Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The purpose of the Schools Assistance (Learning Together—Achievement Through Choice and Opportunity) Amendment Bill 2006 is to amend the Schools Assistance (Learning Together—Achievement Through Choice and Opportunity Act 2004. This bill provides for funding for government financial assistance to states and territories for government and non-government schools for the 2005-08 triennium. It is an unfortunate choice of name for this bill, if we bear in mind what this government has done in real terms to school education in this country. The Commonwealth has certainly not worked together with the states and territories but has instead harried and bullied them into accepting grossly unfair and undemocratic conditions of funding which enable the Howard government to have an enormous ability to interfere with the running of government schools.

For the first time in history, the Howard government is funding the private education minority more than it is funding the state school majority. It does so, for example, by ignoring the private school income raised from ever-rising fees and other means of raising funds. It boasts that, in doing so, it is widening choice and offering more choice to parents. That may be the case in wealthy electorates on the eastern seaboard where access to private education and schools exists or where parents can actually afford to pay enormous amounts towards their school fees. But, for the majority of the Northern Territory constituents whom I represent, this bill offers nothing. It offers no extra choice and certainly offers nothing at all if you happen to be an Indigenous parent living in a remote community who relies on CDEP every fortnight.

We have the totally inequitable situation under this government where a rich grammar school in Sydney or Melbourne can have huge playing fields and a gymnasium and still get very generous taxpayer funded moneys, whereas schools in places like Ngukurr or Umbakumba in the Northern Territory struggle along with limited per capita funds and have no playing field or other equipment.

In my travels around the Northern Territory, I had the privilege two weeks ago to spend 4½ days with Barbara McCarthy, member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly for the seat of Arnhem. We managed to get to six Indigenous schools in six Indigenous communities in that time. The conditions in those schools have not changed significantly in the last 25 years. The reason for that is that the Northern Territory government is working extremely hard to get Indigenous kids to school, and it is working—there are more kids going to school out bush than I have seen before, particularly in the secondary school program—but the resources that those schools have are diminishing.

It was put to me by a principal of one of those schools that funds provided by governments, particularly the federal government, only allow these schools to cope—that is, the schools are funded to cope rather than funded to succeed. When I went to the Ngukurr school I found a class of 29 Indigenous kids. They are second language learners of English—so ESL kids technically. There were 29 kids in a grade 5, 6 and 7 composite class with only 25 desks and chairs. That is because the school never anticipated that they were going to have such an enormous number of kids come, certainly for the first eight or nine weeks consistently of this school year.

What we have out there in the bush, which is unrecognised by this government and also by its education department, are strategies by Labor governments working out there through people like Barbara McCarthy, who is out there talking up the benefits of education in her communities, but those schools are now seriously struggling to survive because of the poor funding arrangements handed out through the Northern Territory government to help these schools cope and exist. So much for learning together and choice!

This bill allows the minister to move funds between program years within the quadrennium for all non per-capita programs, such as the Tutorial Voucher Initiative and the Investing in Our Schools program. In addition, it also has other provisions, such as allowing for the payment of maximum general recurrent grants to non-government schools which cater for students with emotional or behavioural problems. There is nothing wrong with that on the face of it. In broad principle, Labor actually supports the bill, but we believe this government has absolutely failed in supporting all schools, having shown a total bias towards private schools in general and, with the Investing in Our Schools program funding in particular, a bias towards Liberal and Nationals electorates in particular.

The Investing in Our Schools program provides funds of $1 billion over four years for capital projects. That includes $700 million for government schools, yet only $300 million for non-government schools. For government schools, the Howard government could not resist bypassing the state and territory governments and calling for applications directly from local parents associations. That in itself makes things pretty tough for Indigenous people in the remote schools in the Northern Territory where, due to the disastrous changes made by the previous minister for education to the former ASSPA program—that is, the Aboriginal support program that used to encourage and draw Indigenous parents to participate in the schools—Indigenous parents have now voted with their feet and walked away from schools because these committees no longer exist and are not encouraged to exist by the funding actions of this government. Parents have voted with their feet. Parent groups have collapsed throughout remote schools, particularly in the Northern Territory. When you then introduce a funding system such as the Investing in Our Schools program that relies on an Indigenous parent body to either write that funding submission or sign off on it, it makes it even more difficult for those schools to access these funds. In terms of accessing funding from this federal government, it is a policy decision that has given no consideration at all to life and difficulties faced out in remote communities and the impact that changes on one funding program have in getting these Indigenous parents to access another funding program.

