Mr McCARTHY - 2008-11-26
The Leader of the Opposition has said publicly that he does not support the government’s policy of teaching in English for the first four hours of each school day in all Territory schools. Can you inform the Assembly what Aboriginal Territorians have been saying to her about the policy?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Barkly. I acknowledge the former member for Nhulunbuy, who was also the former minister for Education.
I am very surprised with the CLP – well, it is not surprising, because the member for Braitling says that if the CLP was in government they would completely remove anything to do with Indigenous language and culture from the framework. The member for Braitling has one position, and the Leader of the Opposition has another. It just shows that they do not have any consistency in their position or policy.
As I said on this subject, since we have announced this policy …
Members interjecting.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: They are excited little bunnies every Question Time, Madam Speaker.
This has been a very contentious policy. People, particularly on the ground in our remote Aboriginal communities, are, for the first time, having a debate about education, because it needed to come to the point where people started focusing on what was important in children’s education. Talking to Aboriginal teachers, linguists and everyone in the schools there is one side to this debate, and then there is the broader community in which many Aboriginal parents, when you sit down and talk to them, will say: ‘We want our children to learn English. Our job is to teach our kids, and reaffirm and ensure that language and culture is maintained in our communities’.
We have all heard that on this side of the House. When you talk to parents, and you sit down with families and communities, people genuinely want their children to be part of and to get a good education.
I will quote from a Central Australian Indigenous woman, Bess Price. Everyone on this side of the House knows Bess quite well and her advocacy of this. She says she fully supports our decision to have all our kids taught in English in the first part of the school day:
That perfectly captures the point of our policy. The opposition, and particularly their leader, has to ask themselves why their leader would oppose people like Bess Price. It just does not make sense. The Opposition Leader, and his band of merry men and ladies, is simply confirming the fact that they oppose everything. He is a knocker, he is negative, and he does not listen.
The government believes urgent action has to be taken in this area and the results demand action. We have fresh ideas. In the interests of transparency …
Members interjecting.
Mr Mills: You are a joke.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms SCRYMGOUR: You are a joke. You have been a joke all along, because you do not know.
In the interests of transparency, I table material from the Department of Education and Training which clearly shows – because this has been the debate, in terms of evidence - how I made my decision. The Leader of the Opposition has form on this – this is the same as doctoring and looking at a form. This is the data. It is for bilingual schools in the Northern Territory.
Mr Mills: Is that the ACER report?
Ms SCRYMGOUR: The Leader of the Opposition is talking about a completely different thing. This is the evidence. This is the data which has come out of the department which gets validated by ASA. It clearly shows that we have problems in our bilingual schools. The Leader of the Opposition can have a look at this, so I would like to table this data, Madam Speaker.
As the diagram shows, as part of Transforming Indigenous Education, the four hours in English we are talking about is only part of a comprehensive policy development aimed at improving education outcomes for Indigenous children.
Madam Speaker, I table the policy development paper. I urge all members opposite to reconsider your leader’s position and support this government’s policy in moving forward to provide a quality education system for Indigenous kids out in the bush.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Barkly. I acknowledge the former member for Nhulunbuy, who was also the former minister for Education.
I am very surprised with the CLP – well, it is not surprising, because the member for Braitling says that if the CLP was in government they would completely remove anything to do with Indigenous language and culture from the framework. The member for Braitling has one position, and the Leader of the Opposition has another. It just shows that they do not have any consistency in their position or policy.
As I said on this subject, since we have announced this policy …
Members interjecting.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: They are excited little bunnies every Question Time, Madam Speaker.
This has been a very contentious policy. People, particularly on the ground in our remote Aboriginal communities, are, for the first time, having a debate about education, because it needed to come to the point where people started focusing on what was important in children’s education. Talking to Aboriginal teachers, linguists and everyone in the schools there is one side to this debate, and then there is the broader community in which many Aboriginal parents, when you sit down and talk to them, will say: ‘We want our children to learn English. Our job is to teach our kids, and reaffirm and ensure that language and culture is maintained in our communities’.
We have all heard that on this side of the House. When you talk to parents, and you sit down with families and communities, people genuinely want their children to be part of and to get a good education.
I will quote from a Central Australian Indigenous woman, Bess Price. Everyone on this side of the House knows Bess quite well and her advocacy of this. She says she fully supports our decision to have all our kids taught in English in the first part of the school day:
- The whitefellas’ job is to teach our kids English as a second language. We want them to be able to speak to the whole world and the whole world speaks English.
Our job is to teach our own language as a first language. Nobody else can do that for us.
That perfectly captures the point of our policy. The opposition, and particularly their leader, has to ask themselves why their leader would oppose people like Bess Price. It just does not make sense. The Opposition Leader, and his band of merry men and ladies, is simply confirming the fact that they oppose everything. He is a knocker, he is negative, and he does not listen.
The government believes urgent action has to be taken in this area and the results demand action. We have fresh ideas. In the interests of transparency …
Members interjecting.
Mr Mills: You are a joke.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms SCRYMGOUR: You are a joke. You have been a joke all along, because you do not know.
In the interests of transparency, I table material from the Department of Education and Training which clearly shows – because this has been the debate, in terms of evidence - how I made my decision. The Leader of the Opposition has form on this – this is the same as doctoring and looking at a form. This is the data. It is for bilingual schools in the Northern Territory.
Mr Mills: Is that the ACER report?
Ms SCRYMGOUR: The Leader of the Opposition is talking about a completely different thing. This is the evidence. This is the data which has come out of the department which gets validated by ASA. It clearly shows that we have problems in our bilingual schools. The Leader of the Opposition can have a look at this, so I would like to table this data, Madam Speaker.
As the diagram shows, as part of Transforming Indigenous Education, the four hours in English we are talking about is only part of a comprehensive policy development aimed at improving education outcomes for Indigenous children.
Madam Speaker, I table the policy development paper. I urge all members opposite to reconsider your leader’s position and support this government’s policy in moving forward to provide a quality education system for Indigenous kids out in the bush.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016