Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor supports the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment (2007 Budget Measures) Bill 2007. The bill seeks to amend the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000 by appropriating additional funding of $26.1 million over the period of the 2007 and 2008 calendar years for Indigenous students in the school, vocational education and training, and higher education sectors. This will expand the Indigenous Youth Mobility Program and the Indigenous Youth Leadership Program. It also provides infrastructure funding for boarding school facilities and extra funding to cover the conversion of Community Development Employment Projects into ongoing jobs in the education sector.

Approximately one in four 15- to 19-year-old young Indigenous people live in remote areas. The proportion of Indigenous people living in remote areas who reach year 12 is about half that of their metropolitan peers. Given that only one in 10 actually completes year 12, you would not be surprised to learn that Labor would support additional resources being spent to encourage higher levels of attainment in education for Indigenous people. The Indigenous Youth Mobility Program will expand by about 860 places over the next four years. The program currently provides assistance to around 600 Indigenous people from remote areas, with access to a broad range of training and employment opportunities on offer at major regional centres.

The program’s focus is on accredited training options across a range of occupations, and post-school work and study opportunities in nursing, teaching, accountancy and business management. The bill also provides for an increase in the number of scholarships available through the Indigenous Youth Leadership Program. The budget increases the scholarships by 750 over four years. This will bring the total number of the scholarships to about 1,000. Also, funding of $14.1 million over two years is being made available under the bill to fund infrastructure for existing boarding schools catering for Indigenous students. In addition, funding of $5.3 million will be made available to convert—where government and non-government education providers agree—Community Development Employment Project places into ongoing jobs in the education sector.

Labor believes that these measures will go some small way towards lifting the educational attainment levels of Indigenous Australians. One would expect that this would in turn lift the employment rate for Indigenous Australians. However, it has to be acknowledged—and I am sure it is acknowledged widely within this chamber—that these measures are grossly inadequate. At all levels of educational attainment, we see Indigenous Australians falling behind the rest of the nation. According to the Higher education report 2005, which is produced by the government’s very own Department of Education, Science and Training, the number of Indigenous students attending Australia’s higher education institutions decreased by 5.9 per cent in 2005. The report noted that Indigenous commitments particularly in nursing, initial teacher training and medical practitioner courses had also declined. The total commencements in these and related courses had declined overall in 2005 by eight per cent. So, at a time when we need more Indigenous students undertaking professional programs to service remote communities, we actually have fewer people taking up those educational opportunities. DEST admitted in its Higher education report 2005 on page 21 that this was part of an ongoing trend. It states:

Continuing declines in Indigenous involvement in higher education will perpetuate disadvantages experienced by Indigenous Australians and hinder their full participation in Australia’s economic and social development.

The report acknowledged that these continuing declines will perpetuate disadvantage and inequality in this country. While this situation in higher education is a national shame, it is worse in other parts of the education sector. There are far too many Indigenous children who continue to be unable to read, write and count at even a most basic level. Indigenous children fall further and further behind the longer they stay at school. Fewer Indigenous students meet the year 5 and year 7 benchmarks in literacy and numeracy than meet the year 3 benchmarks. In 2005, fewer Indigenous children in years 5 and 7 met basic literacy and numeracy benchmarks than their older brothers and sisters did in 2002.

Poor educational attainment levels have a direct impact on employment prospects and on general health and wellbeing. So it is somewhat telling that Indigenous unemployment levels are many times higher than the national record unemployment lows that this government talks about at every opportunity. If we take, for instance, the Elizabeth area of North Adelaide, Indigenous unemployment is as high as 34 per cent. In Macquarie Fields in Sydney, Indigenous unemployment is 30 per cent.

The same is not true everywhere. Many Indigenous communities are close to booming in terms of the mining industry, for instance. We should recognise the good that has been done in that sector to improve the job prospects for Indigenous Australians—and I do acknowledge it, particularly in the north-west of Western Australia. The Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining report into Indigenous employment in the Australian minerals industry highlights the steps taken to date in this area. It points to the benefits for our society, our nation and our industry from taking a long-term view not just towards the provision of employment opportunities to Indigenous Australians but also towards working with local communities to address the root causes of Indigenous socioeconomic problems.

