2004-08-26
Madam Speaker Braham took the Chair at 10 am.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, we have visitors in the gallery today wearing beautiful bright uniforms. These are Wagaman Primary School students participating in the Boys in Education Program, accompanied by Gary Fry. On behalf of honourable members, I extend to you a warm welcome.
Members: Hear, hear!
Madam SPEAKER: Members, following resolution of the ministerial statement yesterday, we need to send a transcript of the debate to Canberra quickly. I would appreciate if you would convey corrections to the Daily Hansard to the Hansard Unit by the end of the day, please.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, this morning I rise to talk about the Festival of Darwin.
It is appropriate to provide a report to the House because it is disappointing that support for the festival has not been given by the opposition. In fact, the Leader of the Opposition issued a media release saying, and I quote from the release:
I believe this year’s festival showcases some of the very best of Territory talent in the arts. The opening night of the Darwin Festival, 12 August, was a huge night with a turnout of around 6000 for the annual free Santos concert on the Esplanade.
At Kultura, over 40 local community and school groups performed with an audience of about 4500 attending throughout the afternoon and evening.
Local involvement has been huge. Tin Hotel, which doubled box-office expectations, was a truly local production on the playhouse stage in Darwin with local music, scripts, direction, and acting, a first for Darwin Theatre Company at that venue. I went on the closing night, Saturday, and I would say there must have been close to 700 there. It was a wonderful night. I was told that, in all, about 2500 people saw Tin Hotel in its four days plus matinee run.
Local media coverage of the festival has been excellent with ABC 105.7, Mix 104.9, Top FM, NT News, Darwin and Palmerston Sun, TEABBA Radio and Larakia Radio all covering the events.
Responses from indigenous communities regarding the high level of indigenous involvement this year have been extremely positive. This is supported by festival goers who have said they believe that Traditional Indigenous Dance is an opportunity to see important cultural performances not often available in Darwin. Shows have been selling well and the new Star Shell venue at the Botanic Gardens is proving to be very popular.
There has been good collaboration between the local community and international visited including Purna Das Baul, and the Indian community and Sri Lankan visitors collaborating with TRACKS Dance for Snakes, Gods and Deities.
Let me go through a list of the local events and groups involved in the Darwin Festival: Kultura, featuring local community groups and schools; the Santos Concert on the Esplanade featuring three prominent local groups; Traditional Indigenous Dance featuring indigenous groups from the Top End; Yilila Concert, a group of talented Territory musicians; the Northern Territory Indigenous Music awards showcasing the Territory’s best and finest musicians; Black Music Bright Future, the local indigenous musicians studying at Charles Darwin University; Outside and Over the Top presented by Corrugated Iron Youth Arts; Tin Hotel, as I mentioned, by the Darwin Theatre Company; Surviving Jonah Salt, presented by the local Knock’em Down Theatre Company in collaboration with the Just Us Theatre Company from Cairns; as I said, Snakes, Gods and Deities from TRACKS Dance; Streets of Dance from the local Ausdance group; Urban Village Cultured Beats, presented by the Cultural Village of the Northern Territory; NT Music Festival, presenting local Northern Territory musical talent; Tunas Mekar Balinese Collective, presented by the Darwin-based Balinese collective; Fire In Your Belly presented by locals in collaboration with two interstate performers; Splendour of Yue Ju presented by the Darwin Cantonese group in conjunction with the Hong Kong Phoenix Opera Troupe, Iolanthe from OperatuNiTy, a Darwin company; Australian Central’s Teddy Bears Picnic; Music NT workshops; Masters of Ceremony workshop; belly dancing and African drumming workshop; the 21st Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award; Art Gallery Openings bus tour; Sculpture in the Park; and Galuku Gallery. That is a mouth full of local performance and local talent.
In addition, our Darwin Festival has attracted national media attention confirming Darwin as an exciting tourist destination. Both SBS and Radio National travelled to Darwin for the festival and they ran outside broadcasts from the Botanic Gardens. There has also been positive media coverage by the Financial Review and The Australian.
The Darwin Festival has received an immense amount of assistance from 50 local volunteers who have given up much of their free time to help in the Mitchell Street information centre, to assist at the Star Shell and the festival club, conducting market research surveys selling T-shirts and numerous other tasks.
The Festival of Darwin is a wonderful celebration of our local community and culture. To all the organisers, volunteers, community groups, schools, artists, and art organisations who participated, you are to be congratulated for a wonderful and unique Darwin festival.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I, too, congratulate the organisers and all participants. It has been an activity that Territorians have enjoyed. The principal point, however, is that the opportunity that has been afforded to community groups, such as our students up there in the gallery, in times past and students in our school communities across the Top End of the Northern Territory to focus on this festival and to actively play a part by way of the community parade is indicative of the change of focus of this festival.
That has, Chief Minister, whether you can hear it or not, raised concern within our community. The purpose of arts festivals is to strengthen and raise the capacity within our own local community to be engaged in community arts.
That has been the issue raised by the arts community themselves, that by the demise of such activities as the community parade, it could be revamped, it could reformed, but it provides the very best means whereby the wider community can have access to this community festival. Otherwise, we end up in a situation where it is basically entertainment for the masses with some token involvement from locals so that we feel that we are involved, but not at the level that has been enjoyed in the past.
I accept that there has been a significant increase in funding. I accept that the direction and focus of this festival has changed. You will need to accept, Chief Minister, whether you like it or not, that has not received overwhelming support within the arts community.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, it is disappointing. I read out a very long list of local involvement in this festival. The Opposition Leader said schools have been excluded. Kultura, a Sunday afternoon event involving our local schools and our local community, was attended by 4500 Territorians, a great success. To hear to the opposition leader bag the committee that is running this very fine festival is very disappointing. The decisions made are made carefully. They are made to ensure that our festival is dynamic, is meeting community needs and, very critically, involving our community.
I want to put proudly on the record that they have done a terrific job this year. Our community has participated more than ever before. To bag them about an idea that stuck in your head is very disappointing.
Mr HENDERSON (Defence Support): Madam Speaker, this report is to advise the House of a new partnership agreement between Charles Darwin University and government to identify skills requirements to enable business in the Territory to capitalise on defence expenditure.
The Department of Business Industry and Resource Development and Charles Darwin University, in consultation with the Department of Employment, Education and Training and the Northern Territory branch of ADIN have created a schedule to the CDU-Northern Territory government partnership agreement that aims to help grow the defence support industry capability of the Northern Territory.
The Defence White Paper 2000, the Defence Capability Plan 2004-14 and the Forward Defence Sector Development Plans for Ship Building and Repair, Electronics, Aerospace, and Land and Weapons Sectors have created a framework of both opportunities and demands for the Northern Territory’s defence support industry.
Just three outputs of the Defence Capability Plan alone will result in three new major defence platforms being based in the Territory within the next two years. These platforms are the Armidale class patrol boats; the Tiger armed reconnaissance helicopters and the Abrahams tank, which will all require through-life support and repairs and maintenance to be provided for at least 15 years. The collective value of the through-life support activities related to these platforms could exceed $135m a year.
In addition, the Commonwealth has entered into an agreement with the US government to develop the Delamere bombing range and the Bradshaw Field Training area as components of the US-Australia Defence Joint Training initiative.
These and other developments in the defence sector will create work force demands in the Northern Territory for highly skilled people in respect of existing and new technologies. In recognition, the Department of Business, Industry and Resource Development and CDU have created a schedule to the CDU-Northern Territory Government Partnership Agreement. It aims to help grow our defence support industry to maximise economic and community benefit to the Territory from engagement in the major defence activities and projects being based or evolving in the Territory over the next 15 years.
The first step planned is to commission through the Australian Industry Defence Network, AIDN NT, an industry-endorsed quantitative assessment of the potential demand for skilled labour, including professionals, by vocation, number required and year expected to arise from current and emerging defence projects over the next 10 years.
The aim is to tailor training courses to meet Defence support industry requirements and map infrastructure needs to develop industry-endorsed VET training. The linkages between the needs of the Defence Force industry and existing and emerging local industries will be investigated and mapped.
The schedule has been created in recognition of the skill shortage in the engineering sector, which is a barrier to supporting existing and new Defence platforms in the Territory and attracting new Defence activities. The schedule, approved by the CDU-NTG Partnership Agreement Peak Group, has a current focus on undergraduate engineering studies.
The department also has two longer term ambitions. The first is to establish a defence support industry Engineering Masters level study program sponsored by key industry players with the aim of increasing the local engineering gene pool and the local industry’s reputation with Defence and Defence Primes interstate. The second is to explore whether a Defence Industry Science and Technology Centre of Excellence could be established in the Territory, which will focus on niche areas of research and technology such as electro-optic engineering, which is not currently addressed elsewhere in Australia.
I congratulate everyone involved in this, Madam Speaker. It has been a very considered project. It demonstrates the value of the CDU-Northern Territory Government Partnership Agreement. I congratulate the ADIN NT executive and branch, which has really put its shoulder to the wheel assisting government and my department in building this schedule. It goes to show that the Territory is a can-do place and that business and industry recognise that businesses in the Territory need to be world class to gain these Defence contracts.
I hope that the Commonwealth sees sense about the DIDS contract and puts a hold on this for a couple of years to allow Territory businesses to get up to the mark. Many of them are already world standard, but we can grow even more. The efforts being put in by ADIN NT and my department to understand those skills requirements and grow them is a great effort and I congratulate all those involved.
Mr BURKE (Brennan): Madam Speaker, first, I warmly welcome the report. One cannot possibly address it in the time available. I am sure he would agree that I have always wanted to work in a bipartisan way on these issues, and I have alerted this House of the possibilities of the Defence build-up and the opportunities it brings to the Northern Territory.
It is very pleasing to see this new initiative, particularly coming through from Charles Darwin University. It is focussed on the opportunities for business, and that is right, and I, too, congratulate ADIN and the efforts they have made in alerting a whole range of agencies and areas as to the particular circumstances of the Northern Territory.
To involve Charles Darwin University in the way the minister is describing is absolutely superb. It gives an opportunity to build some real capacity in the Northern Territory that can influence Defence thinking in a whole range of areas, not only particular businesses and particular contracts.
I will give you one example. More and more, the logistics system in Defence will be depending on prime contractors who are using civilian operators. Those operators will require, in many respects, to deploy to support the operational base, particularly in training. To get them to deploy properly will require reservists who are freed up from work to deploy. One of the things that we can be leading Australia on, for example, is finding ways whereby the NT government can describe employment opportunities for apprentices working in Defence, being reservists and particularly supplied with capacity to deploy on operations. That will be the way of the future, and that is one area where Charles Darwin could be involved with industry in developing those initiatives.
I do not have the time to talk about it. I hope the minister presents a statement at the next sittings because I would like to discuss this further. I am sure, with him, we can come up with some interesting ideas that will help in this area, and I thank him for his report.
Mr HENDERSON (Defence Support): Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Brennan for his support for this initiative. I do recognise that he has enormous experience in this area and bipartisan support for the ADF in the Territory is fantastic for our Defence forces.
Specifically, in regard to apprenticeships and the capacity for apprenticeships to work across the sector, and potentially to be deployed in operational areas, the private sector is not alone with its skills shortage in the blue collar trade areas. Talking to regimental people at Robertson Barracks, they have real problems recruiting and retaining skilled tradespeople. It is not only an issue for the private sector; it is an issue for our Defence forces as well. Hopefully, together with the private sector and CDU, we can start meeting those demands. I thank the member for Brennan for his support.
Mr STIRLING (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, I rise to bring the House up to date on the extensive community consultation program conducted in respect of the outcomes of the Secondary Education Report. The government decided very early that the recommendations of this review would be subject to extensive community discussion before any final decisions were made.
The consultancy to lead the Territory-wide community consultation strategy was awarded to SOCOM NT. The Chairman of SOCOM, Ms Sheila O’Sullivan, is a nationally renowned community engagement expert, and a three-phase community consultation process, which commenced in May, has just been completed.
Phase 1 involved parents, educators, professional associations, youth workers, business and industry participating in workshops held in the Territory’s regional centres. One hundred and forty-eight people representing 109 stakeholder groups participated in phase 1. Twenty remote communities were also represented. Workshop participants discussed the issues, the proposals and the outcomes of the report, and were given tools, including a Reader’s Guide to the Secondary Education Report to assist them to facilitate discussion of the report’s proposal within their school or local community in phase 2 of the process.
A simple survey was also distributed to encourage feedback. Both the reader’s guide and the survey were made available on the Priority Education web site, as was the full secondary report and the Executive Summary. Two information nights were held in Darwin and Alice Springs. Over 100 people attended the Darwin event at Sanderson, and approximately 60 attended the evening in Alice Springs. Two hundred and fifty educators, half of them indigenous from remote communities in Central Australia, attending the Remote Schools Conference at the end of July spent a significant proportion of time providing feedback on the secondary report.
At a student forum hosted by DEET Chief Executive, Peter Plummer, 27 students engaged in discussion around the report’s proposals. Consultation visits to a number of remote indigenous communities were also conducted. Principals of remote schools were provided with story boards depicting the report’s main proposals for remote communities to use to inform their local communities and seek feedback.
Phase 3 of the program: nominated spokespersons from each interest group involved in Phase 2 discussions represented the views of their constituents in public discussion forums. Members of the public were able to attend, listen to the discussion and complete individual response sheets that formed part of the feedback. They were conducted in early August across the regional centres. They were well attended; over 260 people representing a range of stakeholders participated in the audience and on panels.
In addition, a number of other mechanisms were in place to enable the community to provide feedback. These included: telephone hotline, priority education e-mail address, the priority education web site with on-line feedback forms and the option of mailing or faxing written comments or a survey response. Over 370 responses were received through these mechanisms; all of which have been forwarded to SOCOM NT for consideration.
We have not wavered from our commitment to listen to the views of Territorians before deciding what shape the outcomes will take. When we make a commitment to consult and listen, we mean it.
The rumour-mongering and the false assumptions that have emerged during this debate do not do either the opposition or those who are perpetuating the stories any credit. It does not shift us from our determination to listen to all of the groups involved here, although, sometimes, these false assumptions circulating do try one’s patience. For example, the deployment of DEET staff on a modelling exercise to look at the real impact of some of the recommendations of the review has been perceived as an effort by DEET and the government to lock in an outcome. Nothing could be further from the truth; it was simply a way of fleshing out what was pretty conceptual in the report into something tangible that people could get their heads around. It was all about modelling and testing a concept in the recommendations.
Travel by department staff to South Australia was seen as a conspiracy whereas, in fact, three staff went there to make a formal contribution to the South Australian Certificate of Education Review that is being carried out in conjunction with our own review and to meet with the SSABSA Board, the people who administer Years 11 and 12 certificates in South Australia and the NT. They visited the South Australian Open Access College at the same time to have a look at those operations. At no stage were any of the recommendations or joint arrangements discussed.
None of those activities provide any indication of the intentions of the government in regards to the secondary report. It is wide open. The government has made no decision at all. I await the Sheila O’Sullivan Report with great interest.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, for a minister to report on such a significant issue and give me two minutes to respond is very unreasonable. If the minister had something to say on the secondary review, it should be a full debate; not a five minute report.
He talked about extensive consultation. Well, the three phases of the consultation were restricted to selected people only. The only time that the public felt fully consulted was in Alice Springs when I wrote to every school, faxed and e-mailed them, and invited groups such as AEU, COGSO and independent schools to contribute to an information night. It was only during this session that people got fair information. The rest of the time, if I were to objectively assess what happened through SOCOM, it was more like push-polling. The Reader’s Guide was written in a way that created motherhood statements. You could not disagree with anything in the Reader’s Guide. You could not disagree with anything in the surveys. You could not! They were all simple: ‘Do you want good outcomes for your school children?’ Of course you do! We all do. ‘Do you want good schools?’ Of course we want good schools. ‘Do you want to have good teachers?’ Of course we want to have good teachers! Those are not questions to which anyone can object.
I have attended many sessions across the Territory, and the general reaction to the whole consultation process has been hostile. I am really disappointed that the government has decided to gloss over all this. There are hostile reactions out there. The AEU has said to the minister: ‘Get rid of the report; it is a waste of time’. Even COGSO has given only mild support for the report.
Minister, bring on the debate. Do not do it in a five minute report. Bring on the debate and talk it through properly. As regards rumour-mongering, you are the one who started it all by sitting on it.
Mr STIRLING (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, I will be brief in reply. Just a little more of the posturing from the opposition …
Madam SPEAKER: Order, minister! The member for Nelson has the call.
Mr STIRLING: Sorry, member for Nelson. I am a bit excited.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Thank you, minister. I will probably help you get a bit more excited because I, too, have concerns.
I have been contacted by students from the Open Education College who believe the process of consultation was more about being led rather than listened to and they felt that their view points were not accurately recorded. I believe the minister will have a letter to that effect.
I held a public meeting in the rural area. One of the reasons I held that meeting was to get it outside of these restrictive guidelines that were imposed. I am not saying that they do not have a use, but I did find that it allowed people to talk about issues out of that restrictive process. The only problem is the public servants, and I thank the minister for allowing those public servants to come, could not debate anything. They could tell you, but they could not debate.
One of the difficulties we have, and I would like the minister to say whether teachers and principals, for instance, could be released from public service requirements not to speak to politicians. How am I, as a politician, supposed to ask a principal what he thinks about it, a person who works in the system, or a teacher?
Members interjecting.
Mr WOOD: No, not through the union, not through an association, but to ask those people who deal on the ground with these issues. I am not an expert on education. I need those people who deal with education day by day, to be able to talk to them, to learn from them and to be able to provide reasoned input into this debate.
Minister, it has been too restrictive. It needs to be broader. I ask you to take on board those considerations.
Mr STIRLING (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, just briefly in reply: nothing in the Public Sector Employment and Management Act prevents staff or principals attending these forums and having input the same as everyone else. They can have their views as an educator the same as everybody else.
Let’s have a look at a bit of the posturing from the opposition: on 15 April, opposition welcomes review of secondary education. ‘Wide ranging…comprehensive…commend the authors for their hard work’. The next day, Mr Mills:
So he is urging more time, Madam Speaker, by saying we must not rush into it. Here we go to June and Dr Lim:
Who is talking to whom over there? We need more time from the Leader of the Opposition, but the spokesperson for education said we have to get out there and act and put an end to this paranoia.
Then we get to August, as recently as August: Mr Mills:
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
Mr STIRLING: Get your act together, you blokes! You do not know what you are talking about.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, I am sure that we will have quite a debate when you deliver your statement this afternoon.
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Family and Community Services): Madam Speaker, I am pleased to announce today the signing of five Memoranda of Understanding with non-government organisations for the welfare recovery phase of counter-disaster management in the Northern Territory.
