Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share 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)