Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to also speak on closing the gap today—something important, obviously, to the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, as a strong advocate of Indigenous issues, hoping to be known as the Prime Minister for Indigenous affairs. It is also an issue which is very important to me.

Recently, the Prime Minister spoke about three key areas in his speech on closing the gap. They are: school attendance and educational results, employment opportunities, and justice and a fair go for all. The Clontarf Academy led by Gerard Neesham addresses all of these three target and key areas that the Prime Minister has outlined. As a former school teacher like the member for Hasluck, I understand that kids in difficult circumstances or in low socioeconomic areas need and deserve opportunities to be supported to excel and to be the very best that they can and wish to be. This is why I have always fully supported the Clontarf Foundation and its academy program seems its inception in 2000. To quote from the foundation's website:

The Clontarf Foundation exists to improve the education, discipline, life skills, self-esteem and employment prospects of young Aboriginal men and by doing so equips them to participate meaningfully in society.

The work of the Clontarf Foundation and its academies fit the three key areas that the Prime Minister has outlined. With the backing of then Prime Minister John Howard and then Minister for Education, Science and Training, Brendan Nelson, the first Clontarf academy opened in Western Australia in 2000, with 25 boys participating. In 2002, when I first spoke of Clontarf and its vision in this place, the academy had 171 students. The academy has now grown to in excess of 3,000 students in 54 schools across four states—Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Victoria and New South Wales—and I am proud to say that Coodanup Community College in my electorate of Canning is one of these schools. I understand that Cecil Andrews Senior High School is about to become one. Clontarf would like to expand from 3,000 students across these states and territories to 9,000, and this is why I am supporting this initiative today.

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