The Northern Territory is no stranger to disasters and emergencies. The Department of Health and Community Services and non-government organisations have responded magnificently to such events as cyclones, the Katherine floods, events in East Timor, and most recently, the Bali bombings.
Within the terms of the Regional Counter-Disaster Plan, the department is responsible for coordination of welfare recovery services across the Northern Territory and calls upon the services of non-government organisations to provide specialist help and additional resources.
The Memoranda of Understanding will formalise actions that have already been taking place with non-government organisations and expand agreements to include details of response capabilities to some rural and remote areas of the Northern Territory. Development of the MOUs saves time and effort during a declared disaster or emergency by having the details of planned reporting structures and protocols worked out at times when there is no current threat to our community. By developing these Memoranda of Understanding, the department has increased the counter-disaster management preparedness of all parties so that we can respond more quickly and efficiently when an emergency is declared.
It gives me great pleasure to advise the House that the Memoranda of Understanding will be signed today, and I acknowledge the presence in the Gallery of the CEOs from the following non-government organisations:
Major Kelvin Merrit from the Salvation Army who is responsible for coordinating transportation, support and provision of clothing. The Salvation Army is well known throughout Australia for its support of the homeless and provision of care for those most needy in our community;
In addition to this, Red Cross provides services to the aged and many other practical supports to our population.
The Territory can proudly boast a strong non-government sector that is in a position to take on disaster recovery. It is these people working alongside government employees who rise to the challenges presented by any disaster that affects our community.
Disasters are usually of a nature that provide little warning or time for preparation. The impact of disaster on people involves effective practical support and more intensive trauma response for individuals and communities. Many communities need support to mobilise and tackle the impact of a disaster, and this can include such impact as loss of life or a threat to our sense of community.
I note the skills and coordination required to provide such recovery support and commend the commitment by these non-government organisations to participate in joint disaster recovery training run by the Northern Territory. I know that the work of these non-government organisations earn them great respect from Emergency Service workers such as Police, Fire and Emergency Services who deal with the immediate disaster response.
The logistics of managing the impact of a disaster on the community requires a high level of expertise, creativity and compassion. Each of the non-government organisations represented in the memoranda have demonstrated ongoing skill and generosity in their commitment to supporting Territorians through any disasters in addition to the significant skill and compassion demonstrated in their every day roles.
Madam Speaker, these are important MOUs; they ensure that our response is in line with national standards of disaster recovery. I thank all those here today for the ongoing work and support they provide, and congratulate all involved on the signing of the MOUs.
Members: Hear, hear!
Ms CARTER (Port Darwin): Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for her report and congratulate all those organisations that have signed memoranda.
Territorians watch with pride whenever we have a disaster, and one of the things that gives us great pride is the way that we all work together to assist people from overseas, for example the people from Timor, or our local loved ones, for example the victims of the Bali bombings. We see the way our non-government organisations rise to the challenge. It is great to hear of the signing of these Memoranda of Understanding by the Salvation Army, Anglicare, the Council of Churches, the Employee Assistance Scheme and Red Cross. I congratulate the minister and government on this step.
However, in the short time I have to respond to the report, I hope that non-government organisations in the NT are rewarded for their commitment to the Territory and their offers of assistance to the NT government by being adequately funded by the government to meet their ongoing costs.
We are all well aware of the fact that most non-government organisations, each year from the government, receive funding that equates to their usual funding plus CPI. Many of these organisations now struggle financially to cope with issues such as increasing wages, increasing insurance and increasing rents. I hope the government listens carefully to their calls for financial assistance because memoranda of understanding are all very well, but if the organisations with whom you hold them are struggling financially, they will not be able to meet the needs which we are all hopeful that they can meet.
Madam SPEAKER: Ministerial Report time has expired.
Reports noted pursuant to Sessional Order.
Bill presented and read a first time.
Dr TOYNE (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
The Martin Labor government has a clear and long-standing commitment to reducing the harm that drugs cause in the Territory community, including that caused by the misuse of prescription drugs. As part of this commitment, shortly after we came to office, we set up a task force on illicit drugs.
In 2002, the final report of the Task Force on Illicit Drugs made a number of recommendations to tighten up the control of prescription drugs, including:
In particular, the bill refines the amendments concerning Schedule 8 and Restricted Schedule 4 substances passed by the Legislative Assembly in August 2003 by:
First, the amending act has established a Schedule 8 and Restricted Schedule 4 Substances Clinical Advisory Committee formerly known as the Clinical Advisory Committee that will oversee policy matters, the guidelines and the actual supply of these substances. It will also deal with difficult patient issues and provide expert advice to the Chief Health Officer on all matters relating to Schedule 8 and Restricted Schedule 4 substances.
Madam Speaker, to make the function of this committee more efficient, it is proposed to amend the act. The current provisions for the committee allow for a quorum of three members. This is insufficient for a membership of 11 people. It is proposed that the quorum be defined as the chairperson plus not less that one-third of the appointed members. It is also proposed that a co-chairperson be appointed to the committee, and for provision to be made for the Chief Health Officer to appoint any person with suitable expertise as the chairperson, than rather restricting this to the Chief Poisons Inspector.
The committee will meet three or four times a year only, unless urgent matters arise. Under the amending act, medical practitioners are obliged to obtain an authorisation from the Chief Health Officer and the committee before supplying restricted Schedule 8 substances such as buprenorphine and methadone. In practice, this means that every patient who needs pharmacotherapy would have to wait until the next committee meeting. It is therefore proposed that the Chief Health Officer be allowed to grant these authorisations where prescribed conditions are fulfilled so that timely commencement on these programs can take place.
Another important function of the committee is to provide expert advice to the Chief Health Officer. The bill will provide a statement to clarify that if the committee does not agree on certain matters, a majority decision will be submitted to the Chief Health Officer. However, ultimate responsibility for decisions will remain with the Chief Health Officer.
The second area of consideration in the bill is the guidelines. The minister currently issues them and it is proposed that they remain at ministerial level. Presently, they include matters relating to restricted Schedule 8 substances - buprenorphine and methadone - but they should be extended to include all Schedule 8 and Restricted Schedule 4 substances as well.
The next area to be addressed concerns issues related to the supply of Schedule 8 substances. Under the current and amending acts, some details concerning the supply of Schedule 8 substances are grouped under Prescribed Matters and are included in the regulations. Prescribed Matters include, for example, the time frame and particulars that must be provided to the Chief Health Officer when a Schedule 8 substance is supplied, or the circumstances in which the Chief Health Officer may grant a doctor an authorisation to supply a restricted Schedule 8 substance. Other similar matters are to be declared by notice in the Gazette; for example, the approved number of patients for whom a doctor may prescribe Schedule 8 substances.
It is more appropriate to include these and others matters in the ministerial guidelines rather than the regulations and gazettal notices. The guidelines can then provide a coherent, detailed and comprehensive regulatory framework that is more accessible to health practitioners, and which allows for more timely revision of the regulatory framework.
The guidelines cover all aspects of supply of these substances including the prescribed conditions for routine authorisations, conditions imposed on authorisations, requirements for notifications, periods of supply of substances, and administrative procedures. The Chief Health Officer and committee will advise the minister concerning the guidelines. The bill addresses this issue. It follows, then, that all supply of Schedule 8 and Restricted Schedule 4 substances occur in accordance with the guidelines, and that failure to comply with the guidelines is declared an offence under the act.
The legislation specifies that a prescription of a Schedule 8 substance will be valid for only two months unless otherwise specified by the guidelines. This will limit the potential for over-supply and diversion. Under the amending act, a mandatory notification system for Schedule 8 substances has been introduced, resulting in every prescription being subject to notification and unnecessary paperwork for doctors. Notification should occur in certain circumstances; for example, if a medication is prescribed for a long period of time. The proposed bill will provide for notification according to the guidelines, which will provide a regulatory framework for that supply.
When the amending act was drafted, the reference to supply for the treatment of addiction was removed. The statement prohibiting the supply of Schedule 8 substances for the treatment of addiction unless authorised by the Chief Health Officer needs to be reinstated to ensure that doctors are aware of the types of substances that may or may not be supplied for the treatment of addiction and under what circumstances. Exemptions from authorisations to supply a restricted Schedule 8 substance are sometimes necessary. In a hospital situation, for example, it may be imperative that these substances are supplied without delay in order to provide the best possible clinical care. The bill will allow the Chief Health Officer to declare, by notice in the Gazette, exemptions to the authorisation requirement in specific circumstances.
There are also a number of issues not addressed in the current act. All other Australian jurisdictions have legislative procedures to prevent health professionals prescribing potentially addictive substances to themselves. There is currently no legislation in the Northern Territory dealing with self-prescription. It is proposed that this issue be addressed in the amendments.
The Northern Territory is also the only jurisdiction in Australia that allows pharmacists to supply patients with Schedule 8 and Restricted Schedule 4 substances prescribed by interstate doctors. This bill requires that prescriptions for Schedule 8 and Restricted Schedule 4 substances may be dispensed only if they are written by doctors registered and practising in the Northern Territory. This will ensure that the supply of these substances remains within the Northern Territory regulatory framework and can be more closely monitored.
There is also the matter of disposal of Schedule 8 substances. Specific legislation dealing with witnessed and documented disposal is in force in all other Australian jurisdictions. This bill will provide for an appropriate disposal procedure for out of date and unwanted Schedule 8 substances.
Finally, the bill contains a number of housekeeping amendments which are considered necessary for the effective administration of the act. The general penalty clause was removed from the act by the amending act, which has left some sections without specific penalties for non-compliance. The insertion of penalties for offences is required before commencement of the amending act. In addition, all penalties have been reviewed to ensure there is consistency in penalties relating to imprisonment between the operating act and the act as amended, and with other acts such as the Misuse of Drugs Act.
Madam Speaker, this bill is an important and long overdue step towards implementing an effective control system for the supply and use of Schedule 8 substances in the Northern Territory. I commend the bill to honourable members.
Debate adjourned.
Bill presented and read a first time.
Mr HENDERSON (Police, Fire and Emergency Services): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
This bill creates mandatory registration and reporting obligations on adult child sex offenders. It also empowers a court with discretion to order the registration and reporting of juvenile child sex offenders in certain circumstances.
Obliging a sex offender to keep police informed of his or her personal information and movements for a period after their release into the community will assist in the investigation and prosecution of sex offences committed by recidivist offenders. It will also provide a deterrent against re-offending, assist in the monitoring of high risk offenders, provide a level of community protection, and assist police in the enforcement of a prohibition order where granted.
As members would be aware, child sex offences have a devastating impact on the innocent child abuse victim, their families and, ultimately, on the community in general. The national framework for the development of a complementary state and territory police-administered Child Protection Offender Registration Scheme was endorsed by the Australasian Police Ministers Council on 2 July 2003.
Similar legislation has existed in New South Wales since 2000. Furthermore, Queensland has a limited registration scheme, whilst Victoria introduced its bill in June this year. The Territory bill closely follows the Victorian legislation, however, it contains some important improvements over its Victorian counterpart. As an example, the bill includes the making of a child protection prohibition order against a reportable offender and allows for alternative reporting for remote offenders. In addition, it confines the proscribed offences to sexual offences committed against a child, but also includes the offences of murder and manslaughter where the victim is a child. A court may also order a person register and report for other offences if the court is satisfied the person poses a risk to the life or sexual safety of a child or to children generally.
There are more than 60 such schemes worldwide, including the United Kingdom, USA, Canada and New Zealand. Overseas studies point towards a shocking rate of recidivism by paedophiles and other serious sex offenders.
This bill will not be a panacea against child sex offences occurring again in the future, but it will make a difference. Some recidivist offenders acting on compulsion will, unfortunately, reoffend. However, by ensuring police have the person’s personal information and are aware of his or her movements, the investigation and prosecution of offences will be greatly enhanced. In many cases, ongoing monitoring by police will be a sufficient incentive for the person not to reoffend.
I now turn to the bill, which is in seven parts:
Part 1 provides the relevant definitions adopted in the bill.
Part 2 deals with identifying the classes of offender, known as ‘reportable offenders’. Reportable offenders will be obliged to register and report for the purposes of the bill. Essentially, there are three ways a person may become a reportable offender:
First, where the person is sentenced in the Territory on or after the commencement date for a prescribed Class 1 or Class 2 offence where the victim is a child. A person who is in government custody or is under the supervision of a supervising authority on the commencement date is also taken to be a reportable offender. A person is in government custody if the person is a prisoner or is a juvenile detained in a detention centre and includes a person under a supervision order made against the person because of their mental impairment.
The regulations may prescribe an authority having control of a person to be a supervising authority. As an example, the regulations will prescribe the Director of Correctional Services for people who are subject to a Home Detention Order or Community Work Order and people subject to a Good Behaviour Bond where a term of the order was that the person be under supervision.
Class 1 offences are serious offences such as sexual intercourse or gross indecency involving a child less than 16 years and include the offences of murder and manslaughter where the victim is a child.
Class 2 offences extend to indecent dealings with children and child pornography. As studies indicate, there are demonstrable links between these types of offences and child sexual offences.
Second, the court may, on or after the commencement date, make an Offender Reporting Order against a person, including a juvenile, if the person is found guilty of an offence that is not a Class 1 or Class 2 offence. I should add that the court also has the discretion to make an Offender Reporting Order against a juvenile for a Class 1 or Class 2 offence. The court, however, may only make these orders if the court is satisfied the juvenile possesses a risk to the sexual safety of children or of children generally.
Finally, a person may become a reportable offender if the person committed a reportable offence in another jurisdiction before or after the commencement date. ‘Another jurisdiction’ includes an overseas jurisdiction. It is regardless whether the person is obliged to report to the corresponding Registrar in the place where the offence was committed.
As I previously alluded, the primary trigger for becoming a reportable offender is that the person has been sentenced for a reportable offence. The word ‘sentence’ has been defined extensively to capture a wide range of penalties. A ‘sentence’ includes an order under section 53 of the Juvenile Justice Act, a supervision order under Division 5 of Part IIA of the Criminal Code Act in respect of a person who has been found not guilty of a reportable offence by reason of mental impairment and similar sentences, equivalent orders or undertakings imposed under the laws or a foreign jurisdiction.
Part 3 of the bill details a reportable offender’s reporting obligations, including the initial and annual reports and the power of the Supreme Court to exempt a person from his or her reporting obligations in certain circumstances.
The length of any reporting period is established by the class of offence. For instance, a Class 1 offence has a reporting period of 15 years, although where the person is sentenced for a further Class 1 offence, the period increases to life. On the other hand, if the offence was a Class 2 offence, the reporting period is eight years. This again increases to life if the person subsequently commits a Class 1 offence or two or more Class 2 offences.
An Offender Reporting Order is taken to be a Class 2 offence for the purposes of the bill. The reporting periods for juveniles are half of those applying to adults or, in the case of a reporting period for life, 7.5 years.
Notwithstanding these periods, a person may apply to the Supreme Court for an order exempting compliance with any of the reporting period if a period of 15 years has elapsed since the date of sentence excluding any periods in government custody. The Commissioner of Police together with other relevant government agencies are to be parties to the application.
Owing to the serious nature of the offences and the effect of section 78BB of the Sentencing Act, an offender will almost certainly serve a term of imprisonment. As a matter of commonsense, the requirement to register and report will not arise until after the person has been released from custody.
Initial reports are to be made in person but, depending on the prevailing circumstances, different time periods are specified for the giving of the initial report. The kinds of information required to be disclosed in the initial report include: the person’s name including any former names; the person’s residential address and any residential address under his or her former name; his or her date of birth; details of the reportable offender’s employment; details of his or her affiliations with any clubs or organisations that have child membership or child participation in its membership; details of any identifying marks or features of the reportable offender; and details of any children with whom he or she has regular unsupervised contact.
Despite the above matters, the reportable offender must also provide a passport-sized photograph of himself or herself for identification purposes. If, after a review of the information, the attending member receiving the report is not satisfied with the identity of the person, the member may require the reportable offender to provide a fingerprint or a finger scan.
In the event that the reportable offender’s personal circumstances change, the person must notify the Commissioner of Police of the changes within 14 days. It is an offence to fail to do so. It is also an offence for a reportable offender to not notify the Commissioner of Police of any travel arrangements or any changes to any travel arrangements outside of the Territory.
Besides the initial report, a reportable offender is to report his or her personal details to the Commissioner of Police on an annual basis. This report is similarly to be made in person, unless it is impracticable for the person to do so because the person is a child or has a disability. In those circumstances, the person may nominate another person to make the report for him or her.
Special arrangements apply to enable a remote reportable offender to comply with his or her obligations under the bill.
Owing to the imposition of statutory obligations on a reportable offender and the potential offences the person may incur for non-compliance, the Commissioner of Police is required to give the reportable offender written notice of his or her reporting obligations. The notice also summarises the consequences for failure to comply.
Part 4 of the bill provides that a Child Protection Offender Register must be established and maintained by the Commissioner of Police. Access to the register will be restricted. Additionally, a reportable offender’s personal information must not be disclosed unless authorised by the Commissioner of Police, or as otherwise required under any law or act for law enforcement purposes.
In view of the nature of the person’s information and the potential harm it could cause to the reportable offender, heavy penalties apply for any unauthorised access or use of the information. Moreover, in keeping with the principles established under the Information Act, a reportable offender may request access and correction rights to any information held on him or her in the register.
Part 5 of the bill gives the court the power to make a Child Protection Prohibition Order. A prohibition order is similar to a domestic violence order in that it prohibits the person from engaging in specified conduct. In determining whether to grant the order, the court must be satisfied the person poses a risk to the lives or sexual safety of one or more children, or of children generally, and that the making of the order may reduce the risk. For example, a prohibition order may be sought in the circumstances where the reportable offender was a convicted paedophile who intended becoming a member of an organisation or association that had child membership or child participation in its activities. In those circumstances, depending on the nature of the offence committed and the likelihood of the particular person re-offending, a prohibition order may be sought.
In cases where there is an immediate risk to children, a member of the police force may apply for an Interim Child Protection Order. Such an application may be made by telephone and will remain in place until confirmed or discontinued on the hearing of the application.
Prohibition orders remain in place for a period of five years or, in the case of juveniles, two years. However, there is nothing stopping the Commissioner of Police from seeking fresh orders if the reportable offender continues to pose an ongoing risk.
A court may vary or revoke a prohibition order on application by the Commissioner of Police or the reportable offender. Similarly, the commissioner or the reportable offender may appeal the court’s decision to make or dismiss an order under this part. All proceedings are heard in the absence of the public.