The key issues are education, health and poverty. Those three factors are intimately linked together. I would say, therefore, that a great deal more needs to be done in terms of our society’s claims to be democratic. Unless these critical issues of education and health are addressed, Indigenous people, especially those living in remote and rural communities, are likely to remain a marginal and largely unskilled labour force. This is why I say that much more needs to be done in economic development and in providing opportunities for Indigenous people to fully participate in this country. A country such as ours that locks out so many of its citizens cannot claim to be fully democratic. This is the most obvious and most graphic indicator of neglect and disadvantage that this country faces.

I turn now to statements made in recent times by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma. In 2005, he noted:

What data exists suggest that we have seen only slow improvements in some areas ... and no progress on others over the past decade. The gains have been hard fought. But they are too few. And the gains made are generally not of the same magnitude [as] the gains experienced by the non-Indigenous population, with the result that they have had a minimal impact on reducing the inequality gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians.

The percentage of Indigenous Australians under the age of 10 is more than double that of the rest of the Australian population. Labor recognises the fundamental importance of investing in a child’s early years—and this applies to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous children. However, this does not diminish the importance of providing continuous education and learning opportunities throughout life. Indeed, lifelong learning has many benefits, and this bill goes some way towards acknowledging that, but it falls short of where we need to be as a nation. Labor recognises the social and economic imperatives for lifting the education standards of all Australians, particularly Indigenous Australians. As a Commonwealth, we have to assess those things that we did in the past as well as where we are at today.

There are some things that, on the ground, we know work in practice; however, it requires a long-term bipartisan approach from this parliament to ensure that they are effective. It is in that context that the Leader of the Opposition spoke only a week ago, on the 40th anniversary of the 1967 referendum, on the need to set new national bipartisan goals to close the gap between black and white Australia. It requires goals that are achievable and measurable and fulfil the spirit of the referendum held some 40 years ago. Mr Rudd has made it perfectly clear that Labor is committed to following those bipartisan goals, including the elimination of the 17-year gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a generation. Labor is committed to at least halving the rate of Indigenous infant mortality within a decade. Further, Labor is committed to at least halving the mortality rate of Indigenous children under five and to doing so within a decade. Labor is also committed to halving within 10 years the difference in the rate of Indigenous students who fail to meet the reading, writing and numeracy benchmarks for years 3, 5 and 7.

Labor are committed to meeting these goals and a range of other health and family initiatives. We argue that education is the key plank to achieving these objectives. Under Labor, all Indigenous four-year-olds will be eligible to receive 15 hours per week of government funded early learning programs for a minimum of 40 weeks a year. Labor will provide $16.9 million over four years to support the rollout of the Australian Early Development Index in every Australian primary school. This will be adapted to establish a culturally appropriate and nationally consistent means of addressing key aspects of Indigenous children’s early development that are central to the readiness for learning at school.

Labor will ensure that every Indigenous child has an individual learning plan based on his or her needs, which will be updated twice a year for every year of schooling up to the age of 10. It is that sort of personal attention that is needed to address the gross inequalities. Labor will spend $34.5 million over four years on the provision of professional development to teachers to equip them to complete these learning plans. Through their children’s teachers, parents will have access to these plans so they can be part of their children’s learning improvements. Labor will expand intensive literacy programs and develop a new intensive numeracy program to help underachieving students catch up with the rest of their class. Literacy and numeracy are the building blocks upon which each and every individual builds his or her participation in society in respect of their capacity to work and to lead a healthy and active life.

Labor want to halve the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students’ performance in reading, writing and numeracy within a decade. We are setting ourselves very tough targets, which is the only way we can drive reform in these areas. Labor will provide $21.9 million over four years to expand intensive literacy and numeracy programs in our schools. As part of this commitment, a new intensive numeracy program will be developed and implemented. Labor support measures to lift educational retention rates and to assist those most in need to help themselves.

Labor believe strongly that more can and must be done and that the Commonwealth has a critical role to play. It is insufficient to look at only one aspect of Indigenous Australia. We need to take a global perspective. After years of neglect, Indigenous Australians have manifold issues that require a comprehensive approach. Education is crucial—and this begins in a child’s early years—to building the foundation stones for a successful life. Health is another crucial issue, and more must be done to bridge the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia. That is why Labor support the second reading amendment that commits to the goals I outlined earlier. I would like to take this opportunity to move the second reading amendment. I move:

At the end of the motion, add “but the Senate commits to the following goals:

        (a)    to eliminate the 17-year gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a generation, so that every Indigenous child has the same educational and life opportunities as any other child;

        (b)    to at least halve the difference in the rate of Indigenous students at years 3, 5 and 7 who fail to meet reading, writing and numeracy benchmarks within 10 years;

        (c)    to at least halve the mortality rate of Indigenous children aged under five within a decade; and

        (d)    a long-term bipartisan national commitment to work with Indigenous Australians towards achieving these goals, and overcome generational disadvantage”.

