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

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Education. I refer to the Prime Minister’s promise today to ensure that every Indigenous four-year-old in remote Aboriginal communities attends preschool and I ask: will the government ensure that these preschools are bilingual? Will it also insist that secondary schooling is made available where currently only primary schools exist? What measures will the government put in place to ensure that teachers are better equipped for Indigenous education in remote areas and what will the government do to increase the number of Indigenous teachers?

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for her question. The commitment has been—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Alan Ferguson (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Members on my left will come to order.

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for her question. As she can tell, we are having some difficulties locating the formal brief on this matter, so I will make sure that the Minister for Education, whom I am representing, has an opportunity to view the question and see whether or not there are other matters she wants to raise. In that context I will say that this is a government that is committed to ensuring that there is genuine equality of opportunity in our education system. This is a government that has set itself very stiff targets to meet and that understands the importance of education, particularly for Indigenous people. This is a government that has acknowledged its obligation to make not only an apology for the past wrongs that have been committed against Indigenous people but also a commitment to ensure that it bridges the gap in terms of educational opportunities that exist in this country.

This is a government, unlike our predecessor, that is actually serious about changing life’s opportunities for Indigenous people in this country. What this government has also done is to make sure that these targets are realistic and will be met. I note that in all the reports over the last five or six years in terms of educational attainment we saw a decline in the key indicators in socioeconomic equity and Indigenous education. The members of the previous government ought to hang their heads in shame at what happened to equality of opportunity in this country across the full range of socioeconomic indicators of educational attainment.

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

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question—in fact I have a number of them. Does the minister also consider that state governments responsible for some of this mess should hang their heads in shame? But, before getting to that, I ask the minister to request information from the Minister for Education on the presence of local Indigenous preschool workers: is the government aware that they significantly increase attendance? Is the government aware that preschools serving 70 per cent of Indigenous children do not have a local Indigenous preschool worker, and will the government promise to fix this problem as well?

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I can indicate to the senator that this government understands how complex the issues of early childhood education are. We understand that in terms of the Commonwealth’s interface with state governments on this issue there are fundamental difficulties even in getting to talk to the one department across this country. This is a government that also appreciates the need to attend to these questions. There is no doubt that the performance in early childhood education is one of the areas of great weakness in our education system across this country. I have been on delegations with Senator Allison when we have visited various communities and seen how deplorable conditions are, particularly in terms of early childhood provision. I have seen circumstances personally where very young students, around four years of age, are clearly indicating all the health deficits that undermine the capacity to achieve good educational outcomes.

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Minister representing the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. The government has stated that it is committed to consulting widely over the initiatives in place as part of the intervention in the Northern Territory. Can the minister please advise the Senate why the government has chosen to ignore the advice of the first-ever Indigenous Labor Party President, Warren Mundine, by reintroducing the permit system in the Northern Territory?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Scullion for his question. In doing so, I apologise for not recognising his election to the position of Leader of the Nationals in the Senate when we dealt with such matters. I congratulate him on his appointment. I never quite understand how one can be a leader of a party one does not belong to, but there you go. It might say something about the rest of the party, but I will not go there.

When the former government introduced its legislation on the intervention in the Northern Territory, the former government received the support of the Labor Party. We gave bipartisan support to the emergency intervention in the Northern Territory because we accepted that there was a crisis and that there was widespread child abuse and that those issues needed to be tackled. But, during the debate on the bills, the Labor Party raised a number of issues on which we diverged from the government and on which we urged the then government to take a different stance. One of those issues was the question of the permits. Senator Scullion will recall that he and I were involved in that debate. The Labor Party has taken the view that the permit system is an important part of protecting those communities from exploitation by outside forces. At the time, there was support from a very senior Northern Territory police spokesman for this. They wanted to be able to control who went into those very vulnerable communities.

The Rudd Labor government has accepted the argument that the permits play a useful part of an overall protection system and ensure greater law and order for, stability in and protection of those communities. I know that there is a divergence across the chamber about that. We have had that debate a number of times. The Labor Party and the Labor government are committed to reinstituting a permit system which has the capacity to allow those communities to have some say over who comes into those communities. As Senator Scullion would be well aware, there have been a large number of instances over the years where people of disrepute have sought to access and exploit those communities and take advantage of the people in them.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Not according to Anthony Mundine.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Mundine and I worked very closely together when I had the Indigenous affairs portfolio. I have a lot of respect for Mr Mundine. He understands the complexities of the issues and makes a very good contribution to the Indigenous affairs debate in this country. But when we were in opposition the Labor Party’s policy was to support the permit system and it will remain so in government.

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I thank the minister for confirming that they are taking the word of a police officer heading up the Police Federation in the Northern Territory over a senior Indigenous leader. Can the minister confirm whether in fact this is the very first step in the systematic dismantling of the intervention in the Northern Territory?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think the import of Senator Scullion’s supplementary question was that he urges everyone to take the advice of a former President of the Labor Party over police figures in the Northern Territory, which I find an unusual stance for a member of the coalition to take. Nevertheless, we maintain the view that the permit system serves a useful purpose and that it will be a contributor to the overall objectives of the Northern Territory intervention, which we supported immediately. We gave bipartisan support to it at the time the then Prime Minister Howard announced that intervention. Prime Minister Rudd’s government remains committed to that intervention. But we do some things slightly differently, Senator Scullion. The government has changed. We have a different approach to yours. The majority of the measures will be maintained. But on permits, the CDEP and a number of other issues, we have a different approach.