Part 6 of the bill provides that a reportable offender must not apply for or engage in child-related employment during the prohibited period set by the sentencing court or the reportable offender’s reporting period. The court may, on application, vary a prohibited period. The term ‘child-related employment’ is defined in the bill to include employment involving contact with children in a number of circumstances. The list is not exhaustive.
Finally, part 7 of the bill contains miscellaneous provisions to give effect to the bill. For example, it requires the Commissioner of Police to provide me, as minister for police, with an annual report in relation to the administration of the act, including the number of registered reportable offenders in the Territory, and of any orders made over the previous 12 months.
I am sure this bill will have the support of every parent in the Territory. Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members.
Debate adjourned.
Continued from 18 August 2004.
Mr DUNHAM (Drysdale): I shall be very brief, Madam Speaker. This is a good idea. It is the second of a 10-year agreement; the first due to lapse within weeks.
It is important that this agreement be put in place. It benefits the Territory in a number of ways. There is requirement for expenditure in a highly prospective area of the Northern Territory that has yielded significant wealth for the benefit of this place. It is for that reason that the opposition has absolutely no qualms in supporting this bill.
Dr TOYNE (Central Australia): Madam Speaker, I wish to place on record my support for the Tanami Exploration Agreement Ratification Bill.
The basis of the Tanami exploration agreement is that Newmont will, within the agreed area of 20 000 blocks, approximately 64 400 km, be able to hold exploration licences or exploration licence applications for up to 10 000 blocks throughout the 10-year tenancy agreement in The Granites mine area. In return, Newmont will guarantee to expend a significant amount on exploration.
As a member of this government and Minister for Central Australia, I am well aware of the economic importance and benefits the mining industry in the Tanami region has for Central Australia. Over the past 20 years, about $200m has been spent on exploration in the region by North Flinders, Normandy NFM, and now Newmont.
Newmont already has a capital investment of over $150m in Tanami operations, with processing and mill facilities both at The Granites and Tanami Mines. It employs over 700 people, many of whom are based in the Northern Territory and, since commencing operations, they have had dealings with in excess of 600 Territory businesses.
There are another 64 people employed in oil and gas projects in Central Australia, adding to the Centre’s overall 26% of the Northern Territory’s minerals industry work force.
In 2003, Newmont reported they had spent approximately $265m doing business with companies in Alice Springs, and a further $117m in Darwin. I am sure that the news of Newmont having well developed and long term plans to continue extensive exploration in the region is good news for Central Australian businesses. It is certainly great news for our economy.
As legislators, it is always rewarding to be able to see the benefits of the legislation that we pass in this House. I am particularly pleased as the member for Stuart, because I will, no doubt, see and hear first hand these benefits when visiting communities in the Tanami region.
The signing and ratifying of this agreement will ensure the continuation of significant employment and training opportunities for people living in that region. Newmont has, for some time, stipulated in their contracts a 20% indigenous employment target for their contractors. While its indigenous employment is around 11% at the moment, I believe this target has been achieved during peak activities at the mine. They are working with the Northern Territory and Commonwealth governments to facilitate further training and employment opportunities, targeting local communities.
Newmont in partnership with one of their contractors, Roche Mining, have jointly funded lung function equipment and hearing booths to the community clinics at Lajamanu and Yuendumu, and to help relieve the burden of travelling to Alice Springs to complete pre-employment medical checks.
This government has also recognised the economic importance of the region by investing a $5m upgrade to the Tanami Highway. In fact, ultimately, it will be $6.5m. During my time as the local member, I have continually heard the calls from both business and community people about the state of the Tanami Road. Where was the CLP when they were in government? What money did they put into the road over the time I lived at Yuendumu? I think we had about 15 km of black top in the whole time I was there.
I take this opportunity to congratulate Newmont on developing such a proactive and successful partnership with the Central Land Council over the years. These are the types of relationships and partnerships that this government is proud to support because by working together, we can bring the Territory economy up to new levels. To government officers from my Department of Justice, from Mines and Energy and DIPE who have worked on this agreement, I thank them for their efforts in working towards getting the agreement ratified. Madam Speaker, I fully support the bill.
Mr STIRLING (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak in support of the Tanami Exploration Agreement Ratification Bill today.
The signing and ratification of a new agreement will ensure that significant business, employment and training opportunities continue. We will also see new business and employment opportunities emerge over the longer term for the Tanami region. As the minister outlined to the House, Newmont has a capital investment of over $150m in Tanami operations with processing facilities including The Granites mill and the Tanami Mine Joint Venture mill. Newmont employs over 700 people, many of whom are based in the Territory and engage with some 250 Territory businesses with further flow-on effects to the Territory economy.
Since operations commenced, they have generated revenue for the Territory by way of royalties of approximately $62m with $11.5m paid in 2002-03. A significant aspect of operations for the region is the generation of employment and training and the growth of social and economic opportunities for indigenous Territorians. Newmont actively engages in contracts with local indigenous business, they sponsor cultural activities and the investment in local community infrastructure including injecting some $5m per year into the local communities. As the minister has advised, indigenous employment reached 20% in 2002 and currently runs at about 15%.
I am pleased to add that the Department of Employment, Education and Training is working with Newmont and is currently committed to contributing financial support for a pre-vocational program for 10 indigenous people. The program will assist them in gaining employment in the Tanami. The initial program will commence in September 2004; the second program for a further 10 indigenous participants is due to be run in November. This is a joint effort by Newmont, DEET and the Central Land Council to increase employment and training opportunities for indigenous people in the Tanami.
A priority for the government as outlined in the Jobs Plan Workforce and Employment and Training Strategy is to get partnerships in place. Partnerships such as this one between indigenous Territorians, government, land councils and industry open up opportunities that will lead to the development of indigenous economic independence. The government is working across the board to improve economic opportunities in regional Northern Territory. Although the range of opportunities for employment is still not as great in remote regions of the Territory than in the larger centres, opportunities for employment in the remote regions continue to grow, especially in the mining industry.
The government is targetting and supporting, through training and partnerships, the capacity of indigenous Territorians in remote areas to access jobs in the industry. I am advised that DEET has provided $36 000 in funding to assist with the assessment of indigenous trainees undergoing training at the McArthur River Mine. Further training and employment opportunities for indigenous and local Territorians are being pursued by DEET in mining and related industries in the Tennant Creek and Nhulunbuy regions. Improved opportunities in the regions improve social and economic outcomes for all Territorians.
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to add my support to the Tanami Exploration Agreement Ratification bill.
Mr VATSKALIS (Mines and Energy): Madam Speaker, I thank the opposition and my colleagues for their support for the Tanami agreement.
It is an agreement that is very good for the Territory. It is an agreement to ratify the rights of a mining company that has made a big investment in the Territory and will continue to make an investment in the Territory not only by spending money in exploration or processing and mining, but also spending money on training and the communities around the mine.
It would be foolish for the Territory not to ratify the agreement because, first, it would send the wrong message to the mining industry, and second, it would create the same problems about sovereignty that were created in Queensland when that government decided to reacquire the bauxite tenements at Weipa, which angered many industries in Australia and overseas. The message we have is that quite a few mining industry consortiums and operations are not very happy about that.
On the question of timing, The Granites agreement had clause that provided for renewal. However, when Newmont sought to extend the agreement, the Department of Justice advised that The Granites agreement renewal would require Legislative Assembly agreement and may have required passage of new legislation.
In that context, it was considered better to develop a whole new agreement that benefited both the Territory and Newmont. The new agreement is simpler than the complex Granites agreement and provides the Territory greater benefits that will lead to continued long term employment and training the Central Australia. It also provides the long term security of tenure required for Newmont to build on its existing exploration base.
In addition, the new Tanami agreement took some time to negotiate and required the endorsement of the Central Land Council, which is responsible under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act for administering agreements between the traditional owners of the land and the company. It is only recently that CLC consultations concluded and their endorsement was given.
The reason I did not seek to introduce the legislation in previous Assembly sittings was because I determined that the legislation should be subject to full competition impact analysis prior to introduction. Legal advice indicated that there were some concerns, but if the competition analysis was done after the event, the effort required to alter the legislation would be excessive. It was therefore better to wait for the completion of the competition impact analysis and proceed today with urgency rather than present the bill earlier.
Once again, Madam Speaker, it is a good agreement for the Territory. It is my dream to see another mine open in the Territory. Mining is the future of the Territory. We need more mines to provide employment. Until now, mining provides 23% of gross state income and employs about 3000 people. The industry has the ability to employ not only more Territorians, but more indigenous Territorians. They are very good at operating equipment, plant and machinery. We have seen that at Alcan in Nhulunbuy and at The Granites with Newmont. One again, I thank members for their support and I commend the legislation to the House.
Motion agreed to; bill read a second time.
Mr VATSKALIS (Mines and Energy)(by leave): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a third time.
Motion agreed to; bill read a third time.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, before we go into the ministerial statement, I inform the House that I made an error yesterday in a ruling on use of the word ‘senator’. I was a bit overzealous because I was concerned that we are becoming sloppy with the use of Christian names in interjections.
When the minister said ‘Senator Scullion’, a point of order was raised. I ruled that it was out of order. In fact, as the Clerk advised during the luncheon adjournment, there is more than one senator for the Northern Territory so obviously we have to name the senator to know who we are talking about.
When we are referring to parliamentarians from other jurisdictions, it is in order to use their Christian and surnames and, for courtesy, also their electorate. Minister, I apologise. I made an error of judgment and perhaps was a bit overzealous, but all members are advised accordingly.
Mr STIRLING (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, I take the opportunity today to report to the House on where the government is up to in terms of improving educational outcomes because it has been one of the highest priorities of this government. Prior to coming to office, we made a number of commitments in education and training policy. Three years into government, it is an appropriate time to examine those commitments and note the progress made against them.
A key promise made by government was the creation of 100 additional teaching positions. These positions are above formula and aimed at maximising support for teachers and improving educational outcomes in key areas. This financial year, 2004-05, will see the completion of that promise. Already, 60 positions have been filled and an additional 40 teachers are currently being recruited.
Positions already in place are: 20 new special education positions, being three teachers for urban schools at Casuarina Street Primary, Bakewell Primary and Woodroofe Primary, six teachers to each of the group schools in Katherine, Barkly, Alice Springs East and West and the Top End Group School, 11 teachers to non-urban schools at Borroloola, Maningrida, Shepherdson College, Yuendumu, Batchelor, Ngukurr, Ti Tree, Yulara, Mutitjulu, Yirrkala, Gunbalanya and Angurugu.
Other positions created include: three teachers for a Capability Development Unit in Darwin; five teachers employed as assistant principals for group schools; two teachers for a Remote Education Resource Development Project; five teachers for Alternative Education programs; four additional Special Education teachers at Numbulwar, Papunya, Moulden Park and Tennant Creek; 10 positions for English as a Second Language teachers, four teachers for Learning and Technology in schools; two positions have been allocated to resource and research literacy approaches in schools; one position allocated to research in effective education interventions; one position for an Alternative Provision Manager in Alice Springs; and two teacher positions to supplement relief teacher pools in regional centres.
In this financial year, 40 positions are to be allocated. These will include: 11 teachers to behaviour management in Northern Territory schools; two music teachers for the School of Music; and 12 positions for literacy teachers to assist with the government’s plans for expanding the Accelerated Literacy Program. The remaining positions will be announced in the near future.
Attendance Officers: the government promised to address truancy and we have kept our promise in this regard. Eight attendance officers are now in place. Their job is to re-engage young people with the education system or, in some cases, engage a young person for the first time with education. It is a difficult job, which has been performed extremely well by all staff involved.
The first two of the eight attendance officers commenced in March 2003 in Palmerston and Alice Springs. A position was provided to Thamarrurr Regional Council at Wadeye, and positions based at Sanderson High and Katherine commenced at the start of the 2004 school year. Officers based at Groote Eylandt and Tennant Creek commenced during Term 2 2004. The final attendance officer position, based at Yirrkala, started during Term 3, 2004.
The initiative is proving highly successful. The Katherine Attendance Officer has identified and engaged 175 school-aged students, 64 of them new enrolments. In 2003, the Alice Springs Attendance Officer identified 127 students, enrolling 109 in schools. This year some of those children have returned to homeland communities, but around half remain engaged in the education system in Alice Springs.
Attendance Officers in Palmerston and Sanderson provide intensive support to students and their families to reintegrate students back into schools.
Behaviour Management: poor student behaviour is identified by teachers as one of their most critical issues, and it is increasingly a factor in why teachers leave the service or why young people choose not to go into teaching in the first place. The government is acting to assist teachers in this most significant area in line with commitments made in 2001.
The Student Services Branch currently has nine Behaviour Management Advisory teacher positions located in Nhulunbuy, Katherine, Alice Springs and Darwin. There are also four Special Education Behaviour support officer positions in Alice Springs and Darwin. Four hundred students are currently being supported by these officers. Furthermore, the government has funded the employment of 11 additional teachers to support schools in managing student behaviour.
A project entitled Building Relations and School Wellbeing has been designed around this initiative. Schools involved include: in Darwin - Parap, Stuart Park, Jingili, Karama, Malak and Wulagi Primary Schools, Dripstone and Nightcliff High Schools; in Palmerston - Moulden Park, Bakewell, Humpty Doo and Howard Springs Primary Schools; in Katherine - MacFarlane Primary School and Katherine High School; in Tennant Creek - both the high school and primary school; in Alice Springs - Gillen, Bradshaw, Sadadeen and Ross Park Primary Schools.
A total of 7552 students, 694 teachers and 6466 parents will be involved in this project. The initiative will see teachers supported in the development of contemporary behaviour management strategies as well as promoting self- esteem and wellbeing in the students.
Alternative Education Provision: with the best will in the world, there are some children who are so disengaged or disruptive to the system that an alternative means of providing education must be found. Government has provided the Department of Employment, Education and Training with $500 000 per year for the years 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2004-05 to address this problem. A mobile team of five new teachers commenced work in Term 1, 2004, located in Darwin’s northern suburbs and Palmerston. DEET is currently exploring options for location of staff to youth-friendly sites, including a northern suburbs shopping centre and a better location in Palmerston.
Staff are currently working in partnership with a range of organisations to include the NT Police Juvenile Diversion Unit, Family and Children’s Services, Youth Beat run by Mission Australia, Corrugated Iron Youth Theatre, Northern Territory Stock Cars Association, Harmony Group, Larrakia Nation and the Save the Children Fund. The program is working to capacity with more than 60 students involved. Government is also looking to establish an alternative education provision site in Katherine and has allocated a teaching position to the initiative as a first step.
The program identified young people between 10 and 15 years who rarely attend school or, in some cases, are not even enrolled. Staff and students negotiate suitable programs that will stimulate these disaffected young people with a view to re-engagement in school education.
Literacy and numeracy: one of the strongest commitments made has been to improve the literacy and numeracy of Territory students. I have made it clear at every available opportunity that this is a centrepiece goal. I recognise it may be years before we see the full impact of policy decisions made today. In pursuit of this outcome, the government has introduced a number of measures.
Every government school in the Territory now has a documented literacy and numeracy plan. An accelerated literacy trial was run 2001 to 2003, and this program demonstrated significant success in improving student outcomes. In the six trial schools - Ngukurr, Ludmilla and Gillen Primary Schools, Nightcliff, Dripstone and Anzac Hill High Schools – literacy levels increased fourfold. The program has also been implemented at Jilkminggan and Minyerri, and will be further extended to 10 new schools in Semester 2 2004. They are: Ngukurr Community Education Centre, Ramingining Community Education Centre, Wugularr School, Jilkminggan School, Minyerri School, Alekerange Community Education Centre, Tennant Creek Primary School, Nganmarriyanga School, Peppimenarti School, Anzac Hill High School, and Ti Tree School. By the end of the year, 100 teachers will have been provided with training to deliver the accelerated literacy approach.
Other actions we have taken include the Count Me In Too numeracy teaching program, which is developing teachers’ understanding of how to teach maths in the early years of primary school. In 2003, 16 schools across the Northern Territory trialled this program. In the 16 trial schools, student assessment data demonstrated significant improvements. In 2004, the Count Me In Too numeracy program has been expanded to 20 schools, with a further six schools joining the program in Semester 2.
Sixty-five schools now have part-time or full-time ESL specialist teachers. These additional teachers work with class room and subject specialist teachers to meet the English language learning needs of ESL students across the curriculum and throughout the school. Five hundred and fifty indigenous language speaking students in their first year of formal schooling are currently receiving intensive oral English teaching through ESL for indigenous language speaking students.
The government has also made MAP testing compulsory. Prior to this, the multilevel assessment program was not compulsory, particularly on schools in remote communities. The multilevel assessment program results for 2003 indicate improvement over 2002 in Year 5, particularly for indigenous students; 58 more students achieved the national benchmark in numeracy and 37 more in reading. There was a fall in numbers from 2002 for students in Year 3; 77 fewer students, 38 of them indigenous, achieved the national benchmark in reading. In Year 3 numeracy, 54 fewer indigenous students achieved the national benchmark than in 2002. Those results show we still have a long way to go.
There is no doubt that our urban students are performing equally to national standards. Clearly, our remote indigenous students are not, and we will continue to work hard on these important outcomes.
The Learning Lessons report implementation and progress: we consider improving indigenous education outcomes of critical importance to the future of the Northern Territory. Government made commitments to do two primary things: we wanted indigenous education to be the core business of the agency and we wanted to implement the decisions of the Collins Report, a report widely applauded by both sides of politics, but which was unfunded and not implemented.
I believe indigenous education is now front and centre core business of the agency. It is instructive to know that indigenous enrolments in the Territory currently sit at 15 665 in government schools. Total government school enrolments are 32 390; just a shade under 50% of our school student cohort today are indigenous. Despite this, indigenous education was not core business until 2001. The government has set about implementing major change in indigenous education. Of the 151 recommendations made in the Learning Lessons report, 40 have been fully implemented, 98 are under way, and 13 are subject to further consideration to determine whether they are still relevant five years down the track.
The Learning Lessons Implementation Steering Committee has provided me with frank and independent advice on current issues in indigenous education, and the views of indigenous parents and families. We have started rolling out secondary education in remote communities. Four remote schools are now offering secondary programs on site. That stands in stark contrast to a previously held policy position, which refused to allow the teaching of secondary education programs in the bush.
Distance is a major issue in the Territory. We have made a major investment in providing state-of-the-art interactive distance learning technologies for remote students. There are now IDL studios in the Territory and there are two-way satellites in 80 remote schools.
This government has also recognised the critical role played by indigenous staff in schools. We are the first government to stop relying on Commonwealth funding to pay for Aboriginal and Islander education workers by making these permanently funded positions. Major investment has delivered stability for indigenous employees, schools and indigenous students.
