Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Extend Family Assistance to ABSTUDY Secondary School Boarding Students Aged 16 and Over) Bill 2019. Education is critical to improving quality-of-life outcomes. Our social security system has an important role to play in providing the relevant supports necessary to ensure that all children have the opportunity to access education. There is evidence that the current rules, which withdraw family tax benefit when children at boarding schools turn 16, put enormous financial pressure on some families. This has resulted in unfavourable and unintended outcomes. Some students and families are forced into withdrawing students from school to maintain access to the family tax benefit to make ends meet. This is an untenable situation and it must be changed. As parents know, children do not get cheaper as they get older. There are significant costs associated with children in boarding school: uniforms, shoes, clothes, excursions, pocket money, haircuts, sporting equipment—the list goes on. These costs don't just stop because the child is at boarding school or because they turn 16.

Abstudy is important. It's helped many school, TAFE and university students to study and thrive. The Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee inquiry into this bill indicated widespread support for these changes, but it also exposed some issues with the administration of Abstudy. These included the lack of secondary school options in local communities or closer to community; the complexity of the Abstudy system—there are seven Abstudy award types, eligibility triggers, and 12 separate payments; and administrative delays in commencing Abstudy payments for children without immunisation or birth records. There is a lack of accessible communication with families in remote areas about the accessibility of Abstudy and how it works. There is the inadequacy of payments; for some schools, the payment is not adequate to cover boarding costs.

The 2019 Closing the gap report found that the school attendance target was not on track. The target was to close the gap in school attendances by 2018. As a nation, we have missed this target and there has been no improvement between 2014 and 2018. This gap is unacceptable. This progress is unacceptable. The overall attendance rate for Indigenous students is 82 per cent, compared to 93 per cent for non-Indigenous students. The gap in school attendance is evident from when the children start school. During primary school the attendance gap was around eight percentage points in 2018. Attendance falls when students reach secondary school, particularly for Indigenous students, and the attendance gap widens to 14 per cent. In remote areas, school attendance by Indigenous students is lower and the attendance gap is larger. In 2018, attendance rates for Indigenous students ranged from 86 per cent in inner regional areas to 63 per cent in very remote areas.

This week we read reports that the government had cut federal funding for 100 remote community school jobs in the Kimberley region in Western Australia's north. The funding allowed remote community residents to provide services such as specialised language teachers, ground maintenance and other support roles. We know that remote schools experience many difficulties presented by geographical isolation as it is, without the added burden of federal funding cuts perpetrated by this government. Last week was Indigenous Literacy Day and this year is the International Year of Indigenous Languages. All Australians should have equal access to literacy resources, especially those children living in remote communities.

First Nations Australians should have the opportunity to learn language and culture. Language and culture are integral to improving Indigenous literacy outcomes. The strengthening of identity and connection to culture is imperative to improving Indigenous quality-of-life outcomes, and it's very disappointing that this government has ended federal funding for, among other things, the specialised language services.

It's also worth mentioning that these remote school jobs were funded through the government's Indigenous Advancement Strategy, which has come under immense scrutiny from the Auditor-General, who raised serious questions about the administration of the strategy and its funding decisions, which have seen $4.8 billion spent over the last five years.

Labor is calling on the government to do more, because going away to boarding school is not the right option for many children. We need to invest in more options at home and closer to home. No-one should miss out on a great education because of where they live. While it suits some students and their families, boarding does not work for others. It takes young people away from the family, community, culture and language, and in many instances it exposes them to discrimination and bullying, as we heard in the Senate inquiry into this bill. We need more public and community schooling options that are close to home and culturally appropriate for Indigenous students from remote areas, and we need to make sure that, when students go to boarding school, it is a positive experience and all boarding schools attended by students from remote communities have the cultural understanding to support those students.

Going away to school can be tough for any young person, potentially even more so when you're from a remote community and English is your second or third language. Abstudy has allowed thousands of students from remote communities to get a great education at boarding school and complete year 12. The changes in this bill are a step in the right direction, and Labor supports them. They will enable young Indigenous students from remote communities to reach their potential. Every young Indigenous person should be able to write their own story of success and achievement, like the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students before them, no matter where they live or what school they go to.

Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | 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.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to also make a contribution to the debate on the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Extend Family Assistance to ABSTUDY Secondary School Boarding Students Aged 16 and Over) Bill 2019. This bill extends family tax benefit eligibility to families of Abstudy secondary school students aged 16 or over who need to live away from home to attend school. Under current family assistance legislation, the family is no longer eligible to receive FTB once an Abstudy secondary school student who boards away from home turns 16. Clearly, this is nonsensical in this instance. This can represent a significant drop in income support for families that can be as high as $6,900 per year. FTB supports families with the cost of raising children and should continue to be paid until a student finishes school.

This bill will address a significant area of need for families and will assist with covering the costs of clothing, medicines and pocket money when students are away at boarding school. It basically addresses a very significant anomaly. It will, it is anticipated, increase year 12 completion rates for First Nations students. The Greens support this bill as it addresses a key policy gap by ensuring families of Abstudy students are eligible for FTB until they finish year 12.

The Community Affairs Legislation Committee held a short inquiry into the bill. During the committee process, several submitters also identified problems with the broader Abstudy scheme. While supporting this particular bill, they took the opportunity to articulate some concerns they had. Having heard these concerns, we share those concerns, some of which I would like to highlight today. To remind people: Abstudy is an important scheme available to First Nations students which aims to encourage First Nations people to take full advantage of the educational opportunities available, promote equity of education opportunity and improve educational outcomes. Unfortunately, the Abstudy scheme in its current form is not meeting some of these objectives, according to the witnesses that we heard from—or any of these objectives. First Nations people still face significant barriers to accessing and completing education in Australia. This is particularly true for students living in rural and remote areas, and Senator McCarthy has just very eloquently articulated some of the problems for those students.

In 2018, attendance rates for First Nations students ranged from 86 per cent in inner regional areas to 83 per cent in very remote areas. The Closing the Gap report in 2019—obviously, this year—shows that we are not on track to close the gap between First Nations people and non-Indigenous people in a number of areas, including in school attendance. Attendance rates for First Nations students did not improve between 2014 and 2018.

I'd like to articulate just a few of the concerns that people expressed. They talked about the current application process being complicated and said that it acts as a potential barrier to families wanting to access the scheme. I acknowledge that the department outlined to us how it had attempted to improve the situation and to improve the application process. However, it appears that this isn't fully meeting the needs of families. Families—

Debate interrupted.