Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I actually hope to make a contribution on something that is positive and is happening in Australia, and that is a program known as Future Footprints, being conducted in secondary boarding schools in Western Australia. It is targeted at attracting and retaining young Indigenous students through to the end of year 12 and onto tertiary studies. I want to report to the Senate how successful that program is. I thoroughly recommend it and I will be requesting that in the forthcoming budget continued funding is there for it. It is an initiative of the Association of Independent Schools in WA and its aim is to support Indigenous students from remote areas of Western Australia and the Northern Territory attending boarding schools in Perth.

The program has been running since 2005 and I want to give the Senate some statistics on it. Its aim is, firstly, to increase the number of Indigenous students in independent schools; secondly, to increase the retention rate right through to year 12; and, thirdly, to increase the number who successfully complete year 12 and therefore go on to higher studies and, of course, to develop that partnership between schools and places of higher learning and trade training providers. The program started in 2004 with 76 Indigenous students equal in number between boys and girls. This year, 181 are participating. They are drawn, as I said, from every region of WA but also the Northern Territory—Jabiru and Groote Eylandt. But most important is the fact that the completion rate of these young people in the schools has gone from a very successful 79 per cent in 2005 to hit 100 per cent in 2008 and 96 per cent last year.

Regrettably, so many of the programs that we see and fund and learn about in estimates and at other times in this place only ever tell us about failure. They tell us about truancy, about nonattendance at schools and about problems associated with children and adults in the Indigenous communities. The interesting thing about this program is that from its inception it has been outstandingly successful. There would not be a thinking person in this community who does not want to see a radical narrowing of the gap between the Indigenous community and the wider community, and we all accept that this starts with the key form of education.

There are some 16 independent schools in Perth that participate in the program each year and they provide very significant funding. It costs about $30,000 a year to have a child in boarding school and the best that the parents can get is support of about $12,000. So each of the schools is supporting each of these kids to the tune of at least $15,000 and that is to be commended. The government and the wider community should applaud that.

I know there are programs around Australia where Indigenous students are in schools in the cities. This one is a little different in the sense that it has, as part of its exercise, the involvement of some Aboriginal liaison officers. The Commonwealth government contributes $400,000 per annum to this program and that $400,000 is then allocated to the employment of two Indigenous liaison officers. For those of us who have been in boarding schools, the best way to describe these officers would be to say that they are the kids’ Perth based aunt or uncle. They provide the sort of support that we would hope an extended family would supply.

We all know that boarding school is stressful, but you can imagine just how stressful it is for kids from remote areas of WA and the Northern Territory. Very often they are the first in their family to have ever participated in secondary school and it is a tremendous cultural change for them to come from the north of Australia down to Perth. This is the role that the liaison officers have. They arrange orientation programs at the beginning of each year, and it was my pleasure three or four weeks ago to attend their Welcome to Country ceremony. They mentor the students in schools, they act as liaison between the school liaison officer and the children themselves, they visit the kids on a weekly basis just to make sure that everything is under way, and they also provide to the staff and students in the schools some sort of professional development and understanding of the cultural differences between the Indigenous children and the wider community of kids. They regularly communicate with the parents and parent representatives but, more importantly, they form partnerships with higher education institutions and trade training providers so that as these children move towards year 12 and graduation they are already aware of some of the options available to them.

One very important feature of the Future Footprints program is the liaison between the Indigenous and the non-Indigenous children in the boarding schools, but equally so many of these schools now attract overseas students and these would be the only opportunities that overseas students, from the Asian region in particular, have to meet and mingle with the Indigenous kids. Therefore, we have a circumstance in which the Indigenous young people, the non-Indigenous and the overseas students form friendships, visit each other’s homes and start lifelong friendships. It would be unlikely that we would ever see such encounters occurring. I am aware of many instances where the Indigenous young people are invited home to their classmates’ homes, both in metropolitan and rural and regional areas. Of course, this is of critical importance.

Madam Acting Deputy President, let me give you some of the tremendous statistics that this program is attracting. In 2008 there were 19 students who started year 12 and 19 students graduated. In this last year, 2009, that 19 increased to 28 students, all of whom except one successfully completed year 12 and graduated. But what is very exciting about this program is that of the 28 who graduated last year 11 have already gone into university courses—in Perth and, in a couple of cases, in Melbourne—five have commenced apprenticeships and two of them are already fully employed. Of the 2008 graduates, several of them are at university, many of them are in training or apprenticeships, one young fellow won a Rotary exchange to study during 2009 in Europe and others have gone interstate or have remained in WA in internships or are in employment. What an outstanding achievement for a group of young people from rural and remote areas of WA and the Northern Territory. They make the break, come down to these schools—the cultural shock for them must be tremendous—remain in school, graduate and start a career in university or in trade training or in other higher education, something which they would otherwise have never had the opportunity to do.

This program has been recognised by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations in 2008 as being best practice. In that same year Future Footprints received the Woodside Petroleum Award for its contribution to Indigenous education and, fortuitously for them, it was one of the projects selected for presentation at the Ministers of Education first biennial forum held in Melbourne in December 2008. Whilst I do not have the quote with me, it was absolutely tremendous on that occasion to see a young lass in year 12 from Broome stand up in front of that august body and say to her friends and colleagues and to the audience generally, ‘You know it’s painful, you know you’re lonely and you know you want to be home but at the same time you know you have an opportunity and you must grasp it.’ In fact, that young lady did graduate in 2008 and I believe she was one of those who went to Melbourne and into university last year.

Future Footprints plays a significant role in the engagement of young Indigenous people in education. It has already proved successful in their development at a critical time of their education and, importantly, their school-to-work transition. The success of the program is evident across a range of indicators, the two most important ones being retention and completion. Together with the strong growth in Indigenous student enrolments in independent residential schools, the program’s commitment to social inclusion and to reduce disadvantage is to be applauded. Last year in Senate estimates, I urged the minister and the department to continue to expand funding at a time when it was at risk. I must congratulate Senator McLucas. I understand she picked up that mantle and, as a result of our pleading, that program was funded. My plea is that in the forthcoming budget round that $400,000 will continue.