While we still have a long way to go, we have made progress. There are more indigenous students in secondary education. There is a greater number than ever attempting Year 12 and completing their NTCE. Last year, for the first time ever, three indigenous students from a remote community completed their NTCE within their own community. Those Kalkaringi students and their teachers, the Hewitsons, performed outstandingly against seriously adverse circumstances. We need to build on the gains made so far. To this end, we are currently developing a blueprint for action for the next four years in a new indigenous education action plan.
Secondary education: in 2001, we said we would make all sectors of education achieve better outcomes for students. This included a serious effort to provide the best possible secondary education for young Territorians. The Secondary Education Report, written by Dr Gregor Ramsey and his review team, has, over the past few months, been discussed widely in the community.
The government has taken no position on the recommendations of this report. We have made it clear that public consultation on the report is critical. We have hired one of the best public consultation experts in the country, Sheila O’Sullivan, to conduct this throughout the Territory. A steering committee with members from the Australian Education Union, the Council of Government School Organisations, the business sector, schools, the Association of NT School Educational Leaders and the Department of Employment, Education Training executive has been appointed to guide and monitor that consultation process. The three phase community consultation process began in May and has just been completed. A report is now being written for government, detailing feedback from the community on the issues raised.
Building better schools - infrastructure, furniture and school equipment funding: in 2001, the government committed to improving the physical structures of our schools. We have maintained a strong capital works, minor new works, and repairs and maintenance program over the last three years as well as putting a great deal of actual cash into the program.
Recently, we have put into place significantly improved internal arrangements to ensure that projects move from design to reality in a smooth and more timely fashion. This has been of major importance since the Estimates Review Committee process of the early 1990s and the Planning for Growth outcomes of the late 1990s gutted the ability of the department to adequately plan facilities needs.
In addition to fulfilling our announced capital works commitments in urban centres, the government has also ensured that funds are set aside to improve the parlous state of buildings in some of our remote communities. Currently, Shepherdson College, Minyerri and Emu Point are all being worked on with numerous other communities having already received important upgrades.
The government has fulfilled commitments to improving facilities for teachers and students. In February this year, I announced an injection of $1m for school equipment and a further $1m for remote teacher housing furniture. This money is now being spent on bulk orders of much needed equipment. Significant improvements have been achieved through these additional funds, and a further $500 000 is allocated to schools equipment for 2004-05.
The $1m for remote housing furniture is being used to achieve a basic minimum standard for teacher housing. For example, in Central Australia where temperatures in winter drop overnight to freezing, heaters have been supplied to 91 DEET houses for the first time. A further $750 000 has been provided for remote housing furniture in 2004-05. These funds will continue the improvement in living standards for our remote teachers.
I also announced in April this year a $300 000 schools grants program for 2004-05. Schools will be able to access grants up to $5000 on a needs basis for resources such as books, furniture and fittings, information and communication technology items and other equipment. Improving resources in Territory schools will continue to be a high priority for this government and it is reinforced through this new school grants program.
Focussing on jobs and training: the government promised to provide a new focus on employment and training. This has been achieved. Since taking office, the government has introduced VET through to Year 9, created a new Employment Division in the agency and implemented a three year Jobs Plan.
Jobs Plan NT is focussed on getting results for all Territorians, with a particularly strong emphasis on support for young Territorians. In addition to new and effective incentives for industry, we are building closer links between schools and employers. VET in Schools has proven to be one of the most successful programs to assist young Territorians to become job ready. The government has increased the funding commitment to VET in schools to $980 000 in 2004. Close to 900 Northern Territory students will have access to vocational education and training while at school in 2004.
Another success story for young Territorians has been the growth in opportunities to undertake school-based apprenticeships and traineeships; from 19 in 2001 to 137 in 2003. We expect the number of students entering school-based apprenticeships and traineeships in 2004 to grow to 180.
In the specialised vocational education and training Taster Program developed by Charles Darwin University and Kormilda College, 45 to 50 indigenous students attend training two days a week to gain competencies within the sport and recreation, seafood and automotive industry areas. To assist 14 to 19 year old indigenous students to reconnect with schooling or training, $1.2m will be provided under Training for Remote Youth in 2004. Approximately 500 young indigenous students will access this program in 2004.
In late 2003, I had the privilege of launching the government’s Get VET campaign and I am pleased to advise that based on the success of the first stage, we will be building on this program again later this year.
Madam Speaker, I believe I have covered the critical promises made to Territorians in 2001. I do reflect with a degree of pride on the significant advances we have made in education and training. We have fulfilled the commitments we made to Territorians. We are working hard on improvements across the entire education sector. I assure all Territorians that education and training will remain one of this government’s highest priorities for as long as we are in office.
Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly take note of the statement.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I am disappointed with this statement. The minister had all the time in the world to produce a well thought out, detailed report on how education has been going in the Territory for the last three years. This is an indication that this government has forgotten why we are here. For the last six days of the sittings, five days plus today, we have done hardly any work in this Chamber. We have had the bells going at six o’clock at night saying that we are done for the day. This government has produced filibustering statements containing little information on a range of important issues.
With all the time in the world that he has to produce a ministerial statement, the minister could do something better than a 15 or 20 minute speech articulated in a very dull, depressed voice. He has no enthusiasm for his portfolio. What is the problem? If you do not want to do the job, then move on and let someone else do it.
This government has really shown its appetite for work. They do not want to do it. It is a real tragedy. Here we are in parliament debating issues and doing work for Territorians, and this government comes up with filibustering statements that contain very little of significance.
Let us talk about what the government has done in the last six months of this year. They have had three or four reviews from early childhood right through to university, all happening in that short space of time. The education community is exhausted by consultation after consultation after consultation going over the same ground, noticing that this government does not really give a damn about what they think. The input they have provided to government has fallen on deaf ears.
Let us go to the first point that the minister made about the 100 additional teachers. When he talks about additional teachers, he talks about positions, 60 positions or 40 positions and so on. When he has real bodies, he talks about eight officers. There are people in those substantive positions, but the rest are nebulous. You can create as many positions as you want. You can create 100 or 1000 teacher positions in the Territory; if the teachers are not there, you do not have anything anyway.
In respect of creating these positions and trying to recruit teachers, what this government has done is to advertise on the DEET web site. It is a very nice web site heralding ‘Teaching in the Territory’. Well done; it looks very good. At the top corner, it says: ‘Special offer if you teach for a term’. Hey, I would like someone to pay me a full return airfare from anywhere in Australia to the Territory for three months. I can come here during the Dry, have three months to look around every weekend, take sick leave when I can, as long as it is legitimate, and have a great look around the Territory, and then this government will fly you home after three months.
If I were living overseas and wanted to spend six months in the Northern Territory, I will be flown to the Territory for free, have six months break from my current job, take leave without pay and go to the Northern Territory and teach in Darwin and Alice Springs, maybe even Katherine or Tennant Creek and some remote communities just for a six-month change of environment and then this government is going to fly me home.
This is such a bad way of spending public funds. It is really very wrong. If you talk to the teachers who are living in the Territory, working so very hard to try to do their job professionally, they say this is a mockery of what they are doing. They are giving money away for people to come to the Territory for a holiday. They would be better off if they spent the money looking after existing teachers, giving them better conditions, making sure their work and support is adequately funded. Instead, they are giving money away for people to fly to the Territory for a holiday, be it three or six months. That, to me, is an insult to our Territory teachers.
Anyway, coming back to the positions, you would have thought the minister, in his statement, would provide a good description of all the teachers in those 100 positions. He cannot tell you that. He speaks about a few, but he cannot identify the 100 teachers he says he has. He does not have them.
Attendance Officers are something that I support strongly. It is important for us to ensure that truancy is not an issue and that we can ensure students are turning up to school. Again, he said: ‘We have done a very good job. The attendance officers have identified the kids who are missing out on school and make sure they turn up’. He said that in Alice Springs there have been 127 students identified and have enrolled over 100. What he did not say is what continuing support are those attendance officers providing, not only in Alice Springs, but across the Territory? What are they doing to ensure that the retention rate is high?
Now, 50% in Alice Springs is acceptable, but it should be well up in the 90 percentile. We should have programs to ensure that these children who are not attending school actually turn up because without them going to school to attain at least primary education, there is no way in the world are they going to able to even aspire to go to secondary school, no way. Unless you have your basic primary schooling and show that you have adequate numeracy and literacy, you can forget about thinking about secondary school; it just does not work.
Minister, you spent hardly any time providing information. You are doing all of us a great disservice. If you think that a program such as the Attendance Officers program is working, tell us about it, be proud about it and give us some figures, give us the numbers so we know exactly where it is working well. Tell us also what is wrong with the system if, in some parts of the Territory, we do not have the students turning up. Then we can address those things.
Apart from the Attendance Officers, behaviour management is important among the kids who do not turn up to school and for those who do turn up to school. How can we deal with them? It is important to have specialised student counsellors outside of the teaching numbers. They should be specialised counsellors, social workers, psychologists, supernumerary to the teaching complement so they can concentrate on their work. That way, you will ensure that kids get proper counselling and those specialised counsellors can concentrate on the kids who are causing problems and distracting the rest of the class from its main purpose, which is to learn and achieve success in their education. It is when this government does not do that I find really offensive.
Talking about students who are not performing well at school, I was shown a program that has been designed by the Alice Springs High School, a model where they have a student-teacher contract to achieve a stated outcome for the student’s success. The teacher, parent and student undertake to ensure that the student achieves the outcome they are seeking. That is the way to go and, if we do that for every student, we will have not only an aspiration to achieve, but measurable outcomes for the kids.
Without a doubt, literacy and numeracy is the key in all education. For many of us brought up in mainstream education in Australia, or even in other English-speaking countries around the world including places like Singapore, Malaysia, where I grew up in an English-speaking school system, the first thing that is impressed upon all of us is to be able to read, write and to understand figures. That also means that you have to go to school in a regulated way. Parents, families and the community all value the education and encourage every child to turn up to school. There are no ifs or buts about it. There are no excuses. No excuse is going to be acceptable; every child had to turn up to school.
We say we have to make some allowances for our indigenous kids who might not see the relevance of education as we know it. If we are not able to demonstrate the significance of education for indigenous kids, then it is us who have failed. We have to ensure that they know and understand why so that they want to aspire to learn.
I agree with the minister that, in teaching indigenous kids, maybe for the first couple of years of their formal schooling there should be a dual language system where they can be initially introduced to a topic in their vernacular, but very rapidly move through into the English medium. After all, we live in a country in which English is the official language. If we do not do that, and we teach only in the vernacular then, again, you will short-change these kids. They are not going to be able to move into mainstream education and employment, and that would be a real tragedy.
Then the minister went on to speak about the Collins report or the Learning Lessons Report. I am glad to see that he has already got a few things going. However, at the very beginning when the report was tabled 3 years ago, they, in opposition then, said we must implement the lot. I see they are still struggling with all the recommendations. Only 40 have been fully implemented and the rest are still subject to consideration or partly underway. When you speak to professionals in education, they will tell you that not many are fully implemented, and so this government is also struggling with it, without a doubt.
I quote from the minister’s statement:
That is an absolute untruth. We have always encouraged secondary education to be delivered where a student is capable of receiving secondary education.
What do you think the existence of the Northern Territory Open Education Centre is about? It is obviously about providing secondary education to students who are able to receive and benefit from secondary education. I come back to my point: unless you have a good grounding in primary education, only then can you be ready to receive secondary education.
The reality is that while we all recognise that there are a huge number of indigenous students who are accessing mainstream education out bush, particular secondary education, one needs to ask the question. It is really that these secondary-aged are not accessing education at all. More to the point, secondary-aged students are not accessing education. I can understand why they struggle. Think about it. You are living out there, you are in your teens and you are not going to be sitting in a class with 7 year-olds or 6 year-olds in a primary school because it is a shame job. I mean, you are a man, after all. You are initiated. You are a man and you are not going to be sitting in a class room with primary school kids.
You can create a structure by which you can bring these kids of secondary age into a separate class of their own but provide them with primary education on their own so that they can progress from there, and I think the accelerated literacy and numeracy program is going to be good.
When the minister came to the Secondary Education Report, he must have spent about a good minute and a half or two minutes on it. Let me tell the minister that the Secondary Education Report is badly written, has provided recommendations that have very little bearing on the research or the detail that is provided in the body of the report. That is why people are very unhappy about it. In fact, AEU NT, COGSO, the Independent Schools Association have all been saying to you that this is a terrible report, there are too many things wrong with it, and you must get rid of it.
Mr Kiely: No, they have not.
Dr LIM: The member for Sanderson interjects: ‘No, they have not’. The member Sanderson has not turned up to any of the community consultations. I have been to many and let me tell you …
Mr KIELY: Not true. A point of order, Madam Speaker. The opposition spokesman on education sat beside me at a public meeting at Sanderson High School. He knows that. He was sitting beside me. I will not have him stand there and say that I have not been to consultations.
Madam SPEAKER: Perhaps, member for Greatorex, you might like to withdraw that.
Dr LIM: For a member who is supposed to be particularly interested, he has been to one. Well, I tell you that I have been to many …
Mr KIELY: A point of order, Madam Speaker. How can he know how many I have attended if he has only attended one with me?
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Greatorex, do not make assumptions.
Members interjecting.
Dr LIM: Speaking to the point of order, he said that he has been to one.
Madam SPEAKER: Just make the point that you have attended several.
Dr LIM: Anyway, while the empty vessels continue to rattle, let’s move on. Let me say this to the minister: the CLP will not close the Northern Territory Open Education Centre but instead will enhance its services. I look forward to the minister supporting the CLP on that position.
The other thing they talked about was learning precincts. Everywhere you go across the Territory people are saying that learning precincts are going to be the death of school councils and the independence of principals and the school community. The CLP will not support learning precincts because they will rob our community of their autonomy. Under the CLP, we deliberately devolved powers to school communities so that they could run schools within a framework that best suits their community. It is a real pity that this government cannot see that. I hope the minister will assure us that learning precincts are not going to be there.
The other thing that the minister should have heard if his members had turned up to all these community consultation meetings is that Casuarina Senior College does not want Year 10 students. He should listen to them. The students have done a survey among themselves. The teachers have done a survey among the staff. They have consulted the school community and they are loud and clear: no Year 10 at Casuarina Senior College. That is what you have to do. They tell you over and over again that if you do that, you will damage the school ethos, the offerings that the senior students can receive from the school, teaching would have to change, pastoral care will have to change and it will disrupt the school completely. Besides that, where are you going to find the room at Casuarina Senior College to house these Year 10s? They do not want them.
On the issue of three-tier schooling, it would be interesting to hear what the minister has to say about it. Let me tell you now: the CLP is not going to force any schools to give away their Year 7s or to take their Year 10s. What we will do is to encourage the principals and school communities to work out for themselves whether it is the appropriate move for their school community. That is what we will encourage and we will ensure that they have support from government to progress in the way that they see as fit.
Minister, your three phase consultation program was flawed from the beginning. The Priority Education Reader’s Guide is more push-polling than anything else. It is all about motherhood statements, as I said earlier, and this questionnaire, the Individual Response sheet, everyone who has completed it says: ‘It is all motherhood statements. I cannot disagree with any of these’. When they have completed it, they lock themselves into a direction that they know is wrong.
When it comes to VET, while the government has been actively encouraging students to take up VET in schools and at TAFE colleges, there are not enough instructors. Take the electrical trade: students want to do electrical trades, but there are not enough instructors to service existing students. It is no good beating the bush to flush all these students out and then have the resources behind them.
The minister talked about improving the infrastructure of schools and the money that he has committed to it. I notice that money has been committed to schools, primary schools particularly, in Labor electorates. Very particular, that is. Parap got millions. Why, because it was in the Chief Minister’s electorate? Yet the Chief Minister, you will recall, promised Darwin High School millions of dollars for refurbishment. What is happening there? That money has been promised and promised and promised, but nothing has happened. The Palmerston Secondary College: in three budgets, you put that money up and in three budgets we have seen nothing. You are still talking about planning the Palmerston Senior College. If you are seriously doing anything about schools, show us where.
With regard to primary schools, I put to the minister during Estimates that we have lost hundreds of primary school kids this last 12 months, an indication that the schools are all contracting. What is he doing about it?
When it comes to the university, I put a question to the minister during Estimates on what he thought about the amalgamation of Centralian College with the Northern Territory University to form Charles Darwin University. He was less than enthusiastic this time around. Last year, he was full of praise for the amalgamation, suddenly, this year, whoa, I was a little bit too enthusiastic at the last Estimates.
Obviously, it shows that you have concerns, but are you addressing them? I have not heard a thing about it. Nowhere in this statement have you made a point about it, and that is wrong. There are huge concerns. The Centralian Advocate only last week said that students in Years 11 and 12 at Centralian are concerned about whether they have a future at the Centralian Campus of Charles Darwin University. The teachers want to know. They are all asking questions, and you are silent on it. They want to know whether their terms of employment will continue as they are now under the Department of Education, and you do not tell them. You say you are consulting. You have been consulting for three years and we still have not heard from you as to what is going on.
Yesterday, you spoke about rolling out laptops for teachers. Well and good. That is a great program, and I would have done it myself. In fact, I explored it with the schools that I have been visiting this year, prior to your announcement that you were going to do it. Make sure that LATIS is up, running and strong, and that the bandwidth is there. You have 2200 teachers with laptops all logging on to LATIS and the system is going to fall over. You do not have the bandwidth. The infrastructure is not there. There is no point giving somebody a you-beaut car with one wheel missing. It is not going to go anywhere.
I hope you are going to assure the teachers that the computers will be their property and that the government will insure them 24 hours a day for the length of time that the computers are in the possession of the teachers. There is no point saying: ‘Here is a computer. You can insure it. The repairs and maintenance are all yours’. You are, in fact, giving them a burden, not a tool to use. If you are going to give them a tool, make sure that the tool works. If it does not, forget it.
In my remaining few minutes, I draw the minister’s attention to an article in the Northern Territory Government Gazette of 25 August 2004. The Department of Employment, Education and Training has let a contract, a Darwin consultancy, design and layout of educational/promotional materials for a period of six months for some $50 000 to Sprout Creative (Northern Territory) Pty Ltd at Winnellie, Northern Territory. It is a coincidence maybe, or just my suspicion, that for the next six months, this department is going to start producing propaganda for the government - not for the department; for the government - in the lead-up to a Northern Territory election. That is a very cynical way of running a department when you use material such as that.
Minister, I am disappointed with your statement. There is a lot more that you could have said to Territorians, telling us where you are heading. You might have given yourself a tick on your report card, but your report card is flawed. The statement contains very little about your promises. You have made promises for three years. You still have not delivered much on them.