Figures provided by the government from the previous minister, when analysed by our shadow minister, showed that, of the total IOSP allocation last year, 66 per cent went to schools in government held electorates while 32 per cent went to ALP held electorates. The average funding to coalition electorates was $792,000, while that to ALP electorates was only $549,000.

The Tutorial Voucher Initiative announced in 2004 is another election promise that has been similarly poorly administered. With respect to the funding tutorial assistance for children who failed the benchmark reading test, this program has failed to reach many of those students who were ineligible. I should point out though that, around the states and territories, the voucher system is to be paid directly to parents other than in the Northern Territory. In the Northern Territory, it is going to be funded through the Northern Territory government. The federal government should come to the table and start talking to the Northern Territory government about how this is going to be done. We are almost at week 8 in the Territory and none of this money has filtered through to the Northern Territory government—not one cent of it. An answer to an estimates question on notice revealed that there are 763 eligible students in the Northern Territory. I sincerely question that figure. I would say that is an incredible underestimation of the number of kids out bush who have failed to meet the year 3 benchmark and who would need assistance.

This is where we come to another situation in which this government fails to appreciate and understand the difficulties in trying to get money out to where it is severely needed. We have a government that stands on rhetoric of trying to improve Indigenous outcomes, encourage Indigenous people to lift their game and encourage Indigenous parents to get involved, but it has a funding system that does not enable Indigenous parents to get involved at all, because the funding is now not channelled through a parent committee. Secondly, we now have a situation where the voucher system will be channelled through the Northern Territory government rather than be paid directly to the schools. If there are 30 kids in a place like Ngukurr who would be eligible for that voucher system, why isn’t this funding system flexible enough to pay the money directly to the school and let them employ part-time instructors, because there will not be privately employed tutors in a place like Ngukurr or Numbulwar? Pay the money directly to the school. Get around some of the bureaucratic red tape that currently holds back Indigenous kids. Recognise that your policies are failing to achieve any sort of outcomes in terms of Indigenous education out there. They are simply not working.

The figures provided to us in estimates showed that, at best, in New South Wales only 69 per cent of those eligible had taken up the vouchers by the end of the last school year. Of course, in the Northern Territory, we are now nearly 12 months down the track and not one cent of that money has flowed to the Northern Territory government under the voucher initiatives yet. Of course, the Howard government has blamed the states for significant delays and underspending. Again, one of the classic hallmarks of this government is: ‘Never take any blame or responsibility; just take control and no responsibility.’ However, the real problem again lies with this arrogant government failing to work together with the states and territories. This program was announced on the run, with no consultation and, based on my experience in my last fortnight’s travel, with absolutely no understanding or appreciation of how a funding program like this works when you are in the back of nowhere in a remote Indigenous community that has significant barriers and hurdles to overcome.

Rather than working with all the states, this government put out the program to private tender to get private brokers to run it in many places. Some providers ended up being state and territory departments; many were not. These brokers were to administer the scheme: contract tutors, confirm child eligibility, manage the administration and report on the program. Just how accountable these private brokers will be we may see when the report on the program comes in. But at this stage, because of the enormous amount of bureaucratic red tape, none of the money for the voucher system has yet flowed through to any kid in the Northern Territory.

Figures provided to us in the estimates committee show that the best take-up rates were found where the state departments were the providers. The lowest take-up was found in Queensland, where it was 18 per cent, and Victoria, where it was only 12 per cent—and the same private broker, Progressive Learning, was contracted for both.

So this program has been an administrative disaster. Large numbers of students in dire need are not getting the help for which they are eligible. In particular that means Indigenous kids in remote communities. So, while Labor will support this bill, only because we put the funding needs of the schools and the students first and foremost, we do need to ensure that the consequences of this government’s incompetence and unfairness go down firmly on the record.

