Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to commend the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Education and Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations for her commitment to education and the Rudd government’s education revolution. There is no person in this parliament who is more committed to seeing that every child in Australia gets a quality education. She and the Rudd government are committed to ensuring that young people, no matter what school they attend, will have an equal opportunity to learn and get the skills they need to succeed in today’s world. Education is the key to success. It unlocks the door that gives young people the opportunity to succeed and enjoy a prosperous life. That is why the Rudd government has invested in the computers in schools program and established trade training centres in schools. That is why the Rudd government is committed to raising literacy and numeracy levels in Australia.

We on this side of the House know that, without the tools that a quality education provides, a person is denied life’s opportunities. The minister has introduced the Social Security and Veterans’ Entitlements Legislation Amendment (Schooling Requirements) Bill 2008 because she is committed to the education of all young Australians. She knows that there are 20,000 young Australians who are not attending school. The effects of this have been aptly identified by Graeme Withers, who noted in his paper for the Dusseldorp Skills Forum that failure to be in school long enough to gain basic skills and knowledge has personal and social costs—unemployment, poverty, homelessness and minor or gross criminal activities. The community bears the social and economic costs that escalate from a failure to attend school.

The legislation before us will give effect to welfare payment reform measures announced in the 2008-09 budget. This bill enables the implementation of welfare reform measures to improve school enrolment and attendance. To begin this process there will be a rollout of measures from the commencement of the 2009 school year. The measures will be rolled out in eight trial locations and will affect parents and carers of children of compulsory school age.

I know just how committed the minister is to ensuring that young people attend school. Part of this legislation will include the suspension of welfare payments for parents whose children do not attend school. That can happen over a 13-week period. The payments can be reinstated once the matter has been resolved. Parents who receive income support will also be expected to ensure that their children regularly attend school. Centrelink will actively work with these parents to assist them to comply with these requirements once parents demonstrate that they are taking reasonable steps to ensure that their children are attending school.

I know, as I have said, how committed the minister is to ensuring that young people attend school. I know that this is an approach that is being trialled in countries throughout the world, and there have been some trials here within Australia. But there are other trials that have had great success in ensuring that young people attend school. To discuss those in some degree I would like to refer to overseas literature. In doing so I must say that, whilst I support this legislation and the minister’s position, I do have a few concerns about the suspension of welfare payments for families whose children do not attend school. Some of those children may not attend school for a variety of reasons. I am a person who likes to look at the causes of problems, and I think maybe this is looking more at the effects.

Looking at the things that have been shown to work, in overseas studies in this area and in some of the projects that have run within Australia, there was the Halls Creek trial. That actually was quite inconclusive. I know that the minister is going to evaluate this program and that the result of this program is going to form part of her evaluation. But overseas research in this area has shown that the best programs aimed at improving school attendance involve relationship building, where students receive individualised attention at school; contacting parents regarding absenteeism; having a strong connection between the school and the parents; strong and clear attendance policies—and I know that part of this legislation looks at that; intensive school intervention programs, which look at mentoring and various other approaches; establishing ongoing truancy prevention programs for schools rather than one-time efforts only targeting high-risk students; trained and committed school staff; and ongoing rigorous evaluation of programs.

Research of all of the different approaches has been inconclusive. Rewards and incentives for attendance have been found to have mixed benefits. Peer counselling once again has been shown to have mixed results. Probation officers devoted to truancy cases have also had mixed results. One of the things that have been found not to work has been school uniforms. They do not have an impact on truancy. Another thing that has been significantly found not to work is financial sanctions against families and tying their benefits to school attendance. That did not appear, from all the research that I have read—and I have read a lot of research on this—to have any impact at all. The research I am referring to here is in Effective Truancy Prevention and Intervention, by Gerrard, Burhans and Fair. That research shows that the best outcomes in truancy prevention involve a strong case management approach, mediation counselling support, improved involvement with interagency collaborations and providing family support.

Let us be honest about it: truancy is a big problem. When you have 20,000 students not attending school it is a big problem. I think that we have to be creative in the way we address this problem. There is not going to be one size that fits all. We have to adopt an approach that is based on solidly researched evidence as to its effectiveness and that involves intensive ongoing intervention. We have to look at well-defined policies. We have to make sure that there is parental engagement, family counselling and individualised plans. That has been found to have a really big impact on truancy.