I recognise that our bush kids are not accessing secondary education. There are more issues to it than just because there is no open education or no secondary schools in the bush. You have to make sure that our bush kids at least have their primary school down pat. You have to ensure that our bush kids have good literacy and numeracy. You have to ensure that our kids have the basics of education before they go on to secondary education. Once you do that, I can cop any criticism about bush kids not having secondary education. It is indeed about secondary age school kids not accessing any education at all. I mentioned before the cultural barriers as to why they will not do that.
I remind the minister that LATIS is important. It was a very well received project within the education fraternity and was a forward thinking project. You have to ensure that the infrastructure is there to provide full access for students, schools and, now, for teachers with laptops. If you do that, you can progress with education.
This is a poor statement by a minister who is using this as a means of filibustering in parliament when there is very little government business, so they use this to pad out the day. It is an indictment of the government, and on the Deputy Chief Minister, to allow such a travesty of parliamentary process to occur.
Debate suspended.
Madam SPEAKER: We have some visitors in the Gallery. I can see some Year 8 St John’s College students from remote Northern Territory and Western Australian communities, accompanied by Clinton Block and Kieran Myers. On behalf of all honourable members, I extend a warm welcome to you.
Members: Hear, hear!
Continued from earlier this day.
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Family and Community Services): Madam Speaker, I thank the Minister for Employment, Education and Training for updating the House on the Martin government’s stated commitment to Building Better Educational Outcomes for the Territory. I acknowledge that the minister has provided a snapshot of the overall approach of the Martin government to what is one of our key priorities: the training and education of all Territorians. I reflect on the fact that it was this minister who brought a significant statement on the way forward for indigenous education.
However, I wish to confine my remarks especially to the effects of our efforts as they apply to those Territorians living outside the two major metropolitan centres of Darwin and Alice Springs.
If the history of education over the last 25 years in the Territory outside of Alice Springs and Darwin is casually observed, it would be easy to call it a record of failure and despair. It would be easy to denigrate outcomes achieved as inadequate and damning of an educational system allowed to wither and die by the previous administration.
However, such a view would only tell part of the story. Despite the neglect of the system by previous education ministers, good work has continued to be done in schools throughout the regions of the Territory. How has this good work been achieved despite the crippling problems apparent to a parade of previous education ministers? How has this good work been achieved despite the fact that schools have been largely developed in remote regions of the Territory in the 1960s and 1970s, that very few Aboriginal people from remote communities have more than basic literacy and English, that most students in Aboriginal schools are learning English as a second or even foreign language, and that they are learning literacy in the context of families where literacy is rarely used, and in communities where literacy has few meaningful functions?
There have been achievements - all too few, admittedly, but achievements nevertheless. These are achievements against the odds that deserve our respect and gratitude. The line has been held against an education system becoming totally dysfunctional by certain key groups. The line has been held despite the uncaring efforts and this has been maintained by the good work of certain individuals.
Who has done this good work? Who has held the line? I will tell you who: a group of staunchly dedicated teachers, committed advisory staff, concerned and dedicated local education workers and never-say-die community members. All these individuals have given more than enough reason to doubt that their efforts mattered. Not only did they care about their work, but liked it. It has been hard to get and keep teachers in many of our remote Aboriginal communities, but many of teachers actually liked it and worked under extremely difficult circumstances in many of our communities.
In my electorate, there are people, in Maningrida, particularly, who have done some hard yards, Lyn Hollows and Helen Bond-Sharp, and in Gunbalanya, people like the indigenous principal, Esther Djayhgurrnga. All these individuals were given more than enough reason to doubt their efforts. They could have walked away and begun reciting the usual lines on education in the region, that it is all too hard, and let us forget about it and, after all, it is only Aboriginal students and therefore, they are unable to be educated. These key individuals have stuck to the job, no matter how difficult the challenges have been, no matter how uncaring the system has been because they acknowledge that children are our greatest resource, something the CLP did not acknowledge. In working with out schools, the government acknowledges that children are our greatest resource.
If we look to the future, children are our future leaders. In building a very strong education system, we have to work with communities. I am not saying that it is all the system’s problem, but there have been a number of problems in our communities. We constantly talk about the dysfunction in communities. I have often said when I talk to people in the various communities, and particularly my own mob, that we are never going to improve our children’s literacy and numeracy and there is no point having the teachers there and putting the infrastructure in place if our communities, our parents, do not get those kids into school. We need to work with families to get them to see the value of education. It has not been there in the past, and work needs to be done with parents so that they value education and get kids to schools.
I was pushed by both parents that I was never going to achieve anything in life unless I went to school. Education was a something about which I was strongly disciplined to ensure I and all of my brothers and sisters attended school. My father did not have access to a good education system, but it was something that he pushed all of us on, so we did get a good education. For that, I am eternally grateful. It is something about which I talk a lot, particularly to young girls at our communities who despair that they are not going to be able to achieve things so they can see that they can get on in life; making them see that if they stay in school and get the education, their prospects in life will be better.
All children’s education is an essential building block for powering the Territory forward, and for grasping the future in both hands and making sure every Territorian has an education. Sometimes when we have debates, they are centred in our urban regions. We also have to look at what happens outside our cities and towns. We need to know what needs to be put in place in our remote communities so that there is access and equity to education, no matter what your language or gender, and everyone has the opportunity to fully participate in life, society and the economy.
I am pleased to say that the Territory now has a minister for education who has recognised that the basic building blocks for providing education to all Territorians lies with the keys groups I mentioned previously: committed teachers who are employed to teach and are given the tools and conditions to do it; experienced advisory staff available to teachers in the field; Aboriginal Education Workers skilled and empowered to offer their considerable experience to their school communities; and community members who want to support their children’s educational endeavours.
The minister outlined how 16 new teachers have been appointed. I am delighted that six of the positions have been allocated to the group schools located in the Katherine region, Barkly, Alice Springs, east and west, and the Top End group schools. As well, the group schools benefit from five new assistant principal positions. The current group schools have shown the effectiveness of pooling their resources, funds, staff and equipment. The group schools’ registrars have been particularly effective, as has the process of applying and acquitting funds, bulk ordering of equipment and other resources, maintenance contracts and the like. More importantly, it frees teacher principals to teach, to provide education leadership in their communities, and provide day-to-day staff management of their schools. The group schools model also provides a better system of supervising the educational outcomes achieved in remote schools.
I acknowledge the importance of the minister’s initiative in allocating substantial funding this year and next to the provision of remote housing furniture for our outposted teachers. The provision of heaters in teacher housing in Central Australia is long overdue and is one of the little things that assist in keeping experienced teaching staff out in our communities, which have the greatest need.
Members of this House may be familiar with the famous, or some would say infamous, cartoons of the 1980s that featured Harry Scrawls, a teacher sent out to teach in an unnamed remote school in the Territory. Harry’s life was one of loneliness and professional isolation and regular cartoons showed him uttering desperate monologues bemoaning his fate, all conducted in a school that was, of course, a ‘silver bullet’, as was his accommodation. I am pleased to say that the Harry Scrawls’ days are gone and at last our remote teachers are getting the working and living conditions they deserve.
The addition of substantial numbers of staff to critically important advisory positions demonstrates the minister’s commitment to remote area education. This commitment stands in stark contrast to the approach of previous ministers who inherited a worthy Commonwealth advisory capacity, but allowed it to run down until advisors became somewhat like Tasmanian Tigers: often sighted but with no proof of existence ever forthcoming. I am delighted that the minister has seen fit to assist our hard working front line teachers by creating many new advisory positions, particularly in the areas of literacy, special education, physical education, alternative provision capacity, behaviour management and teaching resource development.
The success of the accelerated literacy trial has significant implications for our remote area students. The minister has outlined the fact that substantial numbers of teachers have had professional development training in the delivery of the accelerated literacy approach and that is being implemented across remote schools as we speak. The trial indicates significant progress in working with indigenous students and encourages us to believe that the differences in high school entry literacy rates between indigenous and non-indigenous students can be overcome.
As I said earlier, there are many heroes of education in the Territory, people who have stuck to the job and held the line to keep giving Territory kids the best possible opportunity to achieve their ambitions. I want to speak about one such group now: Aboriginal education workers.
In many of our remote schools, Aboriginal assistant teachers and home liaison officers are the one consistent factor in the education service delivered to their communities. When non-indigenous staff come and go, it is the indigenous education workers who stick by their community and their kids. Often their knowledge of those kids and the communities in which they live is second to none. In many cases, they are the bedrock of the community education process, providing essential liaison between community and non-indigenous staff, between students and their teachers. Of course, they are role models for communities in which unemployment is high and working role models for students are in very short supply.
It is true that these indigenous education workers have been working in schools for decades and it is not something new, but there needs to be recognition instead of constant ignorance. Recent developments on this minister’s watch indicate that they are at last being taken to another level of professional competence and performance as workers in their children’s education in their own right. The minister is right to support all our education workers because they are the major investment in our communities’ education, delivering stability for students, schools and communities.
I am delighted that some specific programs around the Territory are achieving real outcomes. I speak specifically of projects like the Central Anmatjere Picture Dictionary being used by students and teachers in the Anmatjere-speaking communities of Laramba, Yuelamu and Ti Tree. This program, so simple in concept, has brought Aboriginal education workers from the back of the classroom to the front, where they should be. Not only is children’s literacy improving, but local education workers feel that they have an important role to play in the education of their children. The local workers’ confidence is up, and they will not return to the back of the classroom easily.
In October, I am informed that a similar dictionary will be launched at Ambladawatj for Alyawarra speakers. I am sure that this dictionary will have a similar empowering impact in the east as the Central Anmatjere one has to the west.
Generally, any investment in the professional development of our teachers is money well spent, but now that all employees are receiving their fair share of professional development, our remote schools can only benefit.
I also wish to speak about the need for support to put the local community in the school; it is not just about putting the school in the community. The genius of the picture dictionary projects is that they do that very thing. These projects harness the linguistic ability and cultural knowledge of the community as a whole. These curriculum documents show that there is a place for Aboriginal knowledge and expertise in school curriculum. The books were developed by the community, are owned by the community and the community teaches from the books. Not only teachers get up in front of classes, but community members as well, demonstrating for all to see the value of community knowledge and expertise.
Once community members are valued as important informants and guides for the community education process, and once their knowledge and experience is recognised as important, it is only a comparatively small step to harness the enthusiasm of that involvement in the governance of the school. When parents and other community members are truly part of the education system of their school, not only will we have a thriving school, but a community development process that can spin off into all other aspects of contemporary community life.
However, in my travels around the Territory, I detect a new vibe in the education community. I see very good examples of close cooperative efforts emerging. I see larger schools assisting smaller ones in a mutually beneficial way, and the very nature of the group school clusters mean that they are often working well together with a central focus, as it should be: the educational wellbeing of the students. I see teachers at last getting the advisory assistance they have needed for so long, and recognition of the particular circumstances of teaching in some of the most remote regions of Australia. I see the professional development of our hard working teaching staff, indigenous and non-indigenous, being put up again so that they can do best what we require them to do, and that is to teach.
Finally, Aboriginal educators are receiving the recognition and respect they deserve. I see the community coming in and being a big part of the dynamic school community rather than being merely passive receivers of an educational system. Yes, there is much to be done, but I see key positives such as these. It is difficult not to feel positive about building better educational outcomes for Territory children and their families.
Madam Speaker, I commend the minister’s statement to the House.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, it is important to note the community’s current state of mind on education and, in particular, this government’s approach to education - in fact, this government’s approach to any such issue, with a couple of outstanding exceptions. We have, for example, the Alcohol Framework that goes on and on and on, where you consult the community until you have practically extracted the life from it, and the community reaches the point where it wonders whether this government has the capacity to actually make a decision.
The Secondary Education Report arrived with great fanfare, a bit like Burke and Wills, big fanfare, off they go down to South Australia and launch up into the Northern Territory with great expectations. We had massive celebrations of the announcement of the review into education, and then it disappeared. That consultancy group went out and spoke to folk who have a passion and an interest in education and spoke about this system in good faith. Then they waited, expecting a response, and the committee paused, there was silence, we discover that the recommendations have now been presented to Cabinet after almost 12 months at a cost, I would estimate, close to $1m at this point.
Then it sits with Cabinet for month after month after month, with all those community members with an interest, with a passion for education, wondering what happened to those dialogues, what happened with their contribution. This Cabinet sits and waits while children sit in their classes, while teachers teach, while school councils meet and wonder what will be the next move.
Then, after considerable deliberation, we have this government consider: ‘I know what our next move will be. We will ask the community what it thinks about these recommendations’. With that was a wave of disappointment that hit this community.
Those with a passion for education, those with an interest in it, thought that we would get to the stage where we would have a proposed course of action and a proposed outline for implementation. What decision has this government actually made? The decision was to go and ask the community again.
That process has let the community down. In this review, there are many fine ideas. We could talk about these ideas forever. It is the will of this government to talk about these things, to speculate and theorise about what innovative ideas there could be in education and what could possibly occur, and we could talk about it on an intellectual level. However, there are kids in classes, there are teachers struggling out there, there are school councils meeting and nothing is happening except discussion and talk and consideration.
They need action, minister. They need some direction. They need to know what decisions you have made. You have been elected to govern, and you have already consulted through this process. You have already gained the view of the community and how they feel about education. You had a review, well considered, many fine ideas there, waited for Cabinet to come up with a response to it, and their response was only to ask the community again.
It has been evident that the way you have conducted this is simply a time-buying exercise displaying that this is a government that has no real courage to make decisions. As I said earlier, there are a couple of notable exceptions, one being the decision to increase the number of poker machines in our community without community consultation. I cannot understand that, nor can I understand your decision to lower the age of consent for homosexual sex for 16-year-old lads. On those two, minimal consultation, but any other decision, you suck the life out of it. All the while, there are kids and teachers out there wondering and waiting for direction from this government.
Yes, middle schools are a fine concept, but the issue is: how do you implement them? That is what they want to hear about, how you are going to do it. What sort of strategies are you going to put in place to make sure that the teachers themselves are prepared to teach in that sort of system? There is plenty of research. There have been plenty of discussions. The consultation has occurred. The real issue is not ‘Is it a good idea or is it not?’ It is how you are going to do it. This is the clearest message. We in opposition are not opposed to innovation, but it is how you implement.
Let us talk about implementation. Let us talk about a government that is going to show some leadership.
In respect of middle schools, the key issue is: what sort of preparation do you provide for teachers? You have to build that basic structure first. What sort of programs will you put in place to train teachers to be able to carry that kind of structure? That is where the discussions should be. Be decisive, head in that direction and implement those kinds of structures. Instead, we have the life sapped out of the community and we do not have that kind of direction. The amount of money that has been spent could have employed any number of teachers.
We need to drill down and look at the real issues in education today and how a government should respond to them. One is school attendance. We need to get kids to go to school. That is a base line issue. We need to make sure they go. The issue here is we must make sure that parents take greater responsibility to have their children attend school. There are plenty of services out there to assist parents who are having difficulty, and it is time that we had a dialogue that said a parent is responsible to make sure their child goes to school, and if they do not send their child to school, there needs to be some kind of action.
Again, it seems to be the approach of this government to provide support after support after support, which is at a general and benign level, but there is no edge to it. There is no increasing the awareness and responsibility of a parent to send their child to school. We need to have that card dealt so that parents know that they have some responsibility otherwise they become completely dependent upon government, and we enlarge the expectation of the community on government and we have no result and an enlargement of the cost to government.
Parents are responsible for sending their children to school and I want policies to ensure that happens. For example, from time to time, parents should be fined for not sending their children to school. They should be held fully accountable, because there is more than enough support and agencies out there to assist a parent who is having some difficulty. If parents cannot find the time to go to agencies for assistance, we need to go to the next stage so that we send the message that parents ultimately have responsibility.
What about going to the next stage with struggling attendance within many of our schools? There should be some connection to the attendance at school and the reward that a parent receives in terms of welfare benefits. There needs to be consideration of ways of doing that so we create the cause and the effect because unless we start moving in that direction, we are not going to make any real progress.
I wish to raise the issue of bilingual education. This government, when in opposition, made great play about the virtues of bilingual education and, upon coming to government with the opportunity to do something about bilingual education, has done nothing about it. They have left it as it is. You have created an expectation that has been disappointed. We must put some focus back into bilingual education. Why? Because we need parents to take responsibility in education and if we start to allow parents to be involved in remote communities in their own language, that is the best way of providing English language tuition by way of the second language. I urge this government to rethink its position with regard to bilingual education because it is certainly on my books.
We must get students attending school; we must make sure that parents understand their degree of responsibility. Sure, government has responsibilities, but parents, ultimately, have responsibility to send their child to a school.
The next issue is: we must look at and respect our teaching service. The situation we currently have is consultation upon consultation. Minister, if you have been to Darwin High School as recently as I have you will know that the teachers are very concerned about the way this consultation upon consultation has occurred and is diminishing morale.
Our teachers need to be supported and shown clear leadership. Teachers need to be given reward for performance. There are many teachers out there who have grown weary, who want to support after school programs, but there seems to be little recognition. Less and less, teachers want to go that extra mile. However, there are many of them, fortunately, who still do. I am interested in finding ways of recognising those teachers and making sure that they are rewarded for the extra contribution they make to their school communities.
I am very interested in ensuring that those teachers who make time to service remote communities are recognised for that service, as in other states that have moved in that direction. To have a teacher work in a remote locality for one year and then another, and then another, is the most valuable thing that you can provide in terms of length of service within a remote community. When a teacher moves, the trusts and relationship are effectively lost as there has been a change from one teacher to the next. Ways can be found, and have been proposed previously by myself and others, for rewarding and recognising length of service within remote communities. That must be done so that teachers have recognition for length of service and communities have greater stability in education provision.
Parents need to understand what is going on in education. The phrase ‘plain English reporting’ is an important one. Most parents do not understand reports that come home; the language and information is in ‘edu-babble’. It conveys no clear indication to the parent of how their child is actually faring at school. We need to have reports that are very plain and clear so parents know whether their child is achieving against set and easily understood benchmarks, particularly in numeracy and literacy, so there is an understanding and clear information is conveyed.
Underneath this, there has to be an increase in the measurability of what is happening in the school and that links then to curriculum. Our curriculum needs to be different from the current one, which is a mile wide and an inch deep. There need to be core elements to the curriculum. Rather than having a framework, we need some meat on the bones, some substance to it so that teachers have a greater capacity to teach, not to write programs and fill in the gaps of a framework, but to actually teach and be able to report on clearly measurable aspects within the curriculum. Parents need that. They need to know whether their child is actually achieving in known subjects, numeracy and literacy primarily. They need to understand that. We need to focus on the curriculum.
