Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Boyce for the question and I acknowledge her long-standing interest in this area.

Getting children to school is the No. 1priority for this government. I know that many of you around the chamber would have no disagreement with that. It is one of those areas where we are all in agreement. It is something that not only am I passionate about, but I think is one of the top priorities across the parliament.

School attendance is absolutely critical to closing the gap. In having a look at the closing the gap report, many of us who are close to it would acknowledge that there should be a bit of a muted celebration tomorrow. Sadly, we are not doing anywhere near as good as we should be doing in terms of closing the gap. I say that as a parliamentary statement rather than a political one.

First, we have to break something that has become a convention, and I suspect that over the last few decades it has increased in its intensity—namely, children themselves are deciding whether or not to go to school. Elders told me that just a few decades ago children did go to school and were well educated, but that has changed significantly. A 2013 COAG reform report tells us that there has been no improvement in the past five years, and in fact it has gone backwards. A child who attends school less than 80 per cent of the time has no chance of passing the curriculum. Last year, only 13 per cent of children in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory attended school to a sufficient extent to have a chance of attaining that.

I have therefore put the Remote School Attendance Strategy in place. We are employing 400 school-attendance officers, of which 250 are in place, and the remaining appointments are just around the corner. I would like to acknowledge the help from all the teachers, the local principals, the employment service providers and, particularly, our partners in the state and territory governments.

This is going to be a long, hard road. The initial indicators are a 13 per cent increase across the board. Without the cyclone at Palm Island it would have been— (Time expired)