Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I speak in support of the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2013. Labor is supporting this bill, and I say that as the shadow minister for Indigenous affairs. Yesterday I attended the Australian Medical Association launch of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Report Card titled The healthy early years—getting the right start in life. If members take nothing else away from that report—and I encourage those opposite to read the report—it is this: Indigenous policy cannot be treated in isolation. Health outcomes are linked, inevitably and invariably, to justice outcomes, which are linked to educational outcomes, and so forth. That is why the previous federal Labor government committed itself to closing the gap targets. Each outcome impacts on every other.

The AMA's report made recommendations to improve health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in their early years, addressing justice issues and education. Targeted education is essential to improving the lives of Indigenous people. It improves their chances of employment, it improves their chances of avoiding incarceration, it improves their health and it improves their chances of living longer and better lives.

I am aware that this House has seen many passionate debates in recent days about the importance of quality education, but it is important to note that the Labor Party has always been a champion of universal, world-class education. We believe that every Australian student, no matter their circumstances, should have the opportunity to have the best education. That applies to all Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children included. That is why we have demonstrated a strong commitment in the last six years to improving the outcomes of Indigenous students and improving Indigenous learning outcomes.

Since 2008 we have seen unprecedented investment, with more than $5.5 billion through the Closing the Gap framework, resetting the terms of relations between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and non-Indigenous Australians. It is important in terms of improving health, education, housing, essential services, welfare reform, recognition and advocacy, Indigenous languages and art. While I am addressing the last issue, I want to commend, in my own electorate, Annie Clarke for the opening of the Ipswich Indigenous Art and Culture Hub in Collingwood Park at the old Colliers house last Saturday. I was very pleased to see the first performance of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children at that facility. The kids were from Riverview State School. They were nervous at first but showed tremendous commitment and enthusiasm. I thank them for the way in which they were prepared to be bold in front of a lot of people.

I welcome that particular hub to my electorate. My electorate of Blair has many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People. We have schools in Ipswich North with 40 per cent Indigenous population. Riverview State School has about 25 per cent Indigenous population. Even the big high schools like Redbank Plains State High School and Bremer State High School have hundreds and hundreds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders attending. I have seen the benefit of targeted education funding in terms of nutrition programs in schools like Bundamba State Secondary College, which I attended when I was a young fellow.

Under Labor's Better Schools Plan every one of the 170,000 Indigenous students in schools across the country would have received more funding, extra loading with a sliding scale. Increasing the proportion of Indigenous students in every school will result in increased funding. It is important that we get Indigenous students into preschool, into high school and into university. We have seen universities in my home state of Queensland, like USQ, not just achieving their Bradley target but also dramatically increasing the number of students at tertiary colleges doing education, law and arts.

Contrary to what the member for Murray has had to say in this place we have made progress. We will meet our first close the gap target of ensuring access to early childhood education for all Indigenous four-year-olds from remote communities. We will do it this year. Our historical level of investment under the National Partnership Agreement on Early Childhood Education means there are now more children than ever attending and participating in preschool and early education programs. In 2007, the Council of Australian Governments agreed to six targets for closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. These included two education targets. These were to halve the gap in reading and writing and numeracy achievements for Indigenous children within a decade, and to halve the gap for Indigenous students in year 12 attainment or equivalent rates by 2020. We formalised those close the gap targets in a National Indigenous Reform Agreement in 2008 and renewed that commitment in 2012. So no-one should come into this place and say that Labor in government failed in its commitment in funding and its effort of making sure that we close the gap.

Our commitment did not end there. In 2011, as part of the COAG reform agenda we endorsed the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Action Plan 2010-14. We committed the Australian government to 55 actions aimed at accelerating improvements in the outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people.

Every child is different. Every student is different. Every teacher will tell you that. Every parent will tell you that. Every school has its own individual needs. We understand these things, because we spoke to teachers and parents in communities, to principals right across the country, and we continued to engage with them.

Indigenous students often face challenges in their learning environment different from those who might be from a non-Indigenous background or from a CALD background. They require assistance in a range of areas, not just in the Northern Territory and regional and remote areas but in capital cities as well. They require assistance in areas including culture, language, nutrition and health, just to name a few. Most Indigenous people actually live in the major cities of this country and in provincial cities, places like Newcastle, Toowoomba, Ipswich, Logan, as well as the Illawarra and other places. Most Indigenous people in this country live in states like Queensland and New South Wales. We should never forget the Northern Territory and make sure we can assist in any way we can, but it is important to remember that these programs need to be targeted across the length and breadth of this country as well. We understand that Indigenous students in a classroom in Arnhem Land have different needs to those Indigenous students in a classroom in Hymba Yumba, a school in Ipswich close to my electorate.

That is why this legislation before the chamber is really important. It amends the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000. The IE(TA) Act currently provides a range of targeted Indigenous education programs to assist the education outcomes and achievement of Indigenous students. The amendments before the House change the funding arrangements for these programs, collectively known as non-Abstudy payments, from a special appropriation to an annual appropriation, from 1 July 2014. The bill itself implements a decision made by the previous federal Labor government in the 2013-14 budget process to change the way that funding on this particular basis is administered, to secure important funding for the long-term future. It means that appropriations for non-Abstudy payments are to be included in annual appropriations acts so that the IE(TA) Act will no longer have to be amended for each new funding period as currently occurs. It is a sensible outcome and we support the current government doing that which we proposed before the election.