We can discuss issues such as middle school and so on, and they are interesting, but it is how you effectively implement and create the capacity for those to be included within our current system. That is where debate needs to be. After dealing with getting kids to school, making sure we reward and recognise teachers for performance and length of service, particularly in remote communities, and, as I mentioned in a previous debate, for in-servicing. The Teachers Registration Board should have the capacity to recognise teachers who add value to their profession by upgrading their skills through in-servicing. There needs to be recognition and a way of rewarding teachers for that kind of dedication rather than having this one size fits all and it is jolly good that you have gone out and done an in-service in subject area X, Y or Z.
If a teacher has gone that step further and taken an extra responsibility upon themselves to learn and to strengthen their craft, they end up back at a school and are given extra duties but no real reward. Those teachers should be recognised and supported for that extra. There are mechanisms for doing it. If you have the will to do it, you can do it, and that is the sort of thing I would like to see, that teachers are recognised for going that extra mile in respect of after school programs and in-servicing.
Plain English reporting is important, as is the role parents play on school councils. The messages that are coming through in this community consultation are of concern to school councils. You have the goodwill of parents who are involved in school councils being eroded because there is this centralist message coming through that yes, you play the game at the school council level, you effectively give the impression that you are making really big decisions, but at the bottom line, you really do not have a lot of power. If you ask school councils what real decisions they actually make, they need to be supported and given recognition that they are critically important in the education that occurs at the local school level. Discussions through this consultation process are diminishing and sending messages that the local school council will be reduced in its authority and diminished in its effective role in the education of children at the local school level.
Finally, in this statement, we see reference to the VET sector. We need a VET sector that is more connected to industry, that is industry driven and industry can speak more effectively and directly on the training agenda and is far more responsive to the industry sector. At the moment, it appears that the voice of industry is neutered through the beaurocracy that surrounds the delivery of training. That must be improved. We must have clear emphasis given to the voice of industry in the training agenda. That must and will change.
We need to recognise programs that were not mentioned in the speech, such as the TCA’s Try A Trade program. It is an initiative of Word Skills Australia and is going to be run again this year. Those programs show us the way; industry becomes actively involved in showing how apprentiships after leaving school provide careers. It is a direct interface between industry and the school without necessarily going through an extensive bureaucracy. Minister, I trust you have seen these programs, particularly Try A Trade. That is the type of model we need to see more of. If we were able to increase the level of funding to TCA, we would find a stronger connection between industry and the training sector.
The final issue remains, irrespective of talk about recommendations in the review, standards in education. It comes down to that basic level of children going to school, what they are being taught and the standard of education they are receiving. That is where we need to focus our attention and be satisfied that children are receiving a standard and quality of education that is to be envied. This is why we have such a level of anxiety within the community because it has gone on for far too long. It is for that reason we need to inject some certainty to this debate.
Madam Speaker, I move that motion be amended to omit all words after ‘that’ and insert in their stead:
Dr LIM: Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I move an extension of time such that my colleague may conclude his remarks.
Motion agreed to.
Mr MILLS: Thank you, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I am now speaking to the amendment.
To provide clarity in direction for our school community, parents and all who have an interest in education, we must provide certainty. Certainty must be provided at the school council level. It must be provided at the chalk face. Teachers need to have some clarity and direction from this government.
Mr Henderson: You said you supported it.
Mr Stirling: Are we getting a copy of this amendment?
Mr MILLS: You were not listening to my previous comments, minister. The issue is clear focus, support for school communities, support for school councils and clear direction for schools. Put an end to this and guarantee that the debate about such things as innovative ideas can continue at an academic level, but put an end to speculation about the NT Open Education Centre. Say it will remain open and it services will be enhanced. Say that to them, then they can get on with their business, and we can increase the performance, output and service to education in the Northern Territory.
Say to school councils: ‘We support you and we will increase your authority and power and your decision-making processes at the local school level’. End the uncertainty, speak directly to them and say that to them. Make a commitment that you are going to devolve your powers and authority back to those school councils, because they know it is being removed. You can say all sorts of things, but they know that the tide is turning the other way. The conduct of this debate within the community is sending the clear and subliminal message that the power and authority of school councils is being diminished.
School precincts and the occupation of time in talking about such concepts is removing the focus from the real issue, and that is making sure kids get to school, that parents understand they have a responsibility to take their kids to school, teachers are properly supported and given clear direction, that we focus our attention on the development of curriculum that supports teachers, helps them to teach and sends a clear message to parents so parents understand exactly what is happening at school.
Increase the support to local school councils. Those well-intentioned parents who want to get in there and serve their school communities need greater support. They need assistance to help them run their school councils. You need to provide training programs, and I commit to making sure that school councils provide proper training programs so that they have professional support, so they can conduct their affairs at the local school level and provide real leadership within a school context, not just be the fund raising arm of the education department to provide support to the local school environment. They need real support, and they need clear direction from this government or any government because effectively, it is a parent who has ultimate responsibility. Government is there to support, and it is the child should benefit from all these activities.
Finally, create some certainty within Casuarina Senior College. Let them know, clearly, what you have in mind. Make a decision. I urge this government, to reject the recommendation to transfer Year 10 to Casuarina Senior College. Provide that level of certainty, and do as they did at Darwin High School. There are people right across the community, particularly connected with Darwin High School, who have grave concerns about the direction in which this consultation is heading. Their principal position was this: we are not opposed to innovation in education, but, if you choose to implement innovative ideas within education, it must be done in a very measured and careful way. At this moment, we have such an increase in uncertainty, which is detracting from the focus of teachers upon their students and it is diminishing the focus and the confidence of school councils.
I urge members to support the amendment.
Mr STIRLING (Employment, Education and Training): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I put on the record at the first opportunity the government’s opposition to the amendment circulated by the Leader of the Opposition.
This is the old CLP’s ugly arrogance reasserting itself. They do not want to listen to the views of the community notwithstanding that there has been a lengthy and comprehensive consultative process. I have not seen the views of all of the people who have responded in the different phases of the consultative process. That is a body of work to be completed and come back to us. However, that is of no interest to the Country Liberal Party. They say: ‘We know best’. It is the old CLP arrogance. One of the reasons for their demise at the 2001 election was the attitude that the CLP always knows best, and do not worry about consultation or whatever the community has to say.
The amendment calls for us to guarantee that the Northern Territory Open Education Centre will remain open. Notwithstanding that we have not heard or seen all of the feedback from the consultative process, I and the government are being asked to stamp our foot all over this recommendation and give a guarantee. Forget what the people have said. We are not interested in what you said, we do not want to see your views, that was all a farce, you are just being called on to say: ‘Yes, leave it open’. There will always be a facility for the purposes of distance education in the Northern Territory because of the make-up of the place and the need to provide an educational service to those small groups that are spread geographically across so many thousands of kilometres.
Who says? Who says that you could not build a precinct structure and a model that would preserve or even strengthen the role of school councils and, indeed, school principals within that structure? Years ago, we had - and it was a mistake that they were taken away by the previous government - superintendents in the regions. No one suggested that they reduced the role, power or authority of school councils or reduced the effectiveness or power of principals. In fact, they were a strengthening and an underpinning at a local level because you had a senior educator able to advise and work with principals, school communities and schools on issues as they arose at the coal face instead of every issue having to come back to Darwin to be dealt with.
We have an assumption here that learning precincts will reduce the authority of local school councils and principals notwithstanding that we have not yet seen the feedback from the community about what they think about school precincts and whether some modification is required to ensure that these authorities and powers remain intact. Again, the advice is to ride roughshod over the public view. ‘We are not interested in your views, this is the way you have to do it and we call on the government to reject this recommendation’.
That underpins the misplaced assumptions in the second point of the proposed amendment, so there are the same arguments. We are genuine about hearing the views of the community and we are not about to make decisions on it now.
That does not give me, nor did the Leader of the Opposition’s comments in relation to this, too much idea of exactly what he was talking about. One of the things I have been keen on is to look at school councils’ roles, governance, responsibilities, strengthening, particularly in and around responsibility for accounting and financial accountability because we have seen some pretty ordinary things happen over recent years. I would be keen to look at that question. The Leader of the Opposition gives me no comfort as to exactly what he is talking about and not much detail or idea of the substance of his proposed amendment.
It would have been silly to say: ‘Let us have a review of school councils and governance structures’ in the same time frame, running parallel with what is a comprehensive review of secondary education. Once that was all through, I would still be keen to do that. If a new government was in place after the next election, it would remain a fairly high priority order for any government to look at. However, ‘increase support for local school councils’, what does that mean? What resources are being called for? I do not know, and I am not prepared to support point four of the proposed amendment.
The views of Casuarina Senior College, in the view of the Leader of the Opposition, must remain paramount. They are the voice of all educational authority and power in this argument; no one else is to be listened to. It is a bad idea, Year 10 to Casuarina. So what does Casuarina Senior College say about Nightcliff High or Darwin High? Do it there? Do they say that? All they do is say is: ‘Do not do it here’. What is the educational reasoning and background? Is it a good idea, is it a bad idea? Is it a good idea, but not in my back yard? These are responses that need to be drilled down. I have met with Casuarina teachers, I have met with students at different times, and I am under no illusion about what their views are. They are pretty consistent; they are opposed to it.
However, they are not the only voice in this debate and I will not be cowered, nor will government be cowered or bow down to the might of this view from Casuarina Senior College. It may be that if the recommendation was accepted in the long term, structures could be built around it and Casuarina Senior College rolled on as a Year 11 and 12 institution, but you build Years 10, 11 and 12 in other schools that were about to go that way. If it is a sound educational principle, if there are educational gains to be made in bringing these reforms forward, we would not be put off by Casuarina Senior College not being in the mix, initially at least. Where would you put them without building extra facilities and making it work logistically?
It is a measure of arrogance: the CLP knows best. It is the old days of the CLP. It shows they have not learnt from the years in opposition that they have to listen to the community. Wicking had it right very early on in their days of opposition with his cartoon about the CLP not knowing how to listen. We embarked on this comprehensive process of consultation to hear the voice not of just one body or one institution, but to hear the voices of school communities all around the Northern Territory
I have not had the opportunity to see that feedback yet; neither have my colleagues, neither has anyone else other than Sheila O’Sullivan and Rita Henry and the people who have been involved in each of these consultative forums. We will take the time to get those views rounded up, back to Cabinet and when we have all of that material stacked up in a logical and sensible way against the recommendations of the report, government will make decisions and go forward.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, the government will not be accepting any points of this proposed amendment from the opposition.
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, some of my remarks will overlap with the recommendations.
Education is a changing theme. It never stays still. What we have had for many years may not necessarily be the right thing for the future. We have to understand that. We are talking about learning precincts and there seems to be a lot of fear and trepidation, but you need to understand that what might suit Darwin may not suit the rest of the Territory.
In the 1980s, Alice Springs Year 7s went into junior high, so we have Years 7, 8, 9, and 10 in our junior highs in Alice Springs. I remember at the time there was a great controversy. It was not done for educational reasons; it was done purely because primary schools did not have enough room. That move was not done for the right educational reasons, but it worked. At that time, although there was a bit of discontent, the junior secondary schools said: ‘We have to rethink the way we are teaching our kids in Year 7.’ So instead of having the old model of children going to classes and moving, they put the Year 7s together and the teachers moved, not the students. That is the way it can happen. One size does not fit all. That is what I am saying. You must have some vision.
I understand the fear that the Leader of the Opposition expresses about losing autonomy for the pre- and primary sectors of our schools and the parent involvement. I can recall when I was Principal of Sadadeen Primary, we were the first school in the Territory to take on devolution and it was such a big responsibility. It was huge for us, but it worked. No way would I like to see this pyramid-type of administration introduced where people at the pre-school level are being told by people in the senior area what they should do and how they should spend their money.
However, it can work. OLSH, the Catholic school in Alice Springs, has three campuses: junior, middle and senior secondary. If you speak to the principal, he will say: ‘It works. What are you worried about? We would not have it any other way’.
A member interjecting.
Mrs BRAHAM: ‘Absolutely’, said someone over there. It can work. We must not be blinkered and think we have to have the same type of education precinct in every place.
The minister mentioned cluster groups, and they are working. What I like about these cluster groups is they are providing professional development for teachers in remote schools.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, you would know how hard it is to be a teacher in a remote school. You would know how isolated and frustrated they feel working in these conditions. Under cluster groups, principals from town schools now meet in a bush school; they do not always expect bush principals to come into town. It is a different model of giving support, professional development and sharing ideas. Some of those meetings have been highly successful.
I noticed the minister said he is currently developing a new indigenous education plan. I ask the education minister to think broadly again. I had the pleasure at the weekend of visiting Oenpelli for their open day. Whilst there, I met a teacher whom I have known, as he said, ‘for half a century’. I first met him at Papunya when he arrived in the Territory and he has taught at various schools. I said: ‘How are things going?’, which is the usual thing you say to teachers in the bush because we do not appreciate the hard yards they do, particularly in communities that do not have strong leadership. He said: ‘Oh, not as well as we would like. Even though we keep trying to teach English, it is hard. We have a lot of petrol sniffers, and a club that is open six days a week. It is really hard’. I could see how frustrated he was.
I told him about the case of a new head teacher who went to one of our schools in the Centre, and I will not mention where, but he was horrified to find kids in the community walking around sniffing. So he went to the local council and basically got so angry that they would turn a blind eye to all these students who should have been in school who were walking around sniffing petrol. He took out his anger on that council. What did they do? They reacted in the right manner. They then said: ‘We will address this problem’. They took these kids to an outstation to rehabilitate them.
He had a win, so he thought that was good. He then went into the shop and asked: ‘Why are you serving kids when it is school time? You should be telling them to go to school. If you go to Harts Range, you will not find a child on the road, in the shop, out in the playground, they are all in school’. What did the shop keeper say to him? He shrugged his shoulders. That was his answer, a shrug of the shoulders; he could not care less. Is it any wonder bush teachers give up when they are so frustrated with that sort of response from communities?
We have to engage communities more. We keep saying parents, but in remote communities, we are talking about the community as a whole. Think about Areyonga: no school, no pool. Simple. It works. Think of Ali Curung: no school, no after school recreational program, no afternoon tea, no entry into the hall, none of the activities. Look at Mt Allen: parents are contributing each week to a lunch provided by the Women’s Centre. Those kids love it. They line up each day for their lunch. It is the community pulling together. The breakfast program at Yipirinya has been widely lauded because it is getting those kids ready for the start of a day.
If we are going to try to enhance standards and outcomes, if we really expect our head teachers and teachers to do it, we have to ask where their priorities should lie. Should they be social workers, or should it be the community council getting behind them? I say to the minister perhaps he should be looking at community councils and saying to them: ‘Let us get an MOU together. Let us work out what you as a community can do for your school’. Let us see if this community can ensure that kids are fed every day, that kids go to school, that elders and parents go into that school so the students know that they consider school is important. Let us get town kids visiting bush schools, not always bush schools coming into the town schools. Let us start thinking of incentive programs that are already working in our communities. Why does a place like Laramba work? It is because it has a good community council which wants to send their kids to school and to learn.
Instead of pouring resources and thinking that is going to be the end-all to fix it, let us get a bit more creative. Minister, I suggest you start thinking about MOUs between your community and your school, looking at the ones that work, getting some of those good ideas and putting them into practice in other schools.
The statement also dealt with the secondary review. I can understand the frustration of the member for Greatorex and many other people. This has been going on for a long time. In Alice Springs, we have a particular issue. The bill to amalgamate Centralian secondary campus with the CDU slipped through without us realising the implications. I did not realise what this bill was all about and what the effect would be. At the moment, I believe there is an MOU being considered by CDU and DEET, but interestingly enough, parents tell me they do not know of it, they have never seen it, they do not know what it is about. It may be okay to say that parents of university students do not want to get involved with what happens at university, but you cannot say that about parents of secondary kids who want to get involved in their schooling.
The trouble is if you leave Centralian College under CDU, you are taking away any government-run school in Alice Springs. As taxpayers, many parents will say: ‘I do not want my child to go a private school; I want my child to go to a public school’. It is as simple as that. We may end up having not one senior secondary government-run school in Alice Springs. That is a big concern.
Some of the issues raised by parents are: ‘Are we suddenly going to get huge fees?’ Who knows. We do not know. That is the trouble; we do not know what is in this MOU. Parents are asking: ‘Will our students in Year 11 and 12 have the pastoral care they have had in the past?’ It certainly went out the window when they put an exhibition in the library in front of the computers that Years 11 and 12 were using. I found that exhibition a little bit too up-front for secondary students.
At this time of the year when Year 12 is so important, parents are asking: ‘Are our teachers concentrating on what they should be doing with our students, or are they distracted by what is going to happen with this MOU?’
In Alice Springs, we have three private secondary schools: Yirara, OLSH and St Philip’s. We did have Centralian College as our major Year 11 and 12 college. We could end up with four private schools and no general public school for the young people of Alice Springs. That is one of my major concerns.
The other concern that has been raised with me continually is the teachers. Teachers are now not sure where there career path will lead them. If they accept these contracts that are being offered by CDU, where do they go? Where are the career opportunities for a secondary teacher teaching maths in this system? Are they able to go back to DEET? Do they have to give up all their entitlements to go to CDU? What will be their terms and conditions if they transfer? It seems to me that for our professionals, there is no career path if they are locked into this one system with CDU. That is a very big concern for teachers in Alice Springs at the moment, and might I say, for the para-professionals as well. They may be locked into a system that has no career path for them. As well as that, who will provide them with the professional development that they may need? All those things are a mystery, and that is why it has been raised here in Question Time; there are great concerns out there.
For instance, I believe the buildings belong to CDU at the moment under the legislation. All the facilities were given to them. If the minister decides that he is going to retain Centralian College as a government-run secondary school, then he also has the additional problem of all the facilities that are now jointly shared by CDU and Centralian College. If he leaves Centralian College with CDU, who will manage the budget for the secondary students? Will it be swallowed up in the big CDU budget, or will the funding this government gives for secondary-age students be retained and spent on secondary-age students? We do not know, and that is what is causing the confusion. There is no guarantee on anything as regards funding, career paths, and facilities.
What about our other remote schools? What about the schools that share? Students from St Philip’s go to Centralian College for some subjects. Students from OLSH do, too. Are they going to be able to continue to do that?
The minister knows that there are concerns out there. He is taking too long to get on with this. He has to address it: decide what is going to happen to Centralian College one way or the other, and take away the uncertainty. It is the end of August and there are many teachers who have enough stress trying to get their kids through Year 12 exams without having to worry about where their future may be. If they decide not to stay and accept the contract from CDU, where do they go within the current system? What opportunities are there for professionals?