I commend the bill and the second reading amendment to the chamber.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to make a few brief comments on the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment (2007 Budget Measures) Bill 2007. I do have a particular interest in this bill, as I have travelled regularly throughout the Kimberley, Pilbara, Gascoyne and Goldfields regions of Western Australia since 1979. In this time I have met so many wonderful Indigenous people who are well aware of the challenges their communities face in finding a way forward for their young people. Their words have left a lasting impression on me and they motivate my comments today. The purpose of this bill is to appropriate additional funding, and to expand on and improve the options and facilities available to Australia’s young Indigenous people.

In my home state of Western Australia, there are no fewer than 289 remote Indigenous communities. As a Labor senator from Western Australia, I am very much aware of the conditions and challenges faced by many young Indigenous people in these communities. Last week I travelled once again through the Kimberley region of Western Australia and spent time in seven remote Indigenous communities. When debating this bill in the other place, my Labor colleagues made the crucial point that goals and targets that are set must be realistic and achievable within a generation, and Labor calls on the government to give a genuine commitment to overcoming Indigenous disadvantage.

I speak today in favour of this bill, but I do not believe that this bill demonstrates a genuine commitment to overcome Indigenous disadvantage. I remind honourable senators that we in Australia are smack bang in the middle of a massive economic boom driven by a global demand for our mining and resources commodities. The tragic irony that we cannot under any circumstances ignore is that a significant source of our current national wealth is the land, and on that land is where the most disadvantaged members of our community have lived for thousands of years. Furthermore, it is amongst these people, living on that land, that we see the highest mortality rates, the highest poverty rates and the lowest educational attainment in this country.

And what has this government done for the traditional owners of that land at a time of great economic growth? I will tell you what it has done. It has made a one-off pre-election promise to beef up programs that have not yet even been the subject of a publicly available evaluation. More so than ever before, the Commonwealth government has had the opportunity to enable Indigenous communities to move out of the cycle of poverty and disadvantage and to create economic sustainability. But, sadly, it has not seized that opportunity. Even worse, the government has adopted a CBD mentality for Indigenous affairs. Middle-class, city-centric views are not the answer. Creating expectation on the journey toward a meaningful future then aborting the trip halfway through is not the answer.

I acknowledge that the Minister for Education, Science and Training has taken a step in the right direction by bringing this bill into the parliament, but sadly it is nothing new. It simply looks to be an extension of funding for existing programs that we are not even sure are of lasting value. We as senators have an obligation to meticulously examine the programs and goals set out in this bill with a view to whether they will deliver something meaningful for young Indigenous people. There is no doubt about it: the Commonwealth programs at the heart of this bill create enormous expectations of participating young Indigenous people in their communities. Yet you get the impression that the Howard government thinks that, by sponsoring these sorts of programs, young Indigenous people will then take over the burden and pressure of leading the way for others in their community. The expectation is that these young people will solve the problems that the government has consistently failed to. There is no indication that the government is entering into a meaningful partnership with young Indigenous people to advance the quality of life, health and economic wellbeing of their communities—and that, to my mind, is an abject betrayal of an entire generation of young Indigenous people.

What I want to know is: what is the government’s expectation of young Indigenous people after funding has been expended through these programs? Where will the government be when these young people return to their communities to face the real-life challenges? You could not expect to have a senior Howard government minister spending any serious time in a remote Indigenous community. After all, it is a bit hard in the desert to find the pristine white robe and the matching fluffy white slippers that may come with a booking at the Sheraton, let alone a poolside bar to sip almond daiquiris from. Instead, you are confronted with the struggle and despair that is born out of two centuries of dispossession.

In the last 11 years, there has been a real opportunity for change and for the government to achieve constructive reconciliation. Instead, the Prime Minister has managed to wash away a taste for reconciliation left by the previous Labor government. In completing this manoeuvre, the Prime Minister has done it with the same ease as gargling Listerine to mask a cheap wine—or, for the benefit of senators opposite, gargling red wine to mask the taste of Listerine. From my experience, as recently as last week, the programs that the bill before us seeks to expand are failing young Indigenous people and more broadly failing Indigenous communities.

