Chris Trevor (Flynn, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak in support of the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment Bill 2010. It is a bill that will make valuable and important amendments to the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act, effectively providing scope for the improvement of education outcomes of Indigenous Australians. The bill will maintain commitments to initiatives introduced by the former government, including the Indigenous Youth Mobility Program and the Sporting Chance Program. The bill will increase appropriations for non-Abstudy payments by $10.3 million between 1 January 2010 and 30 June 2013. This funding is as a result of a 2009-10 budget measure, which provided an additional $10 million worth of funding over four years for the Sporting Chance Program. The government’s arrangements will see more funding flow to Indigenous students. The current forward estimates of Commonwealth funding for Indigenous education over 2009-12 total approximately $2.3 billion, some $200 million more than the estimated $2.1 billion announced by the former government prior to the commencement of the 2005-08 quadrennium.

The appropriations outlined in this bill will enable the Commonwealth to continue to exercise public leadership and maintain its dedicated support for localised initiatives which improve Indigenous education outcomes. This role includes collaboratively setting policy directions and priorities in Indigenous education, as well as engagement with stakeholders and investment in research and evidence in conjunction with states, territories and non-government education providers to support future reforms and systemic improvements in the education and training sectors for Indigenous Australians. The act has appropriated funding for two quadrenniums for the purpose of improving education outcomes for Indigenous Australians. The bill will transfer funding for the 2009-10 budget measure Closing the Gap Sporting Chance Program from the annual administered expense of the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations to the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000. This is necessary because funding under the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act did not include the additional appropriation of these funds for this program. This will allow all funding for the program to be combined under the one act.

The new arrangements for supplement recurrent funding will provide states and other education providers with greater flexibility in how they use Commonwealth funding to address the needs of their Indigenous students. However, the bill will allow the Commonwealth to continue its national leadership role in Indigenous education through the retention of targeted initiatives as Commonwealth own purpose expenses. It should also be noted that funding for some initiatives appropriated under this bill is not evenly spread across the quadrennium. This may create the illusion that funding under the bill decreases in 2011 and 2012, but the reality is that both the Indigenous Youth Mobility Program and Indigenous Youth Leadership Program finish their expansion phases and will see increasing numbers of participants completing from the end of 2010.

This bill is important for Indigenous Australians. It is an important step that will assist in closing the gap in education between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. The provision of this funding will allow improvements in Indigenous education outcomes. The Indigenous students of our country are at a severe disadvantage because of significant gaps between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous levels of literacy and numeracy skills, year 12 or equivalent attainment and employment outcomes. The funding in this bill aims at reducing these gaps through the programs that it will support.

There is certainly no denying the fact that there is a significant gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in education. Despite the fact that the majority of Indigenous students meet the minimum standards of reading, writing and numeracy, the success rate of them meeting this standard is far lower than the number of their non-Indigenous classmates that do so. The government is committed to ensuring that students from all backgrounds and all locations have a chance to access good education. The government is working with both government and non-government training providers to achieve numerous very important goals that will provide greater opportunities for Indigenous students. One of these goals is the halving of the gaps in literacy and numeracy achievement. The target is to halve each of the gaps in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 reading, writing and numeracy achievement between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students by 2018. Other goals include halving the gaps in year 12 or equivalent attainment and also halving the gaps in employment outcome for Indigenous Australians.

The government and non-government training providers also aim to see every Indigenous four-year-old in remote communities have the opportunity to access an early learning program. This aim in particular is of critical importance to achieving the goals of halving the gaps, because, as with any endeavour, it is important that people get the best start and the best opportunities from the outset. By starting Indigenous people in remote communities on the path of learning at a young age we can provide them with the same chances of success that most young people receive, and encourage them to continue learning as they grow and develop. It will, in effect, significantly contribute to the achievement of the goals of halving the gaps.

The government has committed to establishing national collaborative arrangements that will assist us to collectively work towards these targets. However, the Commonwealth must maintain an ability to provide national leadership and perspectives to close the gaps. An important component of the plan to close the gaps is the Sporting Chance Program, which uses sport to engage Indigenous students and show the value of education, and $10 million dollars was committed to the program in the 2009-10 budget, with $5 million dollars directed towards establishing 10 new sports based academies, with a specific focus on improving the participation and engagement of girls, and $5 million going to the Former Origin Greats which will be used to establish academies that will focus on rugby league in Queensland and New South Wales.

Past evidence has shown that this program has been successful at achieving improvements and working effectively towards closing the gap. Under the Sporting Chance Program, improvements in attendance and considerable success in retaining students to the end of year 12 at the schools in which they have been operating have been achieved. Average attendance rates are climbing and the attendance rates of Indigenous students involved with the program are better on average than those of Indigenous students not involved with the program. This is quite significant and demonstrates the effectiveness of this program.

These facts also demonstrate why the program should continue and why the appropriation of funds for it is so important. The success that the Sporting Chance Program has achieved is substantial and it would be irrational to allow it to end. This bill will ensure it continues, helping to achieve the government’s goal of delivering better education outcomes for Indigenous students and closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous education outcomes. This bill amends the table in subsection 14B(1) of the act to include additional funding for the Sporting Chance Program. This will bring it into line with the Commonwealth’s suite of targeted assistance measures and adjust the 2010-12 appropriations agreed as part of the new federal financial relations framework.

By extending the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000 we provide appropriations to continue our election commitments such as providing funding for additional teachers in the Northern Territory, and, in a bipartisan way, continue good programs introduced by the opposition such as the Indigenous Youth Mobility Program and the Sporting Chance Program. This funding will also allow us to continue to work with Indigenous communities, philanthropic organisations, corporate leaders and national organisations to build the partnerships that are so critical to improving outcomes for Indigenous Australians. By amending the appropriations under the act the Australian government can continue working with a range of stakeholders to develop and implement innovative measures to close the gaps in reading, writing and numeracy achievement between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students by 2018.

There is no denying the irrefutable fact that Indigenous students are at a severe disadvantage in comparison with their non-Indigenous peers. The statistics demonstrate this unmistakable fact. The government is committed to the goals of halving each of the 2008 gaps in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 reading, writing and numeracy achievement between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students by 2018. The funding appropriated under this bill will go a long way towards helping achieve this goal, which is why this bill is of such importance. The government needs to ensure that Indigenous students are not forgotten. It is our duty and the government’s goal to work towards closing the gap that has for a long time created a huge difference between education outcomes and employment opportunities of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. This bill is a step towards achieving a closing of the gap and creating a higher level of equality, which is why I commend the bill to the House.

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