Mr BALCH - 1999-04-27
I understand Community Aid Abroad has released a report which claims that not only has the bilingual program been successful but that this government actually cancelled the program entirely last year. I ask the minister if this is true.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I do thank the honourable member for his question. I must admit that when I first heard Community Aid Abroad had put out a publication, my initial reaction was to welcome the input into the debate because I thought, maybe, here is an organisation prepared not only to take a stance but also to back it up with a bit of information and some facts. But, unfortunately, when we had a look at what the report had to say and who it sourced it from, I was very much disappointed.
I will quote from the report. It claims that over the last 25 years, Australia’s Northern Territory has successfully introduced bilingual education programs for Aboriginal children and it says: ‘These programs have attracted Aboriginal children into school and helped to address major inequities in education’, claiming in their press release that this successful program has now been canned. Yet, in the very next sentence of this report it contradicts itself in its entirety. It claims:
Much remains to be done because Aboriginal children in remote areas are far behind the average level of literacy. Yet, in 1998, the Northern Territory government cancelled the bilingual teaching programs in their entirety. No explanation has so far been given despite representations from Aboriginal groups which OXFAM supported.
OXFAM is the organisation along with the Community Aid Abroad that put out this report.
I asked myself who has this organisation contacted, if they’re claiming that we have given no reasons? If they are claiming that there has been a successful program that we have cancelled, where are their qualifications? Because elsewhere in the report, when it talks about overseas studies, it does refer to studies, but here in the Northern Territory it was entirely unsourced. So, I did a bit of checking to find out just exactly where this information had come from and apart from the fact that, yes, they had contacted the federal government there was one other person they relied on for a lot of this information - one Warren Snowdon.
They admitted it themselves. They are not in anyway backward in coming forward. We asked them, did they check that information? Well, they had checked it with Warren and only Warren Snowdon …
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Mr Speaker! The minister well knows how he is to refer to members either in here or outside.
Mr ADAMSON: The federal member for the Northern Territory. I can understand how mentioning the name of the person would be seen as to be inappropriate in this place, and it is very unparliamentary to use that person’s name. But that’s the fact of the matter.
We have an organisation that should have a responsibility for a little bit of credibility, which is relying on the federal member. This is that same organisation, unfortunately, that has cut it’s own funding in this particular area of Aboriginal education.
I will finish, though. As I said, this is yet another indication of where people are muddying the waters. I should place on record, at this stage, the public retraction of the member for Stuart for some of the misinformation that he peddled. I will table this for honourable members.
It says, ‘Peter Toyne apologises to Peter Adamson’, and if we want to put it in parliamentary terms, the member for Stuart apologised to the minister for education.
Shadow minister for school education, Peter Toyne, today apologised to the Minister for School Education, Peter Adamson.
Mr Toyne said he issued a media release on March 9, 1999, accusing the minister of deceiving the Territory parliament and the public in regard to a petition from the Areyonga community.
He said in drafting the media release he had relied upon an article, which appeared in the NT News (February 25, 1999), which incorrectly reported that Mr Adamson had presented a petition.
‘Mr Adamson did not deceive parliament, nor the public with respect to the non-presentation of the Areyonga community petition, and I unreservedly retract my earlier public statement and apologise for its inclusion in the original media release and for any injury or damage which my statement may have caused him.
Mr Speaker, I simply say, can we now get back to the facts? Can we now debate the issues? I’m entirely happy to do that. I’ve put out the challenge there and unfortunately our opponents refrain from debating the issues. I say to Community Aid Abroad and other groups like that, if you’re relying on your information and the source of your information as being the Federal Member for the Northern Territory, then I think you should probably stay in bed and your time will be better served.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I do thank the honourable member for his question. I must admit that when I first heard Community Aid Abroad had put out a publication, my initial reaction was to welcome the input into the debate because I thought, maybe, here is an organisation prepared not only to take a stance but also to back it up with a bit of information and some facts. But, unfortunately, when we had a look at what the report had to say and who it sourced it from, I was very much disappointed.
I will quote from the report. It claims that over the last 25 years, Australia’s Northern Territory has successfully introduced bilingual education programs for Aboriginal children and it says: ‘These programs have attracted Aboriginal children into school and helped to address major inequities in education’, claiming in their press release that this successful program has now been canned. Yet, in the very next sentence of this report it contradicts itself in its entirety. It claims:
Much remains to be done because Aboriginal children in remote areas are far behind the average level of literacy. Yet, in 1998, the Northern Territory government cancelled the bilingual teaching programs in their entirety. No explanation has so far been given despite representations from Aboriginal groups which OXFAM supported.
OXFAM is the organisation along with the Community Aid Abroad that put out this report.
I asked myself who has this organisation contacted, if they’re claiming that we have given no reasons? If they are claiming that there has been a successful program that we have cancelled, where are their qualifications? Because elsewhere in the report, when it talks about overseas studies, it does refer to studies, but here in the Northern Territory it was entirely unsourced. So, I did a bit of checking to find out just exactly where this information had come from and apart from the fact that, yes, they had contacted the federal government there was one other person they relied on for a lot of this information - one Warren Snowdon.
They admitted it themselves. They are not in anyway backward in coming forward. We asked them, did they check that information? Well, they had checked it with Warren and only Warren Snowdon …
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Mr Speaker! The minister well knows how he is to refer to members either in here or outside.
Mr ADAMSON: The federal member for the Northern Territory. I can understand how mentioning the name of the person would be seen as to be inappropriate in this place, and it is very unparliamentary to use that person’s name. But that’s the fact of the matter.
We have an organisation that should have a responsibility for a little bit of credibility, which is relying on the federal member. This is that same organisation, unfortunately, that has cut it’s own funding in this particular area of Aboriginal education.
I will finish, though. As I said, this is yet another indication of where people are muddying the waters. I should place on record, at this stage, the public retraction of the member for Stuart for some of the misinformation that he peddled. I will table this for honourable members.
It says, ‘Peter Toyne apologises to Peter Adamson’, and if we want to put it in parliamentary terms, the member for Stuart apologised to the minister for education.
Shadow minister for school education, Peter Toyne, today apologised to the Minister for School Education, Peter Adamson.
Mr Toyne said he issued a media release on March 9, 1999, accusing the minister of deceiving the Territory parliament and the public in regard to a petition from the Areyonga community.
He said in drafting the media release he had relied upon an article, which appeared in the NT News (February 25, 1999), which incorrectly reported that Mr Adamson had presented a petition.
‘Mr Adamson did not deceive parliament, nor the public with respect to the non-presentation of the Areyonga community petition, and I unreservedly retract my earlier public statement and apologise for its inclusion in the original media release and for any injury or damage which my statement may have caused him.
Mr Speaker, I simply say, can we now get back to the facts? Can we now debate the issues? I’m entirely happy to do that. I’ve put out the challenge there and unfortunately our opponents refrain from debating the issues. I say to Community Aid Abroad and other groups like that, if you’re relying on your information and the source of your information as being the Federal Member for the Northern Territory, then I think you should probably stay in bed and your time will be better served.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016