Senators have a right to know whether there was any consultation with Indigenous communities before this bill was brought into the parliament. Sadly, I suspect there was not, particularly as the results of an evaluation of the programs to be expanded by the bill are absent from the explanatory memorandum. The government claims that the additional funding it is now seeking to appropriate will be used to convert Community Development Employment Projects, otherwise known as CDEP, program places into ongoing jobs in the education sector. How? Particularly as the proviso has already been set by the minister in the other place where he said:

Approximately 200 Indigenous people will benefit from the provision of funding of $5.3 million to convert, where government and non-government education providers agree, Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) program places into ongoing jobs in the education sector.

This is exactly what I am concerned about, and so too should other senators. There is no real commitment from the government once the money is handed over. I suspect that the additional funding is all about enabling the Howard government, on the eve of an election, to stand up and cry about a marked increase in the number of young Indigenous people receiving funds from the Commonwealth. This is a desperate ploy by ‘Mr Sheen’, beavering around the tarnished silver with his magic spray to make everything sparkle. But what happens after the election if the Howard government is returned? If this lot gets back in, Australia’s Indigenous population will find out pretty quickly that the magic polish only lasts a few days.

There is an enormous need for young Indigenous people to have the opportunity for training in the wide range of skills that Australia is so desperately short of. As part of this bill $14.1 million is being used for the provision of infrastructure funding to enable boarding schools catering for significant cohorts of Indigenous students to repair and replace aged and deteriorating facilities. In my home state of Western Australia, we have a serious shortage of skilled labour—a situation presided over by this incompetent and inactive government. On the surface, $14.1 million may look like a lot of money. But with the serious skills shortage in the construction industry, coupled with the economic boom in WA, I cannot for the life of me see the money being stretched very far at all.

In this place on 10 August 2006 I stated:

The Howard government has continued to reduce the overall percentage of the federal budget spent on vocational education and training, and it stands condemned for the skills crisis it has created.

You might ask: what has changed? Sadly, not much. Australia continues to suffer from a lack of action from this government. I reiterate an article by Steve Lewis in today’s Australian as reported through the national media over the past few days. The article stated:

... the Business Council of Australia and the Australia Chamber of Commerce and Industry confirmed plans for an advertising campaign in support of Work Choices ...

Isn’t that ironic! Fair dinkum, I was rolling around my room this morning as I was reading the paper. Fortunately I did not have to change my pants, but I did have a cackle at these two representatives of industry, and mates of the government, who have to be dragged kicking and screaming if it is suggested they may have to invest in Australia’s future skills training but here they are investing huge amounts into a re-election campaign for the Howard government. They stand guilty through association with this government.

What have the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry done, firstly, to avoid the crisis we now face, and more importantly, to address the current sad state of affairs? The hypocrisy of these two groups is incredible. They will not invest in training but they will throw potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars into an election campaign. The mining industry in Western Australia, for example, is screaming out for skilled tradespeople and labourers. The government’s response to that has been to encourage increasing numbers of migrant workers on short-term visas while there has been a potential significant workforce just outside the mine gates. Where is the government’s program to initiate trade skills training for young Indigenous people, particularly in remote regions? This is the sort of practical measure that would open up a whole economic vista for the young Indigenous generation. We know the jobs are there. Why has the government not given priority to ensuring access to skills training for all Australians?

The Howard government is intent on creating the illusion of serious investment in Indigenous communities. This is why I believe this bill is a continuation of the Howard government’s piecemeal, superficial, CBD mentality. I refer senators to Patricia Karvelas’s article in the Australian on 8 June 2007 on the waste associated with the funding of Indigenous programs. It stated:

For every dollar the Howard Government spends on indigenous people, it spends up to another dollar on bureaucracy ... it cost the Howard Government an average 40c to spend a single dollar of indigenous funding, leading to a staggering amount of taxpayers’ money going to bureaucracy.

Senators need note that the Indigenous Youth Mobility Program and the Indigenous Leadership Program were 2004 Liberal election commitments. However, places were not offered with respect to these programs until 2006. How much money then was wasted under the guise of these programs between 2004 and 2006? Further, how much of the $26 million proposed in this bill will stay in Canberra to pay the bureaucrats? According to the article quoted in the Australian newspaper, it could amount to no less than $10 million of what we are being asked to approve today.

