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

Before I move to the government's achievements in this area I would like to once again acknowledge the valuable contribution of Senator Back. We wish him and his family all the best in the future. I am pleased to inform the Senate that we are working in partnership with Indigenous communities, and the investments we are making are great news for our First Australians. We are ensuring that there are opportunities for people first to get an education and then to transfer into employment. It is evident that it is very hard to get an education if you are not at school, and our Remote Schools Attendance Strategy has assisted over 14,000 students over 77 schools in the last 12 months. We have provided this assistance by ensuring we work with the communities, which means we have employed 450 local truancy officers who understand the children, the families and the circumstances in those communities. Again, it is a matter of working in partnership with the communities.

We have taken that approach in the area of employment as well. We have broken the cycle of training for training's sake. We have the VTECs—the Vocational Training and Employment Centres—and we have just passed the 6,000 permanent jobs mark for Indigenous jobseekers. Our Indigenous Entrepreneur Fund ensures that Indigenous businesses have the opportunity to make a start and succeed. Sometimes it is a piece of infrastructure, or it might be a backhoe or a photocopier or a giraffe. Whatever it is you need to run your business, this is the fund that can sort it out. We have achieved an awful lot over the last 12 months. We are going to continue to push on with our reforms, and all of these reforms will be based on ensuring that we are working with communities, working with the people we want to assist. I am sure that we will be able to continue to deliver these results.