These amendments are important and significant in that Indigenous students will continue to benefit from the former federal Labor government's investment in targeted education and training programs beyond 2014 and well into the future. These programs include the School Nutrition Program, encouraging and supporting school attendance by providing meals to school children in Northern Territory communities. It is a program that involves parents and school communities. And it is working. Between 1 January 2013 and 30 June 2013, 2,972 breakfasts and 5,419 lunches were provided each day to children attending 67 schools. Of the 276 people directly employed by the program, 186 are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It is a very important piece of legislation. An evaluation in 2011 by KPMG found that there was consistent anecdotal evidence that the program had a positive impact on student engagement and behaviour, and noted that the program:

… represents a solid platform from which government and communities can build other health and education initiatives, as well as increase avenues for local employment for community members …

This funding supports Indigenous Youth Leadership programs, offering scholarships and leadership opportunities to young Indigenous Australians. The IETA legislation supports 200 additional teachers, and the Achieving Results Through Additional Education project, which encourages and supports school attendance through sporting and recreation activities. The role of sport in closing the gap cannot be underestimated.

These are successful and effective programs and initiatives of the former federal Labor government that have been lifting results. We have seen success under this legislation and funding and it cannot stand alone. If we are going to close the gap in educational outcomes, we need a range of complementary measures in place to support Indigenous students and improve learning outcomes. It is vital that we maintain consistent funding so that individuals, communities and educators can plan to ensure we close the gap that still exists between the educational results of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students and, to that extent, we have placed a big emphasis on loading in terms of the Gonski reforms and Better Schools Plan.

Contrary to what the member for Murray mentioned, we are seeing real and measurable progress towards halving the gap in reading, writing and numeracy achievement between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, and our goal is to do that by 2018. Under our unprecedented investment in closing the gap, we have seen improvement in primary school student outcomes. The 2012 NAPLAN results showed that, from 2008 to 2012, reading improved for year 3 students, with 74.2 per cent of Indigenous students meeting the basic year 3 reading levels, up from 68.3 per cent when the Closing the Gap framework began in 2008. We are seeing more of our young Indigenous people completing year 12 and certificate II equivalency, with the percentage of Indigenous students attaining their qualifications improving to 53.9 per cent in 2011, from 47.7 per cent in 2006. But the challenge remains to lift those outcomes into the future.

The Australian Early Development Index for 2012 showed that Indigenous students are more than twice as likely to be developmentally vulnerable as non-Indigenous children. The latest COAG report showed a drop, sadly, in meeting basic levels of numeracy, down to 72.7 per cent from 78.6 per cent in 2008. So more work is to be done in the future there.

There are some improvements in students' school attendance. I note that the current government is funding the Cape York welfare outcome for $24.5 million. We funded that as well when we were in government, and we are supporting that and have done so in this parliament. We introduced the School Enrolment and Attendance Measure, known as SEAM, into remote communities, and evaluations have shown that we are seeing better outcomes there.

We can close the gap, but we need to maintain our commitment, and funding is a great demonstration of the need to close the gap. Sadly, and contrary to what the member from Murray said when she talked about carefully-measured outcomes, there is no reference in the current government's ministerial council to closing the gap in the terms of reference. I cannot understand why they established a ministerial advisory council led by Warren Mundine without any reference to closing the gap in the terms of reference. If they are fair dinkum about closing the gap and in terms of Indigenous educational outcomes, you would have thought that getting a good education and better educational outcomes would have resulted in better employment outcomes in the future. Sadly, we have not seen any real commitment on the other side of politics to inclusion in justice targets and disability targets. The member for Murray also talked about safer communities. Well, we would like to see funding for the Safe Communities building blocks with the national partnership agreement entered into by those opposite.

You cannot divorce Indigenous health from Indigenous education. I mentioned the AMA report. It was also mentioned by the member for Murray and of course health was also mentioned by the member for Lingiari. But I urge the government opposite to do what we were proposing to do and were working on—that is, the $777 million national partnership agreement with the states and territories for Indigenous health, because better health for Indigenous young people results in better educational outcomes. I would also like to see those opposite commit themselves to the 10-year Indigenous health plan that was announced and in fact launched by the member for Lingiari as Minister for Indigenous Health when we were in government.

If we are to close the gap in education, we need those types of measures undertaken by the current coalition government. I do urge them to commit themselves to Labor's Better Schools Plan funding. It is so crucial, as I referred to before. It is simply not good enough to write blank cheques from Canberra to the states without any conditionality in terms of that loading for Indigenous young people and Indigenous schools. It is not good enough for the Prime Minister to offer a hollow promise on Indigenous loading without any explanation about its delivery and making sure that Indigenous students receive the support they need and deserve. Our Indigenous students deserve better than simply a blank cheque from the current government and no commitment by the states and territories to roll it out.

We have seen in the Northern Territory, as the member for Lingiari mentioned, cuts to education funding. We have also seen that in my home state of Queensland under the current LNP government; it seems they cannot find a program they do not want to axe, or a public servant they do not want to get rid of. So that is what is happening in Queensland and the Northern Territory. I hope those in this government, who have raised the bar in terms of its rhetoric—certainly by the Prime Minister referring to himself as the 'Indigenous Prime Minister'—will match our commitment when in office and provide the kind of funding that is necessary.

I support this legislation. The Labor Party supports the legislation. It is a good step that the coalition has seen fit to introduce this legislation into the chamber. But we deserve guarantees from those opposite in terms of Indigenous funding. If we want good-quality educational outcomes for Indigenous people, to lead a pathway away from Indigenous disadvantage, the other side of politics, now in government, need to match their rhetoric with the reality of funding.

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