Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. What do the latest NAPLAN results say about education outcomes for Indigenous Australians, and how could these outcomes be improved?

Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the legendary member for Lyons for his question. This year's NAPLAN results make it blisteringly clear that serious reform is needed. They show that one in 10 students across the country are below the minimum standard. That's not a surprise. As I told the House in February this year, we have raised the minimum standard that students are now required to meet. But what these results also show is that one in three children from poor families and one in three children from the bush are below that minimum standard—and so are one in three Indigenous children.

If you look at NAPLAN results over the last 10 years, you'll find that many of the children who fall behind never catch up. Only one in five children who were below the minimum standard in 3rd grade are above that standard by the time they're in year 9—only one in five. I want the House and I want Australians in the gallery, watching on TV and listening to think about this: of all those Indigenous children who are behind the minimum standard when they're in 3rd grade, it's not one in five who catch up by year 9; it's one in 17. Indigenous students are three times more likely to fall behind and three times more likely to stay there—to be stuck there. Think about that. Think about the waste of potential.

I'm asked how you fix it. The National School Reform Agreement that we'll strike next year is about fixing funding and fixing things like this—tying funding to the sorts of things that are going to help a child who falls behind to catch up, to keep up and to finish school.

One of those things is catch-up tutoring. Where a child falls behind, they're taken out of the regular classroom and given extra help, with one teacher to a couple of kids, for 50 minutes a day, four days a week. In the course of 18 weeks, they can learn as much as you would ordinarily learn in 12 months. They catch up.

But that doesn't mean that a Voice isn't needed. As I've said before, we've got to do more than just change what we do. We've got to change the way we do things, because it's not just what happens in the classroom that counts. Everything from health to housing to employment can have an impact on how your child goes at school, or whether they go at all. The Voice can help bring all of that together, so that it's not only one in 17 Indigenous children that catch up—so more Indigenous kids reach their potential. And they're not my words; they're the words of Johnathan Thurston, the Rugby League great, who says, 'The Voice will mean more of our kids reach their potential.' And if that's not a reason to vote 'yes', I don't know what is. (Time expired)

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order. The member for Groom will resume his seat.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm surprised you're still here!

Honourable members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order. The Prime Minister has the call. Order.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He's still having his lunch!

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper, Mr Speaker.