As far as I can see, the minister needs to answer a few questions. I know he keeps saying that he is waiting on the report. I was a little concerned at one of the public meetings that the convenor of the meeting seemed to be seeing very enthusiastic things when I was seeing the reverse. I was seeing concern, no understanding of what was going on, and issues raised whereas she was seeing it quite a different way.
I am pleased the minister is putting in heaps of resources into schools. That is fine. When we talk about building better schools, infrastructure, furniture and school equipment funding, I want to give a plug: the air-conditioning system at Braitling Primary School is over 25 years old. It is noisy and it is an open school. In fact, the level of the noise is higher than acceptable for young students in class rooms. I know it is going to take a lot of money to fix that airconditioning, but that is something I would like the minister to address.
Another issue is Braitling Pre-school. The airconditioning service there is just not adequate for the building. It may have been a fault when it was first built, who knows? It is not adequate, and we need to address it.
What am I saying? Fix the issue of Centralian College. Do not be too blinkered about learning precincts, but do not think one size fits all. When you are looking at the bush and remote schools, get the community behind the school. Take the pressure off those teachers who often feel extremely frustrated and very lonely if they do not have strong community and council support.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I look forward to the minister providing further updates on what is going to happen.
Mr ELFERINK (Macdonnell): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I can advise the member for Nightcliff that I will only be a couple minutes. I am speaking to the amendment.
The minister ran the argument that we have to consult. We have this review back and we have to go through this process of consultation to find out what people are thinking and it is very important that we consult with them very carefully. That is, for this government, becoming code for: ‘Oh, this review was not the answer we wanted, so what we are going to do is go into a review process, of which we are ultimately going to ignore the results anyhow, but what we are going to do is keep it on the back burner until after at least the next election’. The minister is putting time frames on this well into next year now.
We saw the same thing with the alcohol report yesterday. He knows that there is some contentious stuff in it. This government has a choice to govern or to hand over the reins to those who can govern. What is starting to occur, and it is a consistent pattern, is that they are trying too hard to duck and weave their way around difficult issues. They say they are going in to a review process.
After all these reviews and results of reviews, we now have reviews of reviews. The minister says: ‘It is the arrogance of the CLP to waltz in here and start making some decisions’. Well, if the CLP wants to start making some decisions and asking the government for some guarantees, is that such a sin?
During the review process, the whole department sits on hold waiting for the review process to finish. Then the review comes through and people are not happy with some of the recommendations. So the government’s response is to review the review. Everyone else is sitting waiting and twiddling their thumbs while a lot of people do not know what is going on inside the department or with strategic planning. Are we talking about centralisation while the review of the review is going on or are we just sitting on our hands hoping to God that all of this goes away? I think it is the latter.
What the Leader of the Opposition is doing is saying to the government: ‘Let’s make some decisions’. Simple as that; let’s get some guarantees. Let’s attach some basic bottom lines to this. The minister has already signalled that he intends not to make a decision and he is going to let this thing keep going and going and going. The problem is that the review process started when – 2001 or 2002? It is now late 2004 and it is still going. The department sits on hold waiting for a clear direction, budgets are chewed up on an annual basis without a clear sense of direction, and teachers on the coal face are stuck without a clear sense of direction as is management. They are all sitting there looking at the minister, saying: ‘Do something’. The minister looks down at his department and says: ‘What? What should I do? I, I, I will not make a decision’.
This is an invitation by the Leader of the Opposition, and a very good one, for the minister to make a decision. I invite the minister to step up to the batter’s plate and do exactly that: make a decision.
Mrs AAGAARD (Nightcliff): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I rise to speak to the original statement fulfilling our commitment to education three year’s on, however, I may make a few comments on the proposed amendment.
Education is something for which I have always had a passion. A good education together with a strong family are probably the two things that ensure a child has the best possible opportunities in their life. Over my life, I have seen a significant difference in outcomes for many people who have not had these opportunities, and I am pleased that our government is working to improve our education system so that our children can get the best possible start in life.
As the member for Nightcliff, I spend a considerable amount of my time working with schools in my area and it is one of the most valuable and enjoyable experiences as a local member. It has given me the opportunity to become further involved with the teachers, parents and students at the nine schools in my area: Nightcliff High School, Nightcliff Primary School, the Essington School, St Paul’s Catholic School, the Milkwood Steiner School, the Greek Orthodox School of the Northern Territory, the Northern Territory School of Music and the School of Languages.
I take this opportunity to thank the parents and teachers who work so hard for our children in our schools, especially the Principal of Nightcliff Primary School, Mr Steve Marshall, the Chair of the Nightcliff Primary School Council, Mr Byron Olstad, and Deputy Chair, Mr Murray Fuller; the Principal of Nightcliff High School, Mr Paul Atkinson, School Council Chair, Mrs Rosemary Campbell and Deputy Chair, Mr William Bean; Principal of the Essington School, Mr David Cannon and Chair of the Essington Board, Mr John McLaren and Vice Chair, Mr Phil Donohoe; Principal of St Paul’s, Mrs Mary Cutjar, Council Chairperson, Mr Graeme Shaw and Parents and Friends President, Mr Mark Bruton; the Chairperson of the Milkwood Steiner School, Mr Michael Wells; Principal of the Greek School, Mr John Skoufezis and the President of the Greek School, Mr Sam Hatzivalsamis.
This amazing variety of schools is representative of the options that parents want for their children: a solid, well resourced public system, a strong independent and Catholic system as well as specialist schools for ethnic communities and special subjects. There is no doubt that parents and students in Nightcliff are very fortunate that there are so many options for their children in the area.
I have three children in the Territory education system, with my daughter at Nightcliff Primary and my sons at Nightcliff High School. My eldest son is moving on to Casuarina Senior College next year. Over the years I have served on school councils, like many parents, in Nightcliff, and prior to that at my former home in Karama, and continue to serve as a parent member on both the Nightcliff Primary School Council and the Nightcliff High School Council. I also spent many years on the Kormilda College Board, so have a good practical knowledge of both the public and the independent education systems.
There can be no doubt that the commitment demonstrated by this government to education and training issues is bearing fruit and improvements to both student outcomes and the system as a whole. The government’s fulfilment of our pledge to introduce 100 additional teachers has allowed strong support for key programs. For example, the provision of 11 additional teachers to assist with behaviour management in schools brings teaching resources directly to schools, but does not impact on the staffing formula. In that case, the 11 teachers will work with hundreds of other teachers and students in projects designed to bring new skills and a new focus to this difficult and perennial issue. I was very pleased to note that one of these teachers is placed at Nightcliff High School.
Let me add to this point that Nightcliff High School is in a state of significant reform. Earlier this year, Nightcliff High School received very negative and totally unwarranted publicity regarding its Real Justice program. This is an outstanding program that has been used in many other places throughout the world with real success. Given that this received so much publicity, I felt it important to talk a little about this program because I know that it is something that will be looked at in other schools around the Territory.
Real Justice, of course, is used not just in schools but by police, courts, correctional services, colleges and universities. A Real Justice conference can be used in lieu of traditional disciplinary or justice processes or, where that is not appropriate, as a supplement to those processes. Conference facilitators stick to a simple script and keep the conference on focus, but are not active participants. A conference is far more productive and rewarding than the current means of responding to wrong doing.
In the conference, the facilitator asks the offenders to tell what they did and what they were thinking about when they did it. The facilitator then asks victims and their family members and friends to tell them about the incident from their perspective and how it affected them. The offender’s family and friends are asked to do the same. Finally, the victim is asked what he or she would like to be the outcome of the conference. Their response is discussed with the offender and everyone else at the conference and, when agreement is reached, a simple contract is written and signed.
This is a very complex system, one that is harder to put in place than the previous system of discipline that is still used in many schools. I congratulate Nightcliff High School for putting this in place. In particular, I place on the record my support for the Principal of Nightcliff High School, Mr Paul Atkinson who has been the Principal since last year and is working hard to improve outcomes for students as well as working on new and interesting ways of teaching, such as the Innov8 program, which started this year for Year 8 students at Nightcliff High School.
Negative comments made by the Leader of the Opposition earlier this year about Nightcliff High School and a very destructive letter sent to people in my electorate about the school were received very badly in the Nightcliff community. Parents, teachers and students were very upset by the negative way in which the opposition presented our community’s school. It is very disappointing that the opposition would use a community school in this way.
Similarly, this afternoon, the Leader of the Opposition made references to reports. He said that parents seemed to have no knowledge of what reports mean. I was somewhat stunned by that. With children in two schools, I would have to say that teachers go to extraordinary lengths to make sure that reports tell parents what it is that children are experiencing at school. Certainly at Nightcliff Primary School, there has been a process in the last year whereby reports have been refined, and I know that parents have been very happy with the changes in those reports. I am also very pleased with the reports that come from Nightcliff High School as, indeed, I was with reports from Kormilda College when my son was at that school. It is very sad that the Leader of the Opposition would make comments that malign the good work of teachers in our schools.
I know that this is a very serious digression, but I was somewhat surprised by the comments about the age of consent by the Leader of the Opposition. Goodness knows this is a very controversial area, but I do not believe that really relates to the minister’s education statement. However, as a mother who has a son who has just turned 16, I think that 16-year-olds these days are so different from 16-year-olds when I was growing up. While I would like to say of my son that I hope he would not be wanting to consent to sexual activity, could he make that kind of decision? Would he have the capacity to do so? Absolutely! I would have to say the same applies to all of his friends.
This is something the government has done that shows we are in step with what our young people are doing and we are recognising their capacity and responsibilities as young people. I know it is controversial, I know it is difficult. I personally am quite a conservative person so I would be saying to my own son: ‘I hope that you are deciding no’, but I believe that young people today are able to make that kind of decision. The Leader of the Opposition needs to get out and talk to a few more teenagers and find out the kinds of things they are actually doing.
Over the last few years, I have been particularly impressed by the addition of resources to the teaching and availability of information technology in our schools. The 100 teacher program has provided four teachers for learning and technology projects in schools. In Nightcliff, both the primary school and the high school are lighthouse schools for technology. Teachers at these schools work intensively with students to innovatively teach and use technology in the schools.
In addition to funding important programs such as this, the government has boosted band width to the schools; $500 000 in additional money has been injected over the last few years to increase band width and the minister has raised the issue of extending band width at a national level with his federal counterpart.
Another significant contribution to the wellbeing of the schools has come from the determination of this minister and the government to improve the equipment available to schools. In February this year, the government announced a special, one-off $1m expenditure on school equipment and a further $1m expenditure in furniture for teacher housing. Both initiatives have been welcomed by teachers and school communities.
In my own schools of Nightcliff Primary and Nightcliff High, it meant $11 004 and $8431 respectively, and I know that this was very well received at those schools. This comes on top of a minor new works program that has been quite extensive. Nightcliff schools have benefited both from the repairs and maintenance program and minor new works. The basketball courts have shade coverage, funded this financial year, and the plant room has been converted into a teaching area at Nightcliff Primary.
I also provide my strong support to the minister’s focus on literacy and numeracy. Prior to this government coming to office it was not compulsory for remote schools to do the multilevel assessment program testing, or MAP testing. Why is a mystery to me, except that it is evidence that there was no commitment to outcomes in the bush. In my own electorate, I congratulate the students and their teachers at Nightcliff Primary School and the Essington School, whose results in MAP testing have been excellent.
This government requires all schools to have a literacy plan, and is spending a considerable amount of money providing resources to an Accelerated Literacy Program. The minister’s announcement this week of an additional 12 teaching positions focussed on the accelerated literacy program is an excellent move.
As both a member of parliament and a parent, I want literacy and numeracy to be the cornerstone of the outcomes of our schools. They are not the only outcomes, they are not the whole product of schools, but they are a very important part of providing each and every child with a decent opportunity in life, and that, to me, is real social justice.
Failure by the previous government to implement the Learning Lessons report was a significant lapse in judgment. Clearly, the report was widely welcomed and accepted, even by the then government, but no money was focussed on it and no resources allocated. I am not sure why.
Clearly, one of the fundamental educational problems facing our community is outcomes in bush communities. These have to be lifted. In addition, the issues of indigenous education now have a wider resonance. Indigenous students are almost 50% of the total government system across the board. In suburban communities, the proportion of indigenous kids at schools is between 50% and 60%. Tackling indigenous education issues is no longer a specialist niche; it is core business and mainstream. This government has recognised that, and I congratulate the minister on his work on this area.
There are other issues on which the minister touched about which I wish to speak briefly. I am strongly supportive of the attendance officers that have been put into place by the government. These eight people are performing a difficult job and doing it well. The work being done by the officer in Sanderson, combined with the schools involved, will make a big difference to the lives of many people. It is critical that we reconnect those young people with the education system. It will mean greater opportunity for them to participate fully in our community later in their lives.
I should add the government has put considerable resources into young people to assist them to a better life. In my area, there are youth programs for after school, with the Energy Cruise activities; in Darwin, we have the Youth Beat run by Mission Australia to help with homeless and youth at risk; and there are school breakfast programs for kids in remote areas. These school breakfast programs are not simply a matter of welfare. Parents pay to have the program put in place, and those of them who are on benefits from the federal government have a certain amount taken out each fortnight so that they are taking active part in the preparation of these breakfast programs. Many of the parents are also involved in the preparation of breakfasts. It is a wonderful program and I am hoping that, over the next few years, we will see some very significant changes in the number of children going to school in those remote areas, particularly in their health outcomes. All these services work to improve the lives of young people and encourage better educational and life outcomes.
Work is also being done on alternative provision of education. Clearly, for some young people the traditional class room approach is not going to work. Alternative means of engaging these students must be found if we are to prevent them from being on the outer of society later. I congratulate Nightcliff High School for leading the way with its new Innov8 program, which shows that there are other ways of teaching and requires students to take greater responsibility for themselves.
I was recently at a Year 8 parent forum at Nightcliff High School, and I was delighted by the challenges and skills being learnt and presented to our kids. Students are learning to use their time properly, to be organised and, generally, to make sure that they are for fulfilling the requirements of the course. This is a shift from teacher-directed schooling to student-directed schooling. This is the way forward for education in the Northern Territory.
The commitment of teaching positions from the 100 teachers across the Territory and $500 000 additional funding means these students will be given every opportunity to be engaged in learning.
I was very pleased to hear of the recent announcement of two new permanent teachers at the Northern Territory School of Music. This is a very valuable school delivering excellent tuition to students right across the Territory. I was concerned recently to hear that a $80 000 grant from the Commonwealth to this important school was not forthcoming, leaving the tuition for some students up in the air. I thank the minister for the providing this new funding for these positions that will allow continuation of this excellent work under the expert guidance of the Principal, Nora Lewis, and Deputy Principal, Graham Chadwick.
The minister referred to the Jobs Plan as being an important commitment fulfilled by the government. This commitment has the potential to provide a significant long-term change to the Northern Territory. Until this plan was put into place, there was a dearth of real labour market information and the lack of a focussed training strategy. No one really knew where to put the training dollar. The minister has concluded that this cannot be the way of the future, so he has taken several actions to remedy the situation.
First, he extended vocational education and training down to 14 year-olds in schools, recognising that we need to engage people younger in real training. Second, he created the division of Employment in the old education and training agency. This division is being staffed with significant resources to put these issues to a real test and the Assistant Secretary for Employment, Mr John Hassed has also been appointed.
Third, the minister, in his capacity as Minister for Public Employment, started driving key employment strategies through the public sector. For example, the government is committed to an indigenous employment strategy that should see the level of indigenous employment lift significantly in the coming years. His fourth action has been to pull together a comprehensive Jobs Plan that has real training strategies, links the government’s job effort to overall whole-of-government strategies and provides significant incentives for employers to hire more staff.
Finally, the minister committed the government to increasing the number of its trainees. These actions mean the government is placing a much more concerted effort in its goal for a skilled and trained work force. This will make a significant difference to our future.
There is much more in education and training on which I could comment. Suffice to say the core commitment from the government when in opposition was to place education and training up in lights as a priority issue for government.
I want to make some comments on the proposed amendments, which are disappointing. The minister has made it absolutely clear that there is a consultation process about to happen for two months, and the issues being canvassed in the proposed amendments are still to be discussed as part of the next part of the consultation. I am absolutely certain that the minister will present a further statement for us to properly debate at an appropriate time. However, at this stage, all of these things are the subject of consultation and the minister is waiting to hear back about those consultations. It would be premature to make any further comment.
Ms CARTER (Port Darwin): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I rise to speak in support of the opposition’s proposed amendment. The reason the opposition has put this proposed amendment is an effort to have the government let us all know what it plans to do. There is so much uncertainty in the school community, in particular, and across our community generally. I know, for example, at some schools in my electorate the current hiatus has put on hold their strategic planning. This is causing considerable cynical debate at school council meetings, which I attend regularly.
Specifically turning to the proposed amendment, the opposition is calling on the government to keep the Open Education Centre operating. My understanding from talking to some of the people working there is that they are very disappointed in the short period of time the reviewers spent with them and the very scant information that staff believe the reviewers used in order to make their recommendations.
Quite frankly, it is my impression from talking to staff that they feel gutted, as hard workers and high achievers, by the insult of this review’s recommendations in relation to the NTOEC. There have been a number of achievements from students living in remote areas based on the hard work of our Open Education Centre staff. To be advised by this review that instead of having a Territory-based service, we are going to have the services of a South Australia entity is something that has been very upsetting.
Last week when I was door knocking in my electorate, I met someone associated with the Open Education Centre. It is her understanding that quite recently, the department sent staff to South Australia to liaise with people in order to gain information to better prepare the department to make the decision to get rid of the Northern Territory Open Education Centre. That sort of information is causing a great deal of stress.
I noted with interest the minister’s comments about arrogance and the CLP and the way we have dealt with things in the past, apparently. I put on the record the arrogance of the Chief Minister in respect of the Open Education Centre. I am reliably informed that she was quizzed by a constituent over the closing of the Open Education Centre and this constituent said to the Chief Minister: ‘I have always voted Labor, but I work at the Open Education Centre and I am dismayed that you are now going to close it and because of this decision by your government I am not going to vote Labor at the next election’. Apparently the Chief Minister said to this woman, ‘Well, you are only one vote’.
If that is not the height of arrogance, I don’t know what is. That has been reliably reported to me. It is an appalling thing for the Chief Minister to say to a constituent. I hope it is wrong. I hope it is incorrect. I was astounded, but it has been reliably reported to me. It is a story doing the rounds because I picked it up on the street last Saturday afternoon.
With regards to the proposal to introduce learning precincts, along with the opposition, I reject this proposal. It will not only create logistic difficulties for schools, students and parents, but it aims to decrease the power of school councils.
