aboriginal elders in the dreaming room. They will also learn traditional skills, history, Dreamtime legends, implement making and the Wiradjuri language. They will learn about scar trees, bush tucker and plant and animal usage. Aboriginal activist and lawyer Noel Pearson once said that there is no self-esteem and self-worth without capability and there is no road to capability without education.

Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak to the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment Bill 2011, which amends the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000 by extending the existing funding arrangements, including indexation, for the 2013 calendar year. The bill extends funding totalling $133.5 million for non-Abstudy payments, including a number of Indigenous school programs. It will align the payment period under the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act with other funding for school education legislation and agreements. We are supporting this bill because these were originally coalition initiatives.

What concerns us, though, as the previous speaker said, is that this is a recognition that we are not doing well enough in terms of outcomes for Indigenous students. Today there has been a lot of media focus on the fact that Australian children do well comparatively internationally in terms of life chances, with the exception in particular of Indigenous children. There is a growing gap, in fact, between the life chances and outcomes for Indigenous children—including both remote and metropolitan Indigenous children—compared to those for non-Indigenous young people in the Australian society. Quite obviously, that cannot be tolerated in a country like ours.

I have to say that I am very disappointed that, while this government has paid a lot of lip-service to our intervention program, which we introduced just before they were elected nearly five years ago, and to closing the gap as a policy package and an ideal, we are not seeing any major indicators of improvement. For example, with Indigenous adolescent incarceration, the rates of incarceration both for young men and women—teenage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders—are increasing at a dramatic rate. The recidivism rates are increasing dramatically. These are wasted lives—lost lives—with young people spending much of their lives behind barbed wire. On the health of young Indigenous Australians: while morbidity rates are declining, we still have diseases you would expect to more commonly find in Third World countries. The levels of deafness and eyesight damage are just intolerable. In mainstream Australian society, a condition like otitis media, for example, is absolutely preventable or able to be cured in a way that does not leave permanent damage. But it too often leads to deafness in Aboriginal children before they reach their second birthday. There are implications of loss of hearing in terms of education, lifelong opportunities and even being able to participate in your home community. All of your chances are fewer if you have deafness and there is very little opportunity to get aids or even to learn signing to deal with it. This just should not be the case in Australia.

Then there is the business of car injury. Transport related injury is a leading cause of death and serious disability among both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, but it is often overlooked that Indigenous infants, children and adults are all much more likely to have a fatal transport related injury than their non-Indigenous peers. Compared to people in non-Indigenous Australia, Indigenous people who die from this sort of injury have more often been a vehicle passenger or a pedestrian. The risk factors are environment related, vehicle related and behaviour related and are different to those for the rest of the population.

Indigenous people have generally not experienced the reduction in road fatalities that the rest of the Australian population have experienced through effective road safety interventions like wearing seat belts or reducing road speed. Indigenous people are two to three times as likely as non-Indigenous Australians to have a transport related fatal injury and 30 per cent more likely to have a transport related serious injury. Seventy-five per cent of these injuries or deaths are in regional and remote areas. But even in urban locations Indigenous people have a two to three times higher rate of transport related fatal injuries. In some areas, the death rate may be 17 times greater than it is for the general population. This death rate occurs for all ages, including infants and children less than four years old, and there is a peak among 18- to 25-year-olds. The rate of 18 to 25-year-olds having accidents is a serious problem for non-Indigenous Australians too, but in the Indigenous community we have these young children and babies being killed as well. There are more likely to be single vehicle rollovers, and Indigenous people are 10 times more likely than non-Indigenous people to die as a pedestrian—35 per cent versus 13 per cent of all transport related fatalities respectively.

This seems an extraordinary set of data. Why are Australian Indigenous people more likely than non-Indigenous Australians to die in cars—as drivers or passengers—or as pedestrians? The answers are not very hard to find. The conditions of outback roads are very bad. Often there is less maintenance available for vehicles. Often these vehicles are poorly maintained, damaged and unroadworthy. Most cars in remote communities develop mechanical problems within six months and last less than 2½ years.

We need to look very closely at this whole business of deaths in vehicle related accidents. With this bill targeting Indigenous education assistance, we are talking about more students having opportunities to be mobile, to move away to other places and to be involved in sports related programs. Some of those programs are very excellent indeed but, unless we also go to the nub of the problems associated with young people being killed in car accidents, we are not paying attention to the whole problem, with its complexities and its cultural differences.