Indigenous people want investment in their communities that generate real jobs. Ecotourism, agriculture and aquaculture are just three examples of what is already being achieved in some of Australia’s remote Indigenous communities. As was told to me recently, Indigenous elders want to get away from the notion and mentality of ‘sit down’ money and start having a role in creating their own prosperity. We could not expect the Howard government to understand this desire, particularly as they are a government happy to see large numbers of Indigenous people disenfranchised by recent changes to electoral enrolment laws. There is no doubt that these changes have created unfair hurdles for traditional people living in our remote areas to be able to exercise their right to elect their government.

If the government had the will to give Indigenous people a genuine mechanism to determine their future, they would be investing resources into getting more Indigenous people on to the electoral roll and not the reverse. There is no justification for the number of Indigenous people on the electoral roll to be lower than that for the rest of the Australian population but that is what we have. But there is an even greater travesty: it is now easier, thanks to the Howard government with the support of senators opposite, to make secret donations to a political party than it is to enrol to vote. But, then again, it is highly unlikely that Indigenous communities would make donations to the Liberal Party, even in the spirit of reconciliation. So it is not hard to work out why the right of Indigenous people to vote is well down the list.

Unlike the Howard government, Labor have made a real commitment to Indigenous Australians. Wouldn’t it be tremendous if the Prime Minister and his cronies finally got out of Labor’s way so we could move forward and turn our commitment into reality? Labor support this bill despite its monumental inadequacies in addressing the lack of economic opportunity for young Indigenous people. I would not want to see any funding taken away from Indigenous programs but the government has to improve its performance in the way the money is spent and what it actually provides on the ground.

I would like to close with the words of one elder who spoke to me in one of the communities I visited last week. He said to me:

We are not just dumb black fellas stuck out in the bush; we have ideas.

We need to have these very words at the forefront of our minds as we stand here as representatives of the entire Australian community and legislate for the future of Indigenous people.

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

I rise to contribute to the debate on the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment (2007 Budget Measures) Bill 2007. This is another in a series of bills that we consider in this chamber each year to ensure that Indigenous education around this country continues to be supported. This bill appropriates additional funding of $26.1 million over the 2007 and 2008 calendar years, explicitly to expand the Indigenous Youth Mobility Program and the Indigenous Youth Leadership Program. It provides infrastructure for boarding schools and it provides for the conversion of a limited number of CDEP positions to full-time positions within education.

As this is a bill that adds funds to Indigenous education, I certainly welcome it. Those of you who know my passionate interest in this area would not be surprised to learn that this bill is supported in principle by the Labor Party and, in particular, by me. But Senator Sterle is correct in saying that it does not go far enough. It is a start, but the measures in this piece of legislation do not go anywhere near addressing the particular needs that have been identified. We know that, of the total additional funds, some $2.6 million goes to expanding the Indigenous Youth Mobility Program. It will give us about an additional 860 places over four years. That is on top of the 600 or so students who already benefit from this program, giving us a total of 1,460 students. The Indigenous Youth Leadership Program will be expanded by up to 750 places over four years, with $4 million allocated for the first two years. So the total impact will be 1,610 students. There is $14.1 million for infrastructure to enable boarding schools with a significant number of Indigenous students to repair and replace old facilities.

I know from my questioning of Aboriginal Hostels Ltd during the most recent estimates process that, under the Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs portfolio estimates, it says at page 164 of Budget Paper No. 2 that FaCSIA will establish three new boarding hostels and expand two existing boarding hostels at a cost of $38.8 million over four years. Aboriginal Hostels Ltd, of course, will operate two of the new boarding hostels at a cost of $2.4 million over 2009-10 and 2010-11.

At the Standing Committee on Community Affairs estimates hearing on 28 May, Mr Clarke, from Aboriginal Hostels, could only give me the details of one of those hostels, which will be built at Kununurra to cater for 40 secondary students. In addition, he thought that maybe one hostel would be built in the Northern Territory, possibly at Nhulunbuy on the Gove Peninsula—though that had not yet been decided—and that one would be built in Queensland, possibly in Townsville. He said that he would also be looking at partnerships—for example, he would talk to the McArthur River Mine about a possible boarding facility at Borroloola. He also said that there had been a budgeted allocation for partnerships for secondary education, either for recurrent costs or for construction. So we know that Aboriginal Hostels, by and large, has carriage of the Indigenous Youth Mobility Program. This program encourages Indigenous students who live in remote or very remote areas, or maybe even in outer regional areas, to relocate to major centres to board and to study. So it is certainly an initiative that we would encourage.

