Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I just make the point that, just as the Little children are sacred report did not reveal for first time the extent of the abuse in Aboriginal communities, it has been well known for the whole of the 11 years of this government, and no doubt for the governments before that, that the Northern Territory has not been providing adequate education for Indigenous students—not even remotely adequate education. The Commonwealth and the states reach agreement over funding for schools, and it shocks, amazes and disappoints me that so little has been done to deal with this problem. The usual excuse that is trotted out is that this is a state and territory issue and it is not something the Commonwealth has jurisdiction over. Well, we know the Commonwealth can intervene in whatever it likes. It funds schools and, in my view, it should have used its leverage of funding to extract from state and territory governments a decent education system for Indigenous students.

It is entirely the responsibility of governments, in my view, that education is so poor in Aboriginal communities. It is because there are no resources there. It is because schools are equipped for a much smaller number of kids than should be there. In the case of secondary school, it just is not available in so many areas. I do not know so much about Western Australia but I do know a bit about Queensland and the Northern Territory. It is a national disgrace that the Commonwealth can have a role to oversee education and ignore this problem, as it has done for decades.