Sue Boyce (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the

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

Sue Boyce (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have a supplementary question, Mr President. Can the minister tell us whether the government's Remote School Attendance Strategy has been well received within the Indigenous community?

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

When this works well, there is no point in saying, 'Well done, Nige,' because it really does not have a lot to do with me. This is a community driven initiative. It uses employment from the communities; it has 100 per cent Aboriginal employment, and the supervisors are all from the communities. It has been community driven in those places where we have engaged with the cultural authority. I would like to commend the work and assistance of Dr Djiniyini Gondarra, who has made significant impacts and has even gone as far as to declare that parents' cultural responsibilities should extend to school attendance. We have had many conversations with other community leaders, and, again, I thank them for their assistance in all of these matters.

Hopefully this should change how we all approach this matter. It is about empowering local communities. It is about harnessing this task to a cultural authority. That is the only way we are going to get on top of it. (Time expired)

Sue Boyce (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have a further supplementary question, Mr President. Can the minister advise the Senate about any other commentary regarding the strategy on school attendance?

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

I again thank the senator for the question. It is well known that I seriously want to take a bipartisan approach to my whole portfolio and particularly to the issue of school attendance. I was pretty disappointed with Mr Shayne Neumann, who put out a media release on 20 December last year saying that this was simply a thought bubble and asking why I had not actually bothered to talk to communities about it. This initiative involved about three years of consultation. This is exactly what the community has asked for. So I recommend to Mr Neumann that he perhaps leave his cosy desk, wherever that is, and move in amongst the communities and ask their advice about how well they think we are pursuing this matter. I think their advice would be as firm as it has been to me that this is the way forward and it should be a central character of all the ways we move forward in this area.