Mr MILLS - 2003-02-26
According to the ABS figures released today, the total number of Territory kids in schools fell from 36 966 in 2001 to 36 674 in 2002, which is a drop of 292 students. This includes a drop in the number of indigenous students in both primary and secondary schools. Minister, is this a further concrete sign that our population is in decline since your government came to power?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it would be a brave call to draw a comparison between the indigenous figures in schools and what the state of the level of the population might be at any one stage. If the member for Blain was able to visit, as I have done over many years, Aboriginal communities - and much more recently as the Minister for Education. I do not know that you can actually always put a lot of store on what you see when you turn up there as the minister, because there is a long lead time. They know you are coming, and you get the absolute best picture on a location when you arrive there as the minister.
In my own electorate, in years past, I have seen more teachers in some of these Aboriginal schools than I have students. I have seen more students between the airport and the community council office or the school, than I saw within the school itself. So I would be very, very careful about drawing any analogy between what is happening with the Territory population based on what is going on in our rural schools.
This question of population has certainly been an issue since the ABS put their hand up last week. I was interested to see the head of ABS, as I thought she was bound to do, write a letter to the editor published in the NT News, saying very clearly how long they have been doing their job, and they stand by their findings. Nonetheless, from my personal experience and evidence I have - both anecdotal and on the ground in my electorate over the years - that said that the census had been taken out, it is a very, very problematic question. The more rural and the more remote the locality and the community that the census is carried out in, the less reliable the figures.
ABS themselves talk about the difficulties that they have in these remote localities. There is a long way to go on this question of population, but I would be very careful of drawing analogies, which the member for Blain seems to be doing.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Question Paper.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it would be a brave call to draw a comparison between the indigenous figures in schools and what the state of the level of the population might be at any one stage. If the member for Blain was able to visit, as I have done over many years, Aboriginal communities - and much more recently as the Minister for Education. I do not know that you can actually always put a lot of store on what you see when you turn up there as the minister, because there is a long lead time. They know you are coming, and you get the absolute best picture on a location when you arrive there as the minister.
In my own electorate, in years past, I have seen more teachers in some of these Aboriginal schools than I have students. I have seen more students between the airport and the community council office or the school, than I saw within the school itself. So I would be very, very careful about drawing any analogy between what is happening with the Territory population based on what is going on in our rural schools.
This question of population has certainly been an issue since the ABS put their hand up last week. I was interested to see the head of ABS, as I thought she was bound to do, write a letter to the editor published in the NT News, saying very clearly how long they have been doing their job, and they stand by their findings. Nonetheless, from my personal experience and evidence I have - both anecdotal and on the ground in my electorate over the years - that said that the census had been taken out, it is a very, very problematic question. The more rural and the more remote the locality and the community that the census is carried out in, the less reliable the figures.
ABS themselves talk about the difficulties that they have in these remote localities. There is a long way to go on this question of population, but I would be very careful of drawing analogies, which the member for Blain seems to be doing.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Question Paper.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016