Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Again, on the same point, to flesh this out a little more in relation to the non-systemic schools, it is my understanding that the Catholic system has always operated by averaging on the basis of need. That has been fundamental to their acceptance of the funding guaranteed, funding maintained. The whole SES system has been across averaging. That does not bother me particularly because that is the way they are expected to do things, but I do want to know how many remote students are attending non-systemic schools—even if we can get the big picture on that.

The second point that I make in relation to this is that, with the announcements at COAG at the weekend, there is going to be a substantial bucket of Commonwealth money which will go to funding clusters of schools in low socioeconomic areas. That money will be available and contestable between public and non-government schools in the cluster area. I do not know if any of these non-systemic schools are going to be in a low socioeconomic cluster so that they may be able to access additional funding.

The third point is that I have seen in the media a number of reports of scholarships being made available through the private sector to students from remote Indigenous communities to attend non-government schools. How much money does that bring to the school? On paper, it looks as though the schools will be disadvantaged, but I do not know how that scholarship system actually works in relation to this. Perhaps the minister could also comment on the system for the placement of scholarships in non-government schools for Indigenous students in those boarding schools. To what extent does that impact on supporting those students? Is it just fees or is it other support?