Mr GILES - 2009-02-19
After eight long years of Labor neglect of Alice Springs, it is positive to work in a bipartisan manner with ministers on the other side of the parliament. I welcome the bipartisan announcement today that your government will support a voluntary ‘no school/no service’ code of conduct for local businesses as an additional tool to try to get kids to school as part of the first step.
What educational and promotional material will government provide, and what resources have been allocated to ensure that as many businesses as possible sign up to the code? Will the Education Act be enforced so that parents who do not send their kids to school will be prosecuted?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Braitling for his question. The voluntary ‘no school/no service’ policy has been talked about in Alice Springs. Work will commence immediately on that policy. That is something we will have to incorporate with the Chamber of Commerce and the business community of Alice Springs. I welcome your input and the input of other Alice Springs’ members into the policy.
In terms of the Education Act, I am obviously not full throttle on that. If you do not mind, I will hand that to the Education minister, regarding what legislative requirements we need to strengthen.
Mr HENDERSON (Education and Training): Madam Speaker, attendance is critical. We are participating in a trial with the Commonwealth government regarding quarantining welfare payments of parents who do not send their kids to school. That is a trial in place at the moment.
I have also asked the department to bring forward other options in ensuring parents send their kids to school on a regular basis. There is a range of policy options we could be adopting. We are trialling the quarantine of welfare payments, which has not occurred anywhere else in Australia to date. I am committed to seeing the parents live up to their responsibilities to their children by ensuring their kids go to school on a regular basis.
There will be further work in this space. We are participating very willingly - in fact it was the Territory government which called on the Commonwealth government to have a trial on quarantining welfare payments. I have asked the department to bring forward options for other measures.
What educational and promotional material will government provide, and what resources have been allocated to ensure that as many businesses as possible sign up to the code? Will the Education Act be enforced so that parents who do not send their kids to school will be prosecuted?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Braitling for his question. The voluntary ‘no school/no service’ policy has been talked about in Alice Springs. Work will commence immediately on that policy. That is something we will have to incorporate with the Chamber of Commerce and the business community of Alice Springs. I welcome your input and the input of other Alice Springs’ members into the policy.
In terms of the Education Act, I am obviously not full throttle on that. If you do not mind, I will hand that to the Education minister, regarding what legislative requirements we need to strengthen.
Mr HENDERSON (Education and Training): Madam Speaker, attendance is critical. We are participating in a trial with the Commonwealth government regarding quarantining welfare payments of parents who do not send their kids to school. That is a trial in place at the moment.
I have also asked the department to bring forward other options in ensuring parents send their kids to school on a regular basis. There is a range of policy options we could be adopting. We are trialling the quarantine of welfare payments, which has not occurred anywhere else in Australia to date. I am committed to seeing the parents live up to their responsibilities to their children by ensuring their kids go to school on a regular basis.
There will be further work in this space. We are participating very willingly - in fact it was the Territory government which called on the Commonwealth government to have a trial on quarantining welfare payments. I have asked the department to bring forward options for other measures.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016