Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

But my concern about the government member stands. Their lack of support for the public education system is here for all to see. I want to talk to a particular issue in the public education system around the support of Aboriginal kids in remote Aboriginal communities.

These people across the other side, bar the minister sitting at the table, have absolutely no idea what I am talking about, but let's be very clear. I wonder if any of them have read the Closing the gap report which was recently introduced. Did they notice the differential rates of school attainment by kids who live in very remote communities like the communities I work in in my electorate? If they did, they'd be saying they want this government and the state and territory governments to spend more on public education to make sure the disadvantage which is being suffered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who live in remote communities is properly addressed. But it is not only Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids; there are elements of disadvantage in the public education system right across this country, and this government effectively says it just doesn't care.

The Liberals think it's fine to provide public schools with only 20 per cent of the schooling resource standard while they give private schools 80 per cent. Why could that possibly be? I stand here as a proud former teacher who worked in schools in the Northern Territory and who has done research on Aboriginal education in the bush. I understand the nature of the challenges. But what I'm concerned about is the failure of this government to accept its responsibilities to address the disadvantage and the need in the public education system across Australia but most particularly in Aboriginal communities in the area that I look after. I just want to go to some of the figures in this report.

This demonstrates that kids who live in remote and very remote communities have an on-average attendance of two or three days a week at school. How can anyone achieve a reasonable educational outcome by going to school two or three days a week? Yet we've had the government and the former minister responsible for First Nations people, Nigel Scullion. He funded the school attendance program in electorates across Australia. Sadly, little has changed as a result of that investment. The government is currently investing $78.4 million from February 2019 to extend this school attendance program until 30 December 2021. Between 2015 and 2018 the investment was $80 million. The $18.1 million was after the initial trial in 2014. The total spent has been $176.5 million, but to what end? What is the evaluation of this expenditure? How has this money been spent to achieve better outcomes? What we know from this Closing the gap report is that school attendance levels have fallen, not improved. Despite that, this government has spent this $176.5 million.

There is merit in spending this money if it's directed to the right areas, if it's in partnership with Aboriginal communities and the public education sector, if it's the priority areas that money should be spent in. There are teachers around the bush who work their hearts out for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids for little or no reward, and they don't get properly acknowledged. They work in difficult circumstances and they work in partnership with the communities within which they work, but because of the failure of governments to fund them sufficiently they lack the resources to do the job they want to do. They don't have the resources and we have seen that this is not something that just rests with the Liberal Party. This is a policy conundrum which should have been addressed properly by both sides of this parliament and is yet to be. It's yet to be because we're not prepared to give Aboriginal people the opportunities they properly deserve to make decisions about their own educations.

There are members in the House who would remember the old ASSPA committees. The Aboriginal Student Support and Parent Awareness programs existed across the country and were partnerships where the government funded committees in every educational unit in every school for partnering with the community around what the school priorities should be and to engage with the community. These no longer exist, so there's no process by which the government relates to and works with the communities to provide a better educational outcome for these children.

They dictate. They promulgate by fiat. They spend money like the $170 million-odd—$176.5 million—I referred to. By the way, it has provided employment for Aboriginal people, but it has not got the outcomes that people are after in terms of improving school attendance. As a result, as you might rightly expect, the performance levels for Aboriginal kids in literacy and numeracy across the country are not what we would want, and it gets worse as you move further into the bush. It doesn't matter where you are, in which state or territory, the experience of remote and very remote communities is very different from the experience of Aboriginal kids who might live in major metropolitan centres. Yet there is no difference in approach to funding. When we think about need, these people need this money to be spent. They need it to be allocated. They need it to be properly partnered with state and territory governments, who also have a responsibility. It does require saying to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, 'We have confidence in you and will partner with you in making decisions about the education of your children.' Sadly, that is not the case.

While the government is spending $3.4 billion through this piece of legislation to support the private school sector, why isn't it putting an equivalent amount into the public education system? Why isn't it targeting money to those schools where there's massive disadvantage, like the ones I've been referring to, in remote and very remote communities, or indeed in metropolitan centres, where the needs are also great in some cases. There is an issue here about the government not accepting it has a responsibility to support the public education system. I say to the government: this legislation which has been introduced deserves support. I point out there are schools that have expressed their concern, but I ask you to contemplate what you need to do to provide an equivalent resource to the public education system, to support those educators who are working their backsides off, to support communities that need new infrastructure and to support bilingual education, Aboriginal support workers and the like. Why can't you do it? You've got the capacity to do it. You've shown you're prepared to do it for the private education system. Why can't you wake up to yourselves and do it for the public education system?

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