As a significant number of my constituents are Indigenous, I want to take this chance to again comment on the appalling handling of the changes to Indigenous education I have seen, particularly in the last four to five years. When you get out there in the bush and you actually talk to the teachers and you see a teacher like I saw at Ngukurr last week struggling to occupy and teach 29 children from years 5, 6 and 7 in a composite class, really the policies of this government beggar belief. They totally lack any educational credibility. I have an educational background and I would be struggling to teach 29 children from years 5, 6 and 7 here in a place like Canberra—or in Darwin or Melbourne or Sydney—let alone these kids who are learners of English as a second language. Someone somewhere in this government has just got to get the message through that this is not working and that the resources are not getting out there, let alone that they are nowhere near adequate.

How any minister could believe that a change that gives funding only after students have failed is appropriate is beyond me. But this is what happened under the previous minister with the in-class Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme. The in-class tuition was made unavailable until and unless an Indigenous student failed the year 3 literacy tests. As a former early childhood teacher myself, I find the logic of this beyond me. It is sheer stupidity—funding on the basis of failure. You have to fail to get help, by which time, of course, it will be too late. How this sort of policy will help to narrow the disadvantage gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students I am yet to work out.

Despite a departmental review concluding that ASSPA, the Aboriginal Student Support and Parent Awareness program, was, if not without faults, a very successful way of involving Indigenous parents, the previous minister took it on himself, in his infinite wisdom, to abolish it. This was in total contravention of the views of Indigenous parents. In its place we have not the automatic funding of ASSPA but a competitive scheme requiring hours of submission writing, at the end of which decisions are made elsewhere and no funds are guaranteed anyway.

As a result of this, Indigenous parents are confused and annoyed and feel disenfranchised. Many have voted with their feet and no longer play a part in any school committees. How then do you expect them to be around to sign off on, to consult with the principal about or to apply for any of the money under the Investing in Our Schools program?

Many formerly funded programs and schools have been cut out of the action. Previously successful sport or cultural programs have been cut. For example, at the Maningrida school this year they have been unable to send a sports team into Darwin, so their kids will miss out on possible Territory selection for a national competition. Furthermore, on a recent trip around schools in Arnhem Land, I found that the Bulman school got nothing last year under these arrangements.

At the Bulman school, there is an Indigenous principal called Annette Miller. She is a teaching principal. That means that for five days of the week she is in front of a classroom, so she does all of the administrative work required to run the school after hours or in her spare time. This government then expects someone like her to get on a computer—that is if there is one functioning, because when I went to Numbulwar the school there had not one functioning computer in any of its classrooms or in the principal’s office—after hours and write these submissions. Well, they do not do it. They do not have the time to do it and, to be quite frank with you, it is not a priority for them when they are trying to coordinate a curriculum, send in enrolment or attendance figures or put together testing results. The government is denying this. So it is a very difficult situation out there in the bush for these people.

A reply received from the now minister, while perhaps trying to be helpful, was quite a classic smoke-and-mirrors trick again, as we have come to expect from this government. It told me that this group of schools, such as Bulman and Amanbidji, which is another school in that area, got $124,000 last year, up by $26,000 on the previous year. Good news? Not really. Amanbidji also got nothing under this new scheme. They may not have got huge dollars under ASSPA, but small, remote schools such as those need and value every dollar. A few thousand dollars under the old scheme was much better than nothing under the new scheme. In the case of Bulman and Amanbidji, I ask: where did the $124,000 go to? I do not know, but I do know that at least two of the small, remote schools in that group got nothing. The small, remote schools have been disadvantaged, both under the Investing in Our Schools program and the new PSPI program. The larger schools, usually in more urban areas, have gained at their expense.

Let me emphasise the situation of many of these small, remote bush schools. Many are one- or two-teacher schools. Many of them in fact have a teaching principal. The principal has to teach during the day and then go and do admin functions after school or at weekends. In the case of Amanbidji, since the school is so small, it is a one-teacher-principal school. Not only does the principal there do all of the above, but the school has no money for cleaners at the weekend, so he and his wife go in and clean the school on the weekend as well.

Another teacher-principal, at Milyakburra on Bickerton Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria, has 25 kids between transition and year 7 to teach all day. She then has to do all the admin work and then, just to top off her day, she also prepares all the food that is sold in the tuckshop each recess and each lunchtime. These are hardworking, highly dedicated and committed education workers. The government long ago ceased to frame education policy on educational grounds. They have become so ideologically blinkered that educational thought does not enter into their heads. We can only hope the new minister brings back a bit of reasoned— (Time expired)