One of the clear problems for Indigenous young Australians in remote communities is that they do not tend to speak English. They cannot get drivers licences. The nonsensical requirements now applying in most states and territories stipulating how many hours of pre-licence driving you do with a mentor or a parent in the vehicle just cannot apply in outback Australia. In Queensland you are supposed to have some 100 hours of pre-licence driving experience, but some islands in the Torres Strait, for example, might only have a couple of kilometres, if you are lucky, of main road. So how can a young Indigenous person from a Torres Strait island abide by the law and get their drivers licence lawfully with proper experience of driving during the day and night and in all sorts of conditions? They simply cannot. So they are set up to fail in terms of their own safety behind the wheel and also in terms of being law-abiding when it comes to being stopped by police and asked for their drivers licence. These young Indigenous people do not learn English because they are not at school long enough, because their attendance is poor or because the teaching of English at their school is inadequate. There is no special provision for that situation when it comes to these young people being given special driver education. Perhaps there should be a special drivers licence for people from remote areas. That would acknowledge the special problems associated with pre-licence driving experience by providing them with assistance from someone who has a licence.

We often ignore the impacts of the remote geography of our country. I have been quoting these statistics from Monash University and the Foundation for Surgery, which have been doing a lot of work researching injuries and health outcomes of young Australians, particularly Indigenous young Australians. They have come up with some suggestions on what to do to prevent Indigenous mortalities from road trauma. They suggest that there should be more school based education and post-licence education. They say there should be educational and social marketing—in other words, fear messages—in relation to these problems on the road.

The trouble is that it is not just post-licence education; we are talking about pre-licence education. The Foundation for Surgery, Monash University and also the National Trauma Research Institute say we have dealt with these problems for non-Indigenous populations through street lighting, red-light cameras, the promotion of seatbelt use, random breath tests, mass media campaigns on safe driving and speed limit enforcement through speed detection devices. Clearly none of those measures makes much sense for Indigenous populations when we are talking about dirt roads out the back of Uluru or Halls Creek or Kununurra in Western Australia, so we need different approaches.

The coalition supports any measures that will assist Indigenous Australians to have a better life and to have the same opportunities as other Australians. Extending the funding for these programs is important but, I am sad to say, this is just a very small measure in terms of the huge task that confronts us. We have a lot of evidence that we are not doing any better in terms of how our Indigenous young Australians are experiencing life in our great country. I began by saying they are more likely to be locked up, homeless, have mental health problems, have alcohol and drug dependency problems, be assaulted and experience violence. They are more likely to be killed or seriously injured as a result of road trauma. The carers of those road trauma victims are more likely to have their own lives disadvantaged by the fact that they are caring for someone who is physically or brain injured—those with brain injuries may be damaged for life—and they are trying to deal with those things in a remote community.

Along with my coalition colleagues I support this bill, but we have to look much harder at the situation in Australia for Indigenous people. We cannot go on having Indigenous Australians being out of sight and out of mind because of where they live. We need an integrated approach to what we do with the states and territories and non-government agencies. We need to collect a lot more data and monitor the outcomes of a program if it appears to be successful, because too often we do not properly monitor outcomes. The program has short-term funding. The staff who are working with that program become disenchanted when they are on a six-month or 12-month program lifecycle. And, if it succeeds, then maybe in five or 20 years time there will be another program echoing almost exactly the parameters of the first—reinventing the wheel. Meanwhile, Indigenous communities become despairing of a churn of people coming to assist them. They have no sense that there is any continuity of care or understanding of their issues and problems. And we go on having children in Australia who are more likely to be blind through, for example, the instance of cataract conditions; more likely to be deaf; more likely to have brain damage due to foetal alcohol syndrome; more likely to be incarcerated and more likely to suffer death and injury through road trauma—all in all, in every way not able to fully enjoy the opportunities of this great country of ours.

Barry Haase (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to address the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment Bill 2011. This proposed legislation amends the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000, the IETA Act, by extending the existing funding arrangements, including indexation arrangements, for the 2013 calendar year.

The Sporting Chance Program and Indigenous Youth Mobility Program, IYMP, are Howard government initiatives. Both programs have achieved success in retaining students in school as well as increasing their participation and success rates. The Sporting Chance Program was originally announced in the 2006-07 budget, with the objective of using sport and recreation as a tool to not only increase the level of educational participation of Indigenous students but also improve their final learning outcome. The Indigenous Youth Mobility Program allows Indigenous youth aged between 16 and 24 to relocate from remote communities to gain qualifications to increase their chance of getting a good job. Indigenous youth from cities and regional towns are also eligible for the program if they relocate to another IYMP host location to gain qualifications or to take up an apprenticeship.