The overall effect of this bill is to assist young Indigenous people to relocate to undertake accredited education and training and then, hopefully, gain employment. It is always a very difficult decision to send your child away from home to attend different schools. It is no different whether you are an Indigenous parent or a non-Indigenous parent. But Indigenous parents in particular feel that their children will lose their culture and not return home, or that they might meet their demise through succumbing to some of the attractions of the capital cities. It is a decision that all parents confront at one stage or another. But it is a decision that does give Indigenous people some possibility of providing their children with better and further education.

Education is important, and Indigenous parents do make that choice. We see that in the Northern Territory in respect of Kormilda College, an independent coeducational secondary boarding school in Darwin. It has arguably the largest enrolment of Indigenous students from remote communities in Australia. The parents of those students do recognise the value of education and they send their kids into Darwin to board at the college.

While I say that this legislation and the additional funding is welcome, it does not go far enough if we are talking about encouraging children to stay on to year 12 and then take up structured training beyond year 12. To see that, one need only look at the statistics on and also at the needs of a place like Kormilda College. They have, from my recollection, lobbied this federal government for many years now to take account of what is happening in their boarding school in terms of infrastructure. And when I say that the funding in this legislation is welcome but does not go anywhere near meeting the need, Kormilda College are one example of that. They have a total enrolment of 1,050. Their Indigenous enrolment is 310 students from 70 remote communities—from Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. They offer the Northern Territory Certificate of Education, the International Baccalaureate and also some vocational education and training programs. So you would think that a college like this should be a great beneficiary of the legislation that we have before us, but it is not so.

In 2006, 35 per cent of all Indigenous NTCE graduates from remote communities studied at Kormilda College. The third generation of students from Indigenous families now board at Kormilda College. In 2007, among their year 12 enrolments, they had 17 Indigenous students, including 13 remote boarders. In 2007 they had the first Indigenous candidate for the International Baccalaureate Diploma, and the attendance rate for Indigenous students was around 95 per cent. If you looked at those statistics and had some kind of report card—by which the current minister would want to judge educational outcomes—you would have to say that Kormilda College are doing it pretty well. But they have a chronic need in terms of their current boarding infrastructure facilities. Anyone who knows and appreciates Indigenous culture would understand that, at this particular school, there are boarding facilities for girls and boys, and they are quite distinct and separate. Their current boarding capacity is 330 students but, in recent years, they have had to close 60 beds due to excessive maintenance costs. There is asbestos and concrete cancer in the existing boarding facilities. Recently, I had a meeting with the current principal, Malcolm Pritchard, and he told me that they currently have a waiting list of more than 200 remote students and, of course, no capacity to meet this demand.

We have a bill before us today that will establish some boarding hostels around this country, auspiced under Aboriginal Hostels Ltd. But, from what I can see, there is no additional funding to meet the incredible demand that a place such as Kormilda College will have and no intent that any of the money from this bill will go to places such as Kormilda College. They have closed some of the boarding facilities because the infrastructure is diminished and they need to be demolished. Currently, they cannot offer 60 beds, and they have over 200 students on their waiting list. They need to replace two condemned boarding facilities at a cost of around $15 million. The total capacity under threat is around 260 beds.

Here we have a college in the Northern Territory, in Darwin, which is doing well. It offers a fantastic program and it attracts and keeps Indigenous students—it has an attendance rate of 95 per cent—from 13 Indigenous remote communities across the territory, which this government has continued to turn its back on. Successive principals at Kormilda College have lobbied this government for $15 million to improve the boarding infrastructure, and it has not been forthcoming. This bill is another example of how this college will not be able to get the money that it needs to maintain and meet the unmet demand of its boarding school. On the one hand, the government is saying that it wants to improve the retention rate for Indigenous children in year 12 and beyond while, on the other hand, we have a perfect example in Darwin of where $15 million could be targeted and spent. But Kormilda College has been totally ignored by this government, year after year. The proportion of Indigenous children reaching year 12 is well below that of their non-Indigenous peers—we have known that for years—and the proportion of Indigenous children finishing year 12 is slightly worse.

