Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

Yes, Labor certainly support the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Extend Family Assistance to ABSTUDY Secondary School Boarding Students Aged 16 and Over) Bill 2019, but we have some concerns—following on from Senator Farrell—that I'd like to go into, given some of the evidence that we received throughout the Community Affairs Legislation Committee process. There is evidence that the current rules, which withdraw family tax benefits when children at boarding school turn 16, put enormous financial pressure on some families. The expenses families face when sending children away to boarding school don't cease when a child turns 16. They still need clothing, books, excursions and the 101 other expenses that come up. Children don't amazingly become less expensive as they get older.

The situation with the family tax benefits is untenable and must change, but just dealing with this aspect will not deal with some of the fundamental flaws in the Abstudy system that need to be addressed. It is a reality that First Nations people still face significant barriers to accessing and completing education in Australia, especially so for students living in rural and remote areas. We heard many of these concerns during the inquiry process into this bill, and I might just give some examples there of the evidence provided to us.

We heard from Remote Indigenous Parents Australia's Mrs Bennett from Beswick, who spoke about the challenges involved in completing Abstudy paperwork. Mrs Bennett said:

With Abstudy itself, writing it down is very hard and challenging because you need identification and immunisation—all these questions—and a few kids haven't got birth certificates because their surname was different to what they have now. I have a niece. She's a very wonderful student here at the school. She's 14. She missed out a year towards going to boarding school because of the waiting. She's still here.

Mrs Bennett was talking about a niece of hers in the Barunga Beswick region and that was just one example. We also heard from Mr Franks, the chief executive officer of Indigenous Education and Boarding Australia, who discussed the misinformation about Abstudy in the community and the need to talk to people on the ground about the scheme. He said that out in community there's misinformation about what purpose Abstudy serves, how it works and how it functions—or how it doesn't function in some cases—not only with families in the bush but also with community administration and with schools in the bush. Mr Franks advocated the need for an on-the-ground education campaign to really help people understand how the system works. I certainly emphasise to the government in moving forward with this that there needs to be an education campaign to understand Abstudy, especially given this new dimension that's going to hopefully change and pass through here so that Abstudy is available for those over 16 and so that those families out there actually have an education campaign to understand what the changes mean. That was something that came through quite clearly.

We also heard from the immediate past president of the Isolated Children's Parents Association of Australia, Mrs Hick, and she spoke about how complicated the Abstudy application process is as a potential barrier for families to access the scheme. Mrs Hick said at the hearing:

We have been hearing that it is very difficult for the families to get through this process. … I would assume Abstudy could be simplified as well, but it needs to be a process that families can understand and get through, because if students are missing out on getting that additional education … then it's quite difficult.

So it's very clear from the evidence that came forward to the committee that there must be a very thorough campaign for all those families right across Australia, especially in our regional and remote areas, so that they do have an understanding of what these changes mean, and I'd certainly urge the government to take that on board as a very serious first step.

Other issues: a report by KPMG for the Northern Territory government in 2016 found that funding provided by the Australian and NT governments for the provision of boarding facilities in school based settings was insufficient to meet costs. These issues around Abstudy were examined at a forum held here in Parliament House last week as part of Facing North. To give some context to the situation in the Northern Territory: 46.6 per cent of our student population is Aboriginal, as opposed to seven per cent nationally, and 44.2 per cent of students live in remote and very remote areas, as opposed to 2.5 per cent nationally. Enrolments decline exponentially from the end of the primary years and, on top of that, attendance declines in the middle and senior years.

When these students come to boarding school in their secondary years they're often identified as having high support needs. Many have poor health outcomes, having lived in overcrowded housing, with entrenched poverty and poor nutrition. And we're also talking about very isolated communities who access this. These are communities that don't operate in the English language as a first language; usually English is a second, third or possibly fourth language. There are more than 100 Aboriginal languages and dialects in the Northern Territory alone, so the information which came back to the committee about making sure there is a widespread communication and education program is really critical.

Often these children are not used to the routine and regimen of a boarding school environment and find it challenging to adapt to this way of life and learning. Their support needs from the boarding school can be intensive and complex. These schools are faced with the scenario of having to provide adequate levels of care and education, which come at significant extra cost. This is what we were hearing last week in the forum held here in Parliament House. All Northern Territory boarding schools have reported that almost 100 per cent of the Aboriginal boarding cohort are non-fee-paying students. This means the school only receives the Abstudy contribution, with some receiving even less because parents are means tested out but still do not pay a gap.

The KPMG report found that difficulties and administrative burdens in claiming Abstudy had a significant impact on school revenues. It also found significant variances between schools in per-student amounts received from Abstudy. Haileybury Rendall School in Darwin provides a case in point here. The principal of Haileybury Rendall School commenced in January 2018, which is actually when the school itself commenced in Darwin after Haileybury Melbourne acquired Kormilda College, which was the college prior to Haileybury taking over. Kormilda College, which had been there for decades—in fact, since the late sixties—had to close, and Haileybury Rendall Melbourne moved to Darwin to take over the Kormilda College location. That had a significant impact on those students there, but also in particular on the families around the Top End who send their children to boarding school there. I think they were pretty much relieved with the ongoing college facilities there now with Haileybury.

It has a boarding house that currently contains 75 boarders, of which 72 are Indigenous children from the remote parts of the Territory. All of the Indigenous boarders are on Abstudy. With some intensive work, Haileybury has been lifting the attendance rates and has introduced programs to lift literacy and numeracy outcomes. In their submission to the Community Affairs Legislation Committee inquiry on this bill, Haileybury said it was common for their remote Indigenous students to have been the victims of trauma, to have witnessed trauma, or both, leaving them with social and emotional issues that have to be addressed at school. These were some of the issues that we heard just listening to the evidence that was provided to the committee and also in reading the submissions to the committee.

In recent years, Woolaning Homeland Christian College in the Northern Territory, and Shalom Christian College in Far North Queensland have had to close. Again, this has had tremendous impacts on the students in remote and regional areas of Australia who went to and were boarding at those places. It is quite significant for families to know that they can ensure their children are being educated right through to year 12. That's certainly something that came through again with much of the other evidence that was provided by some of the private schools. St Joseph's College and Saint Ignatius' College Riverview also provided evidence to the committee.

On the whole, the families were very pleased to know that this is going to be an option. But of course, as I raised earlier on, there is a need for an education and awareness campaign, and a need to simplify the Abstudy process. The forms themselves can be quite complicated. I'd certainly encourage the government to take on board the issues that we saw raised in the Northern Territory.