I fully support this bill as I have seen firsthand what the Sporting Chance Program is achieving in Durack. Since opening its first academy for 25 boys on the campus of the Clontarf Aboriginal College in Perth, Western Australia, in 2000, the foundation has grown rapidly and has been consistently successful. They now cater for over 2,500 boys in 45 schools across Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Victoria.

Using the passion that Aboriginal boys have for football allows Clontarf to attract the boys to school. But it is not just a sporting program; rather, the Clontarf Foundation exists to improve the education, discipline, self-esteem, life skills and employment prospects of young Aboriginal men and, by doing so, equip them to participate more meaningfully in society.

The Clontarf Foundation has nine academies in Durack, with 658 students in total. The achievements of the Clontarf Foundation are remarkable. With school attendance rates of 80 per cent, year-to-year retention of not less than 90 per cent and 75 per cent of graduates gaining full-time employment within one year of leaving school, something is right. Wouldn't it be great if, rather than needing to use the passion for football to educate our Indigenous people, we could instigate a passion for education at an early age. Indigenous teenage males have a life expectancy of 17 years less than non-Indigenous teenage males and are 28 times more likely to be imprisoned. They have a truancy rate of about 45 per cent and are more likely to leave school prematurely, some as young as nine.

I, along with the rest of Australia, would like to, in the not too distant future, view these statistics simply as a relic of the history of Indigenous education. I want the Indigenous people of Australia to be able to stand proud and say, 'That was what it used to be like,' when they get up on the podium of success and reflect on how much they have achieved.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Action Plan 2010-14, released in early June this year, tells us:

Attending school and engaging with learning is fundamentally important in helping young Australians to acquire the skills they need for life. Successful learning cannot be built on irregular attendance. There is evidence to suggest that the more regularly students attend school the greater their success in learning.

Whacko; this is mind-boggling stuff—a 49-page report, at a huge cost, to tell us what we already know: if you do not go to school you cannot hope to learn! Amazing! Whoever would have thought that would be the case! The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Action Plan 2010-14 is without doubt well intentioned; however, I do wonder, given this Labor government's love of rhetoric and lack of discipline in following through, whether any of the report's goals will ever be achieved.

In fact, we have seen several cases of where even the reporting of this government's many and varied inquiries, committees and commissions cannot be achieved due to the lack of data. Recently the Council of Australian Governments Reform Council confessed on behalf of the Gillard government that they do not know if people with disabilities are getting improved services under the National Disability Agreement. The COAG Reform Council's 2009-10 performance report into the National Disability Agreement said:

In this second year report, the council finds that out-of-date data for some indicators, the lack of any data for a number of further indicators, and the absence of agreed measures for others, make it difficult to determine whether progress has been made toward meeting COAG’s overall objective.

This is consistent with the National Affordable Housing Agreement performance report 2009-10, where the COAG Reform Council could not provide a progress report on four partnerships that make up the agreement—again, due to lack of data. Page 39 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Action Plan 2010-14 states:

Data improvements may also lead to the development of more refined measures and reporting of performance against the closing the gaps targets. For example, there is currently no agreed trajectory associated with the target to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in remote communities have the opportunity to access to an early learning program in the year before school. The COAG Reform Council has recommended that data development in this area be given high priority. However, as an indication of work in this area, Figure 1 presents an Australian Government estimate based on Commonwealth funding for Universal Access to early childhood education. Once this data is refined to report on children from remote areas, reporting to Ministers will also be updated.

There we go—an admission of the inability to reach targets due to the lack of data, before the pursuit even begins.

The recent COAG Reform Council data released recently—data which I am sure the Labor government would prefer had not been released—proves that the great Closing the Gap idea is not working. In fact, the gap has widened between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in year 9. The report, based on the NAPLAN data, shows that less than two-thirds of Indigenous year 9 students can read at the national average standard. This, so early on in the plan to halve the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students before 2018, is very troubling news. In what appears to be a distortion of the NAPLAN data, some believe assessments are actually being skewed to what is being taught rather than what children know.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Action Plan 2010-14 report is full of outcomes, targets, performance indicators, national collaborative action, systemic level action and local level action. But I note the report has not once mentioned the two words that are needed when dealing with Indigenous education: tough love. Instead, we have a report tarted up with socially and academically acceptable words so as not to offend anyone. Well, I think it is time that we offended people. I think it is time we set it straight and stopped pussyfooting around. For far too long Indigenous communities have existed rather than thrived, due to welfare handouts. We cannot educate the young before educating the educator.