I commend the government—and I have done this successively—on putting out the National report to parliament on Indigenous education and training. The latest one is for 2004. This is the fourth report which has been produced. It is good to see this government front up and report to the federal parliament on the progress—or, in some instances, lack of progress—in Indigenous education. Unlike other programs that this government oversees where it is not so willing to publicly report on the outcomes, it is willing to publicly report on outcomes in Indigenous education. Year in, year out, the statistics do not improve. On page 34 of the last report, with respect to year 11 and year 12, it states:

There is a further decline in this rate in 2004—

here we are talking about the retention of Indigenous students in schooling—

to produce the worst result for the period. Between 2003-04 there were declines in the rates of five of the eight states and territories, with only South Australia, Victoria and the ACT showing an improvement. The 2004 rate of 64.7 per cent is below the 2000 rate of 60 per cent, indicating that over the period of the quadrennium there was no overall improvement.

Good on the government for actually reporting it but, throughout this document, year after year, while I do see some improvements—I will admit that—in some areas, I do not. This bill is an attempt, one would hope, to encourage a turnaround of those statistics, but it is not good enough and the money is certainly not well targeted. Any measure that may help to reduce the gap and see more Indigenous people finish year 12 and go into some form of higher education or training is certainly welcome. Indeed, it is long overdue.

The Department of Education, Science and Training’s Higher education report 2005 showed that the number of Indigenous students fell by 5.9 per cent in 2005—an occurrence that will do nothing to reduce the education gap. I could go on and talk about measures that the Labor Party has committed to. They include concrete goals and targets to eliminate the gap in life expectancy within a generation, to halve the Indigenous infant mortality within a decade and to halve the gap in literacy and numeracy levels at primary school within a decade. Why is that important? It is crucially important. If you have an educational background and know anything about the first steps in life then you would know that, when it comes to retaining kids in year 12 and encouraging them to move to capital cites or regional centres to take up further vocational education and training, we can move as many bills and acts in this parliament as we wish but, unless we get it right in the first five or six years of a child’s life, they struggle and play catch-up for the rest of their school life. The evidence is out there. We know that, unless you ensure that the life expectancy of Indigenous children is increased and unless you have a commitment to set a target for improving literacy and numeracy at the primary school level and help them get it right in the first couple of years, then all of the funding that we appropriate in this place, which is targeted at year 11, year 12 and beyond, will go nowhere.

The Labor Party have said that we will set targets and measure outcomes—unlike so many programs under the Howard government’s mainstreaming policy where red tape and bureaucracy continue to defeat Indigenous progress and the achievement of outcomes. We have committed $450 million a year to provide early education of up to 15 hours a week for all four-year olds for up to 40 weeks a year. As I travel around the Northern Territory, I see many schools that do not have efficient preschools or kindergartens operating. That needs to change. We have committed to halving the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in reading and writing within a decade. We will need significant resources and effort to achieve that, but at least it is a performance indicator. At least it is something that we will be able to measure the success or otherwise of within that 10-year period.

Before I finish my speech, I want to talk about the move in this legislation to convert into full-time jobs 200 places in education for CDEP participants. People will know that I personally think that the CDEP has run its course, but it is still useful in remote communities in some parts of this country to get people job-ready. In 11 years, the Howard government has done nothing to improve CDEP in terms of providing education and training in those very remote communities to give people the skills to move off CDEP and into real jobs. No labour market has been stimulated and no remote training educators have been funded or provided over and above what current institutes like the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education and Charles Darwin University can provide out of their current funding. I want to talk about what is happening in urban areas. We know that these 200 jobs are part of the 825 jobs identified in this current budget to move people off CDEP and into paid jobs in urban areas. Obviously, DEST have identified that they have at least 200 of those. I understand that the urban areas will take priority as CDEP is changed, reviewed and restructured by this government over and over again. This job conversion must be taken further to convert more jobs into more full-time positions in some of the isolated areas.

On 1 July these 200 people, out of the 825 in CDEP positions around this country, will be moved off CDEP. Let us talk about what is going to happen to those 825 people. There is one measure by this government that will improve what will happen to them: they will either move into full-time employment, and that is welcomed, or they will move onto the STEP program or Newstart. But in doing so they will lose, as a consequence, access to free hearing services. This is an issue I raised with the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health during the last Senate estimates, and this government is aware of it. Is it an unintended consequence of this policy shift? Who would know? If departments were actually talking to each other then surely someone should have said: ‘We’re going to move people in urban areas off CDEP and onto either the STEP program or Newstart. Then of course you realise they’re going to lose access to hearing services.’ It is unfortunate that this government is going to ideologically push ahead with that agenda and not put it off for 12 months to sort out what will happen to these people who had access to this service offered by Human Services. It was a program that was initiated in 2005 and it should be maintained for these people. (Time expired)

