Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too take the opportunity to speak on the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment Bill 2010. For several decades governments from both sides of politics have committed resources and adopted strategies aimed at reducing Indigenous disadvantage in Australia. It would be fair to say that over the years some progress has been made, but that, regrettably, there has not been nearly enough. In recognition of that, the Rudd government, on coming to office, signed a statement of intent with Indigenous people of Australia on 20 March 2008 outlining a vision for the future of Indigenous Australians and identifying core areas of focus. Those areas were life expectancy, educational achievements and employment opportunities. Key targets were set, and the Prime Minister committed to providing annual reports to parliament on the national efforts and progress being made on closing the gap. The first of these reports was presented on 26 February 2009 and the second on 11 February 2010.

This bill is fundamental to the government’s Closing the Gap strategy. It is an administrative bill which essentially transfers funding for the 2009-10 budget measures Closing the Gap Sporting Chance Program from the annual administered expense of the minister’s department—Appropriation Act (No. 1) 2009-2010—to the Indigenous Education Targeted Assistance Act 2000. This bill is required because funding under the Indigenous Education Targeted Assistance Act did not include the additional appropriation for the Closing the Gap Sporting Chance Program announced in the 2009-10 budget. The Sporting Chance Program is one of the innovative measures aimed at closing the gap and is funded through the act to support improvements in Indigenous education outcomes.

As I have said on many other occasions in this House, I believe that education is critical to overcoming disadvantage and securing the future security and prosperity of both individuals and the nation. Achieving the education goals of halving the gap in literacy and numeracy achievement, halving gaps in Year 12 or equivalent attainment and seeing that every Indigenous four-year-old in remote communities has the opportunity to access an early learning program is a key objective in achieving employment targets and overcoming Indigenous disadvantage.

Over the years I have taken considerable interest in the plight of Indigenous Australians. My view is that one of the reasons why we have had only limited success in overcoming Indigenous disadvantage is that we have not taken sufficient account of the diversity of Indigenous communities around the country and the diversity of the situations that they find themselves in. Not surprisingly, there is a diversity of views on what is needed among Indigenous people themselves. I am sure that all of us in this place could quote Indigenous leaders over the years who have made different suggestions about what governments can and cannot do and should and should not do if they want to help Indigenous people overcome disadvantage. I am aware that governments over the years have in good faith listened to and taken advice from those Indigenous leaders.

In my own experience, however, the reality is that those Indigenous leaders, as well intentioned as they are, often only represent one aspect of the views of Indigenous people. Certainly in the area of Adelaide that I come from, which is home to a significant number of Indigenous people, when talking to Indigenous leaders I have come across these problems. I hear a diversity of views about what should be done to assist them—in fact, I hear them disagreeing amongst themselves about what is best. This highlights to me that it is not necessarily the case that anybody is wrong; it is more likely the case that each of them is right, but right because they understand well the people they represent. The reality for their own people is not necessarily the same as it is for others. When one looks around the country one comes to understand that there will be differences not only because of diverse Indigenous tribal backgrounds but also because each part of Australia undoubtedly finds itself in a unique circumstance. One starts to understand why there is no one single program that will address and overcome all of the issues that Indigenous people are confronted with.

It is absolutely the case that, because there are different circumstances and individuals among different communities, we need individual responses and relevant programs if we are to meet the needs of Indigenous people around Australia—and we need a diversity of responses and programs. That is why I support this bill. The bill supports a range of measures associated with Indigenous programs, allowing flexibility for those making the decisions to tap into the most suitable programs for their community.

I want to focus my remarks in particular on the Sporting Chance Program, and I note that a number of other speakers in this debate have done so already. The Sporting Chance Program is resulting in some very good outcomes, with data collected from projects in 2009 indicating that the average attendance rate for academy students was 79 per cent. That is a remarkable achievement. The average rate for all Indigenous students in the schools where the projects were in place was 73 per cent—again, an outstanding achievement. More than half of the academy students were reported by the schools to be improving their school performance and many were also reported to have made significant gains in their self-esteem and behaviour. I am not surprised at all by those results.

The Sporting Chance Program uses sport and recreation as a hook to better engage Indigenous boys and girls in their schooling, to improve education and employment outcomes. There were 42 Sporting Chance projects in 2009, comprising 37 school based sports academies and five engagement strategies supporting about 9,000 students. In 2010 an additional 17 sports academies will commence across Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Victoria, supporting about 1,000 students, which will bring the total number of students supported under the program to 10,000. Ten of these new academies will be for girls and funded as part of the $10 million expansion of the program. I must say it is heartening to see that this program is as much for girls as it is for boys—so it should be.