In mainstream society, school attendance and education are accepted as the norm. That is not the case in Indigenous communities. The necessity of sending children to school needs to be embraced by the entire Indigenous population. An entrenched welfare philosophy exists within our Indigenous communities. Our passive love has not worked and will not ever work. We need more rigour. We need to impose welfare recipient restrictions in line with school attendance. We need to make full welfare payments dependent upon full school attendance.

The biggest issue in Indigenous education is, without doubt, attendance. It is all very well to spruik enrolment figures, but these figures are generally much higher than the true attendance rate and skew the picture completely. Exceptional headmasters and teachers and strong parental involvement can break the pattern, but school attendance in Aboriginal communities generally is far below that of the rest of the community. There is a culture of non-attendance because of funerals, extended absence for numerous reasons, overcrowding, housing, revolting abuse, sleep deprivation, lack of motivation through lack of purpose, lack of role models, no appreciation of need and no parental insistence.

The longer we keep handing out welfare with no expectation in return, the longer we will have a society within a society. First and foremost, we are all Australians; we are not Indigenous or non-Indigenous. We must stop the inequality of expectation between black and white. We need to change our mindset. We need to expect the same of all children, regardless of their colour or cultural background. By lowering our expectations for one sector of society, we do not allow them choices in life that other sectors take for granted—choices such as education, employment, success and, above all, hope. We can keep throwing money at communities with no real expectation of anyone improving their lives—it has worked for decades. Sure, we all feel better—out of sight, out of mind. We have done our bit, given money, eased our conscience, got to sleep nights and moved on—moved on until a hungry young reporter or a seasoned photographer pricks our conscience with a story about the trouble in our Indigenous communities.

Let us be honest with ourselves: it is just not working. Because the do-gooders of this country have brought a race to its knees, it is time to show tough love in order to restore dignity to our Indigenous people. All people need to have an education. As was pointed out in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Action Plan 2010-2014, there is evidence to suggest that the more regularly students attend school, the greater their success in learning.

The actions and initiatives of this Labor government are not working in any area, but especially not in Indigenous matters. Prior to the 2007 federal election, Labor promised it would contribute funds towards the construction and operation of three new boarding colleges for Indigenous secondary school students in years 8 to 12 in the Northern Territory. In 2008-09 the federal budget provided $28.9 million over four years towards this project—$18.8 million was to be spent in 2008-09 and $5.1 million, $2.5 million and $2.5 million over the following three financial years to 2011-12—with the Indigenous Land Corporation to contribute a further $15 million towards construction costs. So far, construction has begun on one site, and that has progressed to formwork only. Nearly three years after the specific commitment made by Mr Rudd, only one of the promised 38 Indigenous children and family centres will have been opened by 30 June this year. The Indigenous children and family centres, part of the Indigenous early childhood development national partnership, are designed to provide quality early childhood services to Aboriginal children and their families.

I am a member of the Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, which recently tabled Doing timetime for doing, the report of its inquiry into the high level of involvement of Indigenous juveniles and young adults in the criminal justice system. The inquiry showed that not only are Indigenous youth 28 times more likely to be incarcerated than non-Indigenous youth, but if you are an Indigenous woman you are 35 times more likely to be hospitalised by partner abuse than a non-Indigenous woman. Those figures are atrocious, yet the Greens have the audacity to demonstrate their ignorance by introducing to parliament bills condemning the intervention on the basis of human rights. Basic human rights, proclaimed and agreed upon, say that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms without distinction of any kind—such as those of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. These rights recognise that a child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment—in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding. A child should be fully prepared to live an individual life in society. To deny children an education is to deny them basic human rights. So long as we continue to accept a culture that says, 'We will pay welfare with no expectation of something in return'—that is, the right of children to be educated—we are denying those children their natural human rights.

Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am going to provide some summing-up comments on the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment Bill 2011, noting the contributions that have been made by members in this debate and reflecting that we do have support in the House for the amendments that have been identified in this bill.

The bill's primary purpose is to extend existing funding arrangements under the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000, including indexation for the 2013 calendar year. Through the act, the Australian government funds a range of programs to support the attendance, engagement and learning of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. I will take the opportunity to provide a few examples of the kinds of programs that are funded under this act and draw the attention of members opposite in particular to those programs.

