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

I have done a bit of research on most of the school attendance officers. When I visited St Michael's School in Palm Island I was cranky to learn as soon as I got there that three of my perfectly good attendance officers had been poached by the department of education in Queensland.

I could not be happier with the result, because school attendance officers are not the end of the game; this is an incubation place where people can see them at work, as part of the education system. That will hopefully continue into the future. Interestingly, the police contacted me to see if there were any impediments to them doing the same sort of thing with respect to recruiting.

These people are respected by the community, they are already engaged and they have already demonstrated an excellent work ethic, particularly in the area of communicating. These skills will be used right across the spectrum. I certainly hope that other organisations see this as being an incubator, not an endgame. (Time expired)