I notice that members on the other side of the House have blamed the states for problems with truancy. I would like to talk about a program that was run in New South Wales, a program that I believe was one of the most effective programs dealing with truancy. I was involved in it. It was run out of the then Gateshead high school, which is now called the Hunter Sports High School. The program involved students from Belmont, Swansea, Broadmeadow, Cardiff, Gateshead, Newcastle, Warners Bay and Whitebridge high schools. Fifteen students were involved and they were between the ages of 12 and 15. These were hardened truants. These were students who had not attended school for a very long period of time. These were students who had had multiple suspensions. They were chronic truants; they just could not operate within the multi-teacher high schools.

This program, JASPER, has won awards. It won the PCYC Blue Heeler Award and, for programs that actually worked, gained equal first place in New South Wales for the Australian Institute of Criminology’s Australian Violence Prevention Award. The students who enrolled in JASPER had not attended school; however, once they had enrolled, their attendance rate increased to 77 per cent. All but one of those students are now working in the community. After completing JASPER, some went back to mainstream high schools, some undertook traineeships and others undertook apprenticeships. This program was an outstanding success. It cost $45,000 a year to run and was run by the New South Wales government. However, eventually, because it was no longer funded, the program ceased. However, this program delivered. It cut down on chronic truancy even though, in nearly all cases, those involved in it had had such an appalling record of not attending school over a very long period of time.

There is a variety of reasons for students not attending school. It can be because of poor literacy and numeracy. We have heard the case argued around the chamber in relation to Indigenous students. It can be because of bullying within the school. It may be because they are victims of child abuse. I think all policies that are introduced need to cover every aspect so that a holistic approach can be developed to address the issue of nonattendance at school.

I know how committed the minister is to ensuring that all students have the opportunity to attend school. The minister says and has said on many occasions that we cannot have an education revolution without every child receiving a world-class education, and that is what she is seeking to achieve with this legislation. She has said that she knows that all students who are regularly absent from school are at greater risk of dropping out of school. Associated with that is that many students who do drop out of school and who are truants come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and have a higher poverty index. Invariably, the problems that those children experience were experienced by their parents.

A number of programs have been trialled in both the UK and the USA. A Personal Responsibility Program and a work obligation program have been operating across a number of states in the United States. But, even in those programs, it has been shown that the most effective way of dealing with truancy is through case management. Conditional cash transfers, which were modelled on a program trialled in Mexico, are another approach that has been adopted in New York. But, even with that program, the best results were found to be achieved by programs like JASPER.

Sitting in this chamber earlier, I found it appalling to listen to members on the other side bagging the states. Our state governments are committed to seeing that students attend school. They do everything they can. They do their utmost in confronting the multitude of problems that exist. They are dedicated educationalists. Bagging the state governments is the opposition’s way of dealing with any issue. They do not try to get to the bottom of what the trouble is and look at what is really causing issues around truancy; it is, ‘We’ll use this piece of legislation that we’ve got before the parliament to say that we in the opposition are great and the states and the federal government are failing people, including the young people of Australia.’ I disagree strongly with those on the other side of the House and I welcome the commitment of the minister to ensure that all young Australians have access to a quality education. I truly believe that this legislation will ensure that more students do enrol in school.

A number of those 20,000 students are not enrolled in school. You only have to look at what the previous government did with immunisation to see that linking payments to enrolment will achieve an outcome. But the area in which I think there may be a little bit of a problem is in ensuring that, once those children are enrolled, parents are able to ensure they attend school. I am very pleased to know that the program will be re-evaluated and that the minister will be looking at the research and seeing how effective it is—I hope it is effective. But I strongly argue in favour of looking at some of the evidence based research from overseas.

I know that the minister will be evaluating these outcomes. I would also like to encourage her to look at other successful programs and strategies from around the world—programs such as JASPER and strategies that have been identified as effective in other countries. I encourage her to look at strategies that will not lead to any homelessness or breakdowns in families, and programs that build on the strength and resilience within that family and within the community. Like the minister, I am committed to ensuring that all young Australians have a quality education which will ensure they are able to reach their full potential and have a full and rewarding life—a life that is only delivered by having a quality education, by learning and by embracing everything that education can offer. You can only get that if you go to school. This legislation is about getting students to attend school. I know that the minister will evaluate the outcomes once the trials are completed.

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