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

Thanks again for the supplementary question, Senator McKenzie. There have been some dramatic improvements. Specifically, the Queensland and Northern Territory governments have actually granted permission to release publicly the term 1 attendance data, and that demonstrates very much that the strategy is working. Attendance rates rose in almost all the Queensland and Northern Territory schools. In Doomadgee, for example, they rose from 49 per cent—tragic—in term 1 to 67.8 per cent, an absolute victory: an increase of 18 percentage points. In Wugularr in the Northern Territory, attendance rates are 15 per cent up on what they were in 2013. In Borroloola, a very difficult case, they rose by, again, 15 per cent. Those are fantastic outcomes from those communities and those parents.

So, in 14 of the 21 RSAS schools, attendance is up more than five percentage points across those schools compared to last year. This stands in stark contrast to the outcomes of the previous five years.