Barry Haase (Kalgoorlie, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to support the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment Bill 2006. The purpose of this amendment bill is to appropriate additional funding of $43.6 million over the 2006 to 2008 calendar years for tutorial assistance, community festivals for health promotion, activities which address substance abuse, and school based sporting activities for Indigenous youth. Education prepares children for life and participation in society. These projects will assist Indigenous pupils with their schooling, and I commend the Australian government on this amendment bill and its lofty ideals.

However, the number of children these funds will assist is relatively minimal and will continue to be so unless there is a fundamental shift in the attitude of Indigenous people themselves towards education. It may surprise members in this place to know that there exists an unacceptably large cohort of children not even enrolled in the school system, within the Indigenous population. These children are therefore out of the education system and often the social system completely. This situation can lead to nothing but negative, wasteful and tragic outcomes. The obvious drawcards of substance abuse and crime aside, there is also the lure of welfare dependence and the baby bonus grant.

The baby bonus is something that this government very rightly takes a great deal of pride in. We now offer new mothers $4,000 tax-free to assist with the cost of a child. However, in communities where young people are out of the education system, this assistance is having an adverse impact, leading to an increase in the number of under-age mothers and therefore an increase in the number of welfare recipients. Worst of all, all these young people have no chance of breaking the cycle of poverty.

Enrolling children in school and ensuring that they attend every day for their primary school years is the single most important action parents can take to solve the crisis of the unemployability of Indigenous youth as a result of failed primary education and everything else that follows. School attendance for at least primary school years must be made compulsory for every Australian child. I have been deeply committed to this principle since I first heard of the herculean struggle Indigenous children face for a positive life without an education. Addressing the issue of truancy among children is fundamental to the future prosperity of Indigenous people and, I believe, their salvation.

Last year a trial project addressing this issue was set up in the town of Halls Creek in my electorate. Halls Creek has been in the spotlight in recent weeks because it is a microcosm of the wider issue. The project’s aim was to suspend the Centrelink welfare payments of those parents whose children did not regularly attend school. Parents had to go into Centrelink and explain why their children were not attending and ask for support. This trial was working incredibly well, with school attendance jumping from 54 per cent to 80 per cent in two months. Unfortunately, the project was cancelled because its legality was questioned. I worked very hard to get that trial reinstated and it was, but unfortunately in a weaker form. Political correctness once again dealt a blow.

We anticipate the release of the report on that trial, and I hope to see a strong recommendation for no school, no welfare and that not to send one’s child to school is tantamount to child neglect. Some members may feel that is a strong statement, and it is. It is also a true statement. For decades we have equipped Indigenous communities with more than adequate educational resources—that is to say, we have tossed money at the problem. If members feel that that approach has been successful, they are mistaken. We need a change in attitude, and the cultural reasons children do not attend school must be addressed if we are to make any progress.

No one reason is more important than another, and I will begin with the dependence on welfare. Over the past decades we have created a culture of welfare dependence among Indigenous communities. Measures must be taken to wean people off this dependence, and the most significant impact will be made by education. The concept of mutual obligation needs to be mentioned. The taxpayers of Australia expect this government to spend money in a reasonable way. Surely, if we are prepared to continue to pay welfare dollars, the recipients should best equip themselves to break the welfare cycle. Across Indigenous communities a culture of illiteracy has been created. Children have no role models because in many communities no-one in their family has been educated since the time of the missions.

Generally, little importance is placed on learning and improving one’s situation through education. There is also the question of funeral attendance and sorry time, which involve extensive travel and taking the children out of school for such long periods of time that it seems to them pointless to return. Cultural matters have priority over what is considered to be the importance of education because, currently, political correctness is paramount. Too many teachers have a romantic idea of teaching in Indigenous communities: learn the language and culture, embrace the community members, stay a short time and dine out on the experience forever. When they return to their cities they should have left something behind, other than the children. Too often they take from the community rather than contribute to it. When you consider that they are charged with the responsibility to improve the ability of these children to engage in society, combined with the reluctance to attend school on a regular basis, it is little wonder that we have such difficulty in finding real employment for community based people.

Government does not have a responsibility to embrace Indigenous or any other culture. Government has a responsibility to equip all its people for a fulfilling life. The dictates of modernity define that as being a basic education, health care, security under the law, equal opportunity and the opportunity for participation in meaningful employment to gain financial independence and contribute to society. Too often, currently, we not only excuse but condone a culture that says, ‘School attendance is not important.’ It is simply not morally just to espouse the view that one ought to be sustained by society without contributing to it.

This bill provides an additional $25.7 million for tutorial assistance for students in year 9 and for those undertaking vocational and technical education. These two groups need support. Year 9 has been identified as the level at which many students drop out of school, and vocational and technical students are few and far between. Indigenous children who attend school are too often not given educational support at home. So those struggling with their studies tend to simply give up. Providing funding for tutors to assist with difficult subjects means that these children are more likely to stay at school.

Most recently the media has focused on the endemic culture of violence and sexual abuse. Under this ever-present threat within the home, women are unable to concentrate on the appropriate care for their children. We need to create an environment where Indigenous parents, predominantly mothers, feel secure and confident, allowing them to encourage their children to gain an education. We need to make mothers more secure in the knowledge that their children will not be abused as they were, and unfortunately still are. There needs to be a greater and local abundance of agents genuinely concerned with the welfare of children, providing realistic support for the mothers of those children.

There need to be a sufficient number of advisers on basic domestic health and Western style domestic standards. There needs to be a law enforcement presence which will give a sense of confidence that the family unit can be divided for the duration of the school day. Parenting skills need to be taught which include the value of a basic education, because that education is the foundation of a meaningful future for all Australians. Generational unemployment and the resulting boredom leads to all manner of cheap and easily alternative preoccupations, such as substance abuse. Substance abuse takes priority over school attendance. If you have been brought up in a community without the example of employment participation, the theoretical perfection of education, training, employment, financial independence and self-esteem is totally absent.

The bill provides $1.5 million for educational efforts to discourage abuse amongst children in the remotest regions and to try to break that cycle. Whilst that does not seem substantial, it is just one of a number of projects, and even if it prevents only a small group of children from becoming substance dependent it will be a success. Substance abuse, combined with neglect and a dangerous home environment, means that Indigenous children are often left to fend for themselves.

This bill also includes $9.1 million for 18 school based sporting academies, which will provide direction on how to occupy those children in a productive and positive manner. I add that only this afternoon I had the good fortune to meet with Peter Holmes a Court, co-owner of the Rabbitohs. I am pleased to say that the Rabbitohs are well focused on Indigenous participation in their team, and I am told that there will be something in excess of 25 per cent of members with Indigenous heritage in the team next year.

Debate interrupted.

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