On literacy and numeracy, funds from the act are expanding the use of personalised learning plans for Indigenous students—learning plans which look at where each student is up to and which help teachers tailor their class work to ensure gaps are filled and every student is making progress. I consider as Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth that personalised learning plans are an essential component of the education provision for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. I will be looking to work very closely with state jurisdictions as we continue to roll out this program.

On attendance, the act funds the Sporting Chance Program—which members will be aware of—engaging mainly Aboriginal boys who are passionate about sport, but taking that passion and using it to drive attendance and a connection with schools. I had the opportunity last week ,when we had a community cabinet in Darwin, to visit Casuarina Senior College, which is funded under this program and currently in its third year of that program. The school now has its largest ever cohort of Aboriginal boys undertaking year 12. That is a significant achievement and something that Casuarina Senior College and its students can be very proud of. It represents a quantum increase in the number of boys getting to year 12 and, once in year 12, having the opportunity to go on to further education, or to skills and vocation.

On community support for schooling, the act also fund projects that strengthen links between schools and parents, community members and, especially, elders. One good example is the Connecting Country initiative in New South Wales where new teachers in high Aboriginal enrolment schools are given an induction into the local community prior to taking up their position. This helps new teachers understand community needs and expectations. It builds a solid and productive working relationship with community leaders, which can be very useful in resolving attendance and a range of other issues that can arise from time to time. These are just a few examples of the programs that are funded under the act and which members need to be very aware of. The fact is that funding provided under the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act is not the only way this government is supporting better results, better outcomes, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Under the Smarter Schools National Partnerships, the government is providing some $2.5 billion to expand literacy and numeracy programs and to improve teacher quality, specifically in schools serving the most disadvantaged around the country. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, like all students around the country, are benefiting from this significant investment, as well as from the investments that we are making in modernising school infrastructure, in providing technology for classrooms, in a high-quality Australian curriculum, in professional standards and improved training for teachers, in meaningful vocational training opportunities that students can still access while in secondary school and, again, in the provision of trade training centres, including those in the Northern Territory.

The fact is that this government has almost doubled federal investment in Australian school education, compared with the previous coalition government. That is the salient fact as we look at the resources that are being applied to make sure that every child, regardless of where they live, gets a great education. And the fact is that this government has set ambitious targets to improve educational outcomes for Indigenous students, to lift our efforts to meet the enormity of that challenge. We know that, within the aim of closing the gap, that task is a really urgent one.

I noted some of the comments by the member for Sturt about these targets, and they were reprised by the member for Durack. In particular, the member for Sturt mentioned that the COAG Reform Council found that data to monitor our commitment regarding early childhood education was not currently available. But what the member for Sturt failed to mention—it is always important to look at what he does not say as much as what he does—was that the COAG Reform Council reported that the work to collect those datasets is well advanced and will be in place for future years. So I caution the member for Sturt, when he comes into this House, not to make misleading use of statements and commentary by institutions such as the COAG Reform Council.

The member for Sturt also failed to mention that it was the previous coalition government that left us with no adequate national mechanism to actually collect data on participation in early childhood education. The member for Sturt failed to mention that it was the previous coalition government's policies that left an unacceptable number of young Australians without access to early childhood learning. So, when we came to government, we were faced with this deficit of policy, resources and support to enable young Australians, including young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, to get the best start in life that they can. So we started the massive task of improving service delivery and data collection, coming off a very inadequate base—the inadequate base that was the legacy of the Howard years—and when we finish, every child, no matter where they live in Australia, will have access to a quality preschool program delivered by qualified early learning teachers and access to the education resources that they need to make the best of their education journey.

I recently released a detailed blueprint describing our actions to ensure this universal access to early childhood learning is achieved for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Universal Access Strategy incorporates work on issues including the supply of places, workforce capacity and community awareness. Additionally, I should make mention of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Action Plan agreed through COAG, signed off by first ministers and chief ministers, which binds both the Commonwealth and state jurisdictions to specific, on-ground, targeted actions to make sure that our efforts in Indigenous education continue unabated. Of course, as members know, all aspects of school funding are currently under review, with the new funding model for schools to be put in place from 2013.

I will make one final comment about the contributions of the previous speakers. I too agree that attendance is a key and important issue in education for Indigenous kids, and we want to especially work closely with education authorities and school systems to make sure that attendance is given the priority that it both needs and deserves—and I will have more to say about that in the coming months. To summarise, the bill provides clarity that the Indigenous education funds under the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act that the Australian government uses to support Indigenous school students will continue at least up until the new system comes into place and that there will be time for proper planning and consultation regarding any changes that might arise as a result of the review.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.