If there is one area of Australian life where over the years Indigenous Australians have excelled, it is sport. Over the years, Indigenous Australians, regardless of where they originated from, regardless of the support they had and regardless of their level of disadvantage, have shown that if they apply themselves they can succeed in sport, and many of them have—in fact, they have succeeded against all odds and overcome barriers that many others might not face. Importantly, when they have succeeded they have been embraced by the whole Australian community. That is one of the fundamental aspects of sport and this program. If we are ever going to overcome Indigenous disadvantage, it is critical that Indigenous people be embraced and accepted by the rest of society. We all know in this place that Australians love their sport and nothing unites Australians, regardless of their backgrounds, more than their sporting heroes. Sport can be a terrific pathway for Indigenous people to make the most of their unique skills and improve their own lives and the lives of those who, in turn, are inspired by them.

A number of speakers in the course of this debate have mentioned different Indigenous people who have succeeded in sports. Without a doubt, all of us could name some very successful athletes and sportspeople from an Indigenous background. I will not focus on that in particular, but I do say this: over the years an incredible number of Indigenous people have excelled in sport. As a result of their successes, they have without doubt inspired other Indigenous people, from all over this country, to also have a go. The wonderful thing about sport is that it offers an opportunity for people who do not necessarily have academic skills but have skills in other areas. Furthermore, sport offers an opportunity to just about everyone because of the diverse range of sporting activities available to the community.

For that reason, I have always been a strong advocate and supporter of children being able to participate in a sport of their choice, regardless of whether they aspire to become an elite sportsperson. Apart from the obvious health benefits, sporting participation builds characteristics which serve individuals well in whatever else they do in life. This applies to all young Australians, whether they are Indigenous young people or non-Indigenous young people. The characteristics that are built through sport include discipline, responsibility, hard work and team building—and one could go on. These skills are all developed if a person commits themselves to their sport.

But sport can in fact transform a person’s life, much more so than just that. And there have been many sportspeople in this country who, through their sport and nothing else, have gone on to make a career that otherwise might not been open to them if it had not been for their sports performance. And while I accept that sport and education need to be linked, and in this case the objective is to get young people into education, sport in its own right can be a pathway to a career. In that respect, one of the high schools in my electorate, Banksia Park International High School, as recently as last year included sport as a curriculum activity within the school—not sport per se to just play in team sports and compete against others, but sport as an industry sector because of the opportunities that arise through sports participation and sports involvement. Whether you are a participant, whether you are a coach, whether you are an official, whether you are a journalist, whether you are a commentator or whether you are an administrator: there is a whole industry attached to sport. So getting young people involved in sport is not only one way of ensuring that they stay at school, but in fact it also opens the doors for them in so many other ways. Again, I have seen that with so many sportspeople, and in particular with Indigenous sportspeople.

Many of the Indigenous sportspeople who became stars, like so many others in their community, were not terribly well educated. But, as a result of being able to apply their sporting skills and becoming elite sportspeople, they were later on offered opportunities in life which would never have existed for them. In turn, and importantly, they have also gone on to inspire many others from their communities, and that is wonderful to see.

A number of those sportspeople who have been successful have originated from the parts of Adelaide that I have come from and I have known many of them personally. And while I will not go through each and every one of them, I will take a moment to pay tribute to Travis Dodd. Travis Dodd is the captain of Adelaide United soccer team. They played a Korean team last night; unfortunately, in time-on they were not able to win. He is a person I know well. He is a young person who has grown up through the grassroots sports clubs in the area and has gone on to be, in my view, one of the best soccer players we have in Australia. He serves as an inspiration to so many other children in the region, and I have seen him at various community and school functions addressing young people and speaking to them about the opportunities available to them. Again, a role model, a person who inspires others and an idol, he is certainly someone who does Australia proud. He is someone who has been embraced by the entire soccer community, and I would say the broader community of Adelaide, because of what he has been able to achieve.

It is people like that who ultimately will play a big role in ensuring that this kind of program is successful because it is people like that who will in fact give hope to Indigenous children, wherever they might be in Australia, that they too might one day be able to achieve the same goals as people like Travis. And so this program, which is using sport as a hook to get kids involved—because we all know that most Indigenous children, like other Australian children, do love their sport and we know that most of them have special skills and they see that there is a real opportunity for them—is a terrific way of, in turn, getting them to school. Undoubtedly, once they are at school, if they can focus on their schoolwork as well, that will add to building the opportunities for them that will come about through a better education. It is a terrific program. I commend all involved who over the years have been associated with it. I certainly commend the minister for allocating the additional resources to it, and I look forward to getting more reports about just how effective the program has been. I commend this bill to the House.

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