Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education and Youth. Will the minister update the House on how the Morrison government is improving the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children through better access to early childhood and school education?

Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Youth) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Leichhardt for his question and also for what I would regard as being his lifelong commitments towards the advancement of Indigenous Australians, not only in his electorate, of which there are many communities in Far North Queensland, but right across this great nation.

If we want to close the gap, we have to start at the beginning and we have to ensure that kids have the best possible start in preschooling. We've got to back them right throughout their school years, because, if they do well there, the chances are that they are going to do well more generally throughout the rest of their life. But, at the moment, we're not achieving where we should be. In fact, only about one in three children arrive at school fully prepared to learn. If you're not arriving at school fully prepared to learn, the chances are you will fall behind during schooling, and that's exactly what happens. In fact, by just year 3, the average Indigenous kid is already two years behind the average non-Indigenous Australian. This is unacceptable, and we have to do better in this regard collectively.

Today, as part of the Closing The Gap Implementation Plan, the Prime Minister, the Minister for Indigenous Australians and I announced $250 million to boost quality early childhood and school education for Indigenous kids. What we've done with this money is specifically focused on initiatives which we know have already worked, and we're scaling them up to have more impact on more children. For example, the Connected Beginnings program, which has been so successful already in 23 communities in not only boosting preschool attendance but actually boosting vaccination rates, as well with helping with maternal health. We're rolling that out to a further 27 communities, and that will benefit 8½ thousand children. We're also extending the funding of a highly intensive preschool program which is focused very much on the really at-risk kids. What it's been shown to do is take those at-risk kids—and by the time they start school they're at the level of every average Australian kid. It's a fantastic program, and we're boosting that as well.

For the school years, we've put $25 million into programs specifically focused at implementing phonics and explicit instruction, because we know that works, and it's so important, particularly for disadvantaged kids. And that will make a difference, again to hundreds if not thousands of kids learning to read, which is so important. We're creating more boarding school opportunities, supporting our top independent schools to engage with remote schools to support them with resources and teachers and other things. This is so important, because every kid, no matter where they live, should get the best possible start in life. They should have the opportunity to have a world-class education, and this will— (Time expired)