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for the Arts and Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank honourable senators for their contributions to the debate—though it would be straining both language and charity to describe Senator Sterle’s rather crude and belligerent remarks as a contribution. The Howard government want to see the gap between the education outcomes for Indigenous Australians and those for non-Indigenous Australians closed. We are addressing this goal. This is why we are building on existing programs and initiatives that are actually working to close this gap. The Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment (2007 Budget Measures) Bill 2007 amends the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000 to increase the appropriations over the 2007 and 2008 calendar years to provide $26.1 million of additional funding. This bill provides $4 million for the expansion of the Indigenous Youth Leadership Program by an additional 750 scholarships over four years, $2.6 million for the expansion of the Indigenous Youth Mobility Program by an additional 860 places over four years, $14.1 million in infrastructure funding for urgent repairs to boarding school facilities and $5.3 million to support Indigenous people into jobs through the conversion of Community Development Employment Project positions into jobs in the education sector. The new funding of $26.1 million that is to be appropriated under this bill will support increased choice and mobility in education and training for young Indigenous people and will support CDEP participants to move into ongoing employment within the education system.

The increase in the number of scholarships offered under the Indigenous Youth Leadership Program and the increase in the number of places available under the Indigenous Youth Mobility Program will allow more young Indigenous people to access high quality education and training, to develop their leadership potential and to make informed life choices. The Indigenous Youth Mobility Program places provide valuable opportunities for young Indigenous people to leave remote communities to obtain the skills and experience that will directly prepare them for jobs that are available in remote and rural communities, particularly those in traditional trade areas such as plumbing, electrical and mining trades and in business management, teaching and nursing. The Indigenous Youth Mobility Program broadens the pool of qualified Indigenous people available to fill jobs and ensures Indigenous young people are able to make informed choices about real job opportunities and their economic independence. The increase in the number of scholarships offered under the Indigenous Youth Leadership Program will provide educational opportunities for Indigenous students at the secondary and tertiary levels while developing their leadership potential. These two initiatives will enable more Indigenous young people from rural and remote areas to access high quality education, training and employment opportunities.

The provision of $14.1 million for infrastructure funding to existing boarding schools with significant cohorts of Indigenous students will assist with urgent upgrades of accommodation facilities to prevent a loss of existing boarding places and enable the boarding schools to better meet the educational needs of Indigenous students from remote and regional areas. These schools have growing waiting lists for access to places for Indigenous people. This appropriation is in addition to the allocation of $50 million from this year’s budget surplus for non-government boarding schools that accommodate Indigenous students.

These measures will have a significant impact on Indigenous young people and their families. They will lead to accelerated improvement of their education, employment and training outcomes. They will also lead to significant improvement in community capacity in remote Indigenous communities, as many of these young people will eventually return to their home communities with enhanced knowledge, life skills and job readiness skills. In addition, the provision of funding to convert around 200 Community Development Employment Project positions into jobs in the education sector will support CDEP participants to move into ongoing employment in schools and education systems. Many CDEP participants have been doing similar work to Indigenous education workers currently being paid by schools but until now have not received the same employee benefits. They will now be able to gain the benefits of employment, including wages, leave, superannuation, training and professional development. This is part of a broader package that will see CDEP participants move into ongoing employment and move out of this welfare program to become employees in education, environment and heritage protection, community care, child care and Indigenous community policing. All up, spending on Indigenous specific education programs has increased by almost 50 per cent in real terms over the last decade.

The importance of education for young Indigenous people is a key to changing people’s lives. Education provides a foundation for later success in terms of individual advancement, choice and opportunity; and it is a vital path to improve both health and wellbeing and to achieve social and economic success. The new funding of $26.1 million that is to be appropriated through this bill is only an element of the broader package of $214 million over four years announced in the budget for Indigenous education and training. Overall, in 2007-08, the Howard government will invest almost $600 million in Indigenous specific education programs. I acknowledge and thank Senator Crossin, who has a deep and longstanding interest in this area, for her congratulations on the government’s transparency in reporting the outcomes under Indigenous education programs.

The government is determined to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students by providing more choice, mobility and educational opportunities for Indigenous students. The measures in this bill build on the government’s practical commitment in this important area of public policy. I commend the bill to the Senate.

Question negatived.

Original question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.