The CLP has a proud history of devolving power from a centralised bureaucracy to schools over the last 10 years or so of our time in government. I remember the concerns that this caused at the school level when it happened. Since I have had the honour of being the member for Port Darwin, I have been invited into schools and regularly attend school council meetings in my electorate. It has been wonderful to see the way school councils grapple with very interesting issues, not just like it was when my parents went to school council meetings and the only issues were uniforms and the tuck shop. Nowadays, school councils deal with a whole range of issues, particularly financial issues, and it gives the councils a great deal of influence over the way the school is operating. It is my view, and that of CLP, that the introduction of learning precincts across the board is going to see a concentration of power back to the bureaucracy. If that does happen, it is going to be very interesting to hear the government’s explanation as to why such a retrograde move is necessary.
My question to the minister and the government is: could you provide us with information on where learning precincts are operating in the world and how they are achieving things? I am not aware of them being used anywhere and it would be very interesting to have that information.
I also reject the idea of transferring Year 10 to Casuarina Senior College. The reason I object is because I know that it is going to cause a retraction of the curriculum subjects available to students at Nightcliff, Sanderson and Dripstone High Schools. Everyone knows that what attracts students and parents to certain schools is the breadth of the curriculum.
That, for example, is why Darwin High School, which is the feeder high school for my electorate, is such a popular school and year after year has to turn students away. It is because of the broad curriculum and the high achievement of its students. My concern is that if we move Year 10 students from those northern suburb high schools to Casuarina Secondary College, we are going to see a contraction of the curriculum at those high schools and that will cause a trickle down effect to all year levels in those high schools and cause considerable distress. If you move Year 10 to Casuarina Senior College, it will change the nature of the school and I know the school would have concerns because the school is a senior college.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I urge all members to think carefully about the opposition’s proposed amendment and to support it.
Ms LAWRIE (Karama): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, it is interesting to see the level of contribution in this debate by the opposite side of the Chamber.
The opposition proposes an amendment that is pre-emptive of consideration of widespread public consultation throughout the Territory. They are narrow in their focus on the secondary review of education, but they are very narrow in their perspective on most issues that come before this Chamber. It is disappointing that they want to ignore the outcome of wide-ranging consultation and pre-empt that process.
I support our minister for saying that it is just another sign of CLP arrogance because that is what the proposed amendment is: a cheap political stunt to try and whip up more fear and loathing in our communities instead of being able to comprehensively assess the pros and cons contained within the review.
The secondary review is an important document. Most of us here have read it thoroughly. Most of us here have participated in wide-ranging discussions at our school community level, with school councils, teachers, parents and I have had secondary students discuss the pros and cons of it. At one of the public hearings I attended, a report back on some of the consultations to date said that, for example, in Katherine, already the school community was saying how excited they were by the idea of a learning precinct and they were really starting to hit the ground running on modelling what kind of learning precinct could occur.
Here, the CLP is saying: ‘Let us ignore the wishes of Katherine. We have already made up our minds up; we just want to ram through a negative’ - yet again. That is disappointing. I had hoped for a better sense of maturity from the opposition. Unfortunately, we are still seeing the arrogance that they so easily slip back into because that is the nature of the way they have approached issues in the past.
I am proud to be part of a very different government, one that is keen to engage in consultation and is keen to consider the outcomes of that consultation. I thank Sheila O’Sullivan and her team for going out to so many different sites in the Territory, and for listening to the range of opinions coming through. It is not going to be a Darwin-centric result. Obviously, as a member of an electorate in Darwin, I am very focussed on what I am hearing in my area, but I am also, as a Territorian, interested to hear the views of people, say, in Alice Springs, Katherine, Maningrida and throughout the Territory.
I look forward to the outcomes of those consultations and participating in considered discussion within government about the outcomes of the consultation. I, for one, am delighted that our government has not gone in with a closed view on what should occur. We have allowed a review process to be innovative, we have encouraged the innovation, we have not tried to meddle in it, we have not tried to distort it, and it really has been a broad-ranging and interesting outcome in terms of the review document, and even more interesting listening to the range of views and new ideas arising from the consultations.
I commend my school communities. Manunda Terrace wrote a very detailed response to the review document and that has been forwarded to the consultation team. Malak School Council also provided a very thorough response to the review document. I participated in a school council meeting at Sanderson High School where they discussed the review at some length, and they had really interesting things to say, some supportive of some aspects of it, some against other aspects. It was great to see that level of debate and interest.
It can only serve to enhance our understanding and our interest in the delivery of quality education in the Territory. In itself, it has been a rewarding process in which to participate. It is useful to have a look at how you do things; it is useful to consider how, perhaps, you could do things better. The example of improving support for professionalism in the sector has been widely regarded as a positive recommendation. There are aspects of this review that people have been welcoming. As in any review, there will be aspects that will be contentious. Fortunately, I am part of a government that has not gone in with a fixed view on the contentious aspects.
It is interesting that opposition members are jumping to talk on the proposed amendments but are steering clear of the substance of the minister’s statement. I wonder whether that is because there is such enormous progress occurring in the delivery of resources in education that they are somewhat shamed by the paucity of resources with which they left the education system and the amount of catch-up that this government has been doing by pumping resources into the sector.
Within year three of government, we are meeting that fantastic election promise of 100 additional teachers. I congratulate our minister on having worked with his department on the implementation of that crucial promise. As we heard in the statement, there are already some 60 positions that have been filled and an additional 40 teachers are currently being recruited.
I applaud, in particular, the 20 new special education positions that are part of this promise. Special education has been significantly under-staffed and under-resourced in our school system for some years. I do not say that in a political way, but in practical knowledge of the impact that has had on children requiring special education expertise, on parents who have been frustrated trying to get special education assistance for their children who have significant needs, and the frustration of teachers who need assistance from special education teachers I have witnessed in the school system and the principals who have had to put up the good fight on behalf of the school and the teachers, to try to draw on a the inadequate special education resource that existed in the Territory. It is wonderful to hear of the 20 new special education positions. I know that, as bad as things were in the urban centres, they were far worse in regional and remote areas. I note that the minister has been very even-handed in ensuring that these resources are spread throughout the Territory.
I congratulate the minister for the five teachers employed as assistant principals for group schools. I have heard from principals in my area over some years that these additional positions are necessary. They have a very important role to play in the education system and, so it is heartening to see the provision of the five teachers as assistant principals for group schools.
The five teachers for the Alternative Education Program have made significant inroads already to delivering education services for some 60 students on their books, students who, members would be aware from the minister’s statement, had previously been outside the education system. Alternative education is a very innovative program, and I believe it will have significant long-term benefits for the Territory. I encourage the department to continue and, if possible, fast-track efforts to find a site in Darwin’s northern suburbs from which to run the Alternative Education program. I have had the pleasure of meeting with some of these Alternative Education teachers. I am left in no doubt as to their fantastic skills, passion and ability in this area, and I am very confident of the outcomes of these Alternative Education Programs. If they could start to deliver literacy and numeracy skills to kids who have been outside the education system for most of their life, that is a fantastic outcome in itself. I know that once the kids have built up their skills, there is an improvement in access to VET programs, for example, that they could stream into because we are largely talking about teenagers in the Alternative Education pool of students.
I congratulate the minister on the 10 positions for English as a Second Language. ESL teachers are critical throughout the Territory because they work with our indigenous and multicultural students. We know we have significant populations of both in the Territory and ESL teachers make the difference between success and failure in terms of education outcomes for these students. The ESL teachers I have met working, for example, at Anula Primary School are fantastic professionals. I congratulate the minister and his department for creating 10 new positions in ESL and encourage them to increase ESL capacity in the Territory. We can only benefit as a community from additional ESL teachers. They do have specialist expertise, and they enhance other teachers in the system to be able to teach students who do not require ESL so there is a double benefit to increasing ESL teacher numbers.
It is great to see the four teachers for learning and technology in our schools. With the introduction of LATIS, technology has had an increasingly important role in our school system and, rather than load up the teachers that we have, it is really important to provide them with additional teachers for the information and technology area to provide that specialist knowledge. I have seen that working well in the system and I congratulate the minister for identifying the need for those information technology specialists.
I have already seen benefits flowing this financial year in respect of the 40 positions to be allocated. The 11 teachers for behaviour management in schools have already hit the ground. There are two teachers working in my electorate. They branch across two schools; they work part-time in those schools two days a week per school and one day a week back in the Student Services division of the department. Karama Primary is benefiting from two days a week and, separately, Malak Primary is benefiting from two days a week. They are called ‘wellbeing positions’. They are innovative in their approach; they are specific to the school’s needs. When I say ‘school’s needs’, they work with students, teachers and school council to identify innovative approaches, whether it is for individual students, a class room model, or a whole-of-school community model to improve the wellbeing of students and the school community. We heard the minister say that jurisdictions interstate are interested in this. It is very innovative and I find it very exciting. I have heard very positive feedback from teachers and school council parents about these positions. I congratulate the minister for the funding for this.
I am looking forward to seeing the 12 positions for literacy teachers to expand the government’s accelerated literacy program. Like most people, I have been encouraged by the reports we have heard about the success of accelerated literacy that has occurred in the pilot programs in other schools. I know that Manunda, Karama and Malak schools in my electorate would certainly benefit from accelerated literacy programs. I congratulate the minister for funding 12 additional positions to expand that program. It is really great to see pilots tested, work and then be expanded, and that is a sensible approach for the department and the minister to take.
In terms of attendance officers, I note that the member for Greatorex was very down about the role of attendance officers and quite sceptical about whether they were of any benefit. I can say through experience, because we have had an attendance officer at Sanderson High School since early in the school year, they are of great benefit. They are working with school counsellors, teachers and people in the community to ensure that we are improving the attendance of students at school. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to put the two together: if you have improved attendance, you have improved educational outcomes. It was disappointing to hear the constant harping from opposite, but it is an area they ignored so it might be an area that they want to continue to put down. It is a concern and it might be part of their policy to withdraw the attendance officers. I would be interested to hear of their commitment to their role.
I congratulate the minister for the behaviour management that is occurring in schools. As I said, the programs operating at Karma and Malak are really fantastic.
The statement sets out our government’s commitment to improve literacy and numeracy for Territory students; making every government school document a literacy and numeracy plan is extremely useful. They are tools that focus the school on the delivery of its literacy and numeracy and, as we all know, we have not had a fantastic record in the Territory with literacy and numeracy. I am really expecting to see, with the resources mentioned in the statement, an improvement in coming years. We know we have a long path to walk to improve literacy and numeracy, but it is great to see a lot of the funding heading into this area to improve it.
I congratulate the government for making considered progress on the implementation of the Learning Lessons report. We know the Collins report was a watershed in identifying indigenous education needs and issues throughout the Territory. We know that it sat on the shelf under the CLP government, and it is great to see core implementation of Learning Lessons. It will enhance the Territory as a whole. We need to improve education outcomes in the non-urban areas of the Territory and it is really heartening to see that occurring through the implementation of the Collins report, Learning Lessons.
We can debate the Secondary Education Report forever, but, as I said, it has been a very useful report to reassess where we are in the delivery of secondary education and where we need to head. If we can bed down the professionalism aspects within that report, then I say that was money well spent. It has been a pleasure to participate many discussions on that.
The focus that the minister has placed on jobs and training and having the ability to streamline from education to jobs and training has been a tremendous focus of this government. We are the first government to have a Jobs Plan. We are the first government to pump significant dollars into VET in schools. The figure of $980 000 in 2004 alone is a very impressive amount to put into VET in our schools.
Schools such as Sanderson High are brilliant places to be looking at delivering increased VET training and education while at school. I know that many students in my electorate will benefit from increased access to VET. I was born and educated in Darwin. I have watched many of my friends go through training in apprenticeships and they have made a lot of money in their trades. Indeed, many of them own blocks down at Dundee, own impressive boats and they are far wealthier than I, and I went into a profession. There is a lot of economic success to be had in entering trades. I congratulate the minister for providing increased opportunities for school-based apprenticeships and traineeships, up by some 180 this year alone.
It is good to see the specialised vocational education and training Taster Program being developed at CDU and Kormilda, focussing on some 45 to 50 indigenous students. If we can get more indigenous students reconnecting with school training and moving into trades in which we know we have skill shortages, there is going to be an enormous benefit to our community.
This is a very good statement from the minister. He is a minister who continues to update this House on the benefits of education, training and employment opportunities for young Territorians. It is innovative in many ways. It is trying to create a wellbeing in our education system that was previously lacking. I congratulate the minister for that.
I look forward to continuing to work with my local schools. We have a vibrant school community in the Karama electorate; wonderful schools of Manunda Terrace, Malak, Karama, and Sanderson High. We also benefit from some non-government schools as well. Our schools come together on occasion and celebrate the identity of the community, which, as we know, is highly multicultural and has a significant urban indigenous population. Having seven schools in the electorate does mean that I spend a lot of time on education issues, and I am hearing very different messages from school communities than the opposition. They are excited about education in the Territory. They are delighted with the education resources being pumped in by this government, and they are very grateful for the laptops that have just been delivered to our teachers.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Nelson, you may speak on the ministerial statement or on the proposed amendment.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I would like to start on a positive note, by saying that the schools in and around my area are really top schools. The morale of people in those schools, and that is not saying there aren’t some issues from time to time, the way teachers and staff work with the students, the way the schools are part of the community is a real credit to the schools.
I have two schools in my electorate, Howard Springs and Girraween Primary, but on the boundary in the seat of Goyder, I have Humpty Doo, Bees Creek, Litchfield Christian School, St Francis of Assisi and Taminmin High School, and of course, children from both electorates go to all those schools. From my time on some of the school councils or going to school assemblies or community days, you get a great feeling that these schools really do work in our community.
We are looking at changes in secondary education which also affect primary schools. I am not here to debate the proposed amendment, but I can say that on some issues, my mind is made up and on others, I have not yet decided.
However, I look at the schools I say: ‘These schools aren’t broke, so why change them?’ They seem to be doing well. Unless somebody in education can say that the standard of literacy and numeracy in these schools is well below the level, I would be asking: ‘Why change what we have?’ For sure, we might be looking at moving Year 7 into secondary school. I do not have a problem with that. From a recent meeting with one of the schools, they argued that, for the sake of sheer consistency in the Northern Territory, Year 7 should be in secondary schools.
We have great schools in our community. If there is no need to change them, I question: why bother? Do we need a major upheaval in these schools that might risk the way they operate today? I was at Taminmin High School last Saturday night for the Debutante Ball, and there are not too many debutante balls in this day and age. The students organised the Debutante Ball, and it was a great evening. Parents came to watch their children dressed up and dance the night away. Schools like Taminmin are special. There is no other school like Taminmin High School in the whole of the Northern Territory.
Mr Maley: Special graduates, too, mate.
Mr WOOD: Thank you. The member for Goyder has just told us that he passed Year 12 at Taminmin High School. The standards were fairly low then, Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, but they have lifted since the Principal, Mr Kim Rowe, took over there. They have certainly advanced.
Mr Stirling: Absolutely!
Mr WOOD: That is right. It is a great school and has an agricultural flavour to it. Something I have said time and again is that I hope any changes to the secondary school education process, especially through the upgrading of high school education in Palmerston, will not affect what has been achieved in the last few years by the principal and his staff in lifting the standard of education in Taminmin. It is a special school; it reflects the rural amenity of the area. It has a great VET course, and as I have mentioned before, they now have a great choir under the conductorship, if you can call it that, of Ms Tanya Ham. It is a school that I want to keep improving. I fear that if we are not careful and if some of the recommendations of the education report go ahead, some of those things might be at risk.
I would like to speak on a few other issues. The minister mentioned attendance officers, which are a great idea. Recently, as people might know, during the Anzac Day cricket at which where we celebrate the importance of the Army in the community and remember those who have fallen as well as raise money for Legacy, we had two people come out from Ohio. They were school teachers who are relations of Captain Al Strauss, the American pilot who was killed after whom the airstrip is named. They were Judi and Payden Green, the niece and grand-niece of Captain Strauss. They teach at a high school in the town of Marysville, Ohio. It is no different from any other school around the place.
When Judi Green came to speak at Taminmin High School, she spoke in front of the whole school assembly. The school, at that time, had just decided to adopt Strauss Airstrip. When she spoke, those kids listened to every word she had to say because she was able to relate to them and they are no different from the kids at Marysville High School. I thank the minister for granting permission for her to visit the Attendance Officer at Palmerston High School who is a young Aboriginal lady, whose name I have forgotten. Judi and Payden were impressed by the program in Palmerston.
Palmerston certainly has some problems with children attending school. The idea of attendance officers is great one. It is a difficult job and certainly needs the right type of person to do it because some of these things we might call jobs, I sometimes call - if you have the right person in them - a vocation in life. It is a bit like nursing; if you get the right person, they have a belief that they are doing some good in their community. The lady at Palmerston, and the gentleman whose name also I cannot recall, who was also helping with the program. I thank the minister for that, and I know the two American visitors were quite impressed.
Minister, you also mentioned the two music teachers. I welcome that you have approved the extra music teachers in the Darwin region. As I said before, music is a subject that should be compulsory. We should have music teachers as full-time teachers in our schools, not part of the formula, but separate music teachers.
I would like to know, even though those two music teachers will be employed in this financial year, what will happen to our students who, at present, do not have music lessons because the PTIs or part time instructors have not yet been re-employed. There are quite a few children in rural schools who are not playing drums or guitar any more. They were playing them in the first term and maybe in the second term, but they are not playing them now. That needs to be examined. Still, I thank the minister for adding two extra music teachers.
I asked a question recently about Special Education teachers in relation to a visually-impaired student. I still have a concern. I had a phone call from another lady in the rural area who was wondering what is happening. She was very concerned. I would like the minister to personally have a look at whether there are issues in that area. Have the jobs been advertised for the vacancies? How many people are working on the ground in the area? This lady contacted me on Tuesday of this week and was quite distraught about what she thought was lacking in the area. I ask that the minister double check that things are okay.
Apprenticeships: always a subject for which I have a lot of time. I am not a fan, believe it or not, of apprenticeships being run from Charles Darwin University. I believe very much in the old system of technical schools attached to a high school, but in the suburbs where kids live, work and play. That is where they should be.
I was speaking to one of our few manufacturing employers in the rural area. He works at the Humpty Doo industrial area and makes rainwater tanks. He makes polypipe, which is used for irrigation. He also designs moulds of rainwater tanks for South Australian companies. Here is a bloke not only developing industry in the Northern Territory, polypipe and rainwater tanks, he is selling moulds to South Australian companies for them to make rainwater tanks. He told me it is difficult to find apprentices who really love their job. The old way was you swept the floor for the first three months, but apprentices had a real liking for their job. That is fairly generalised, but I think what he meant is that they had a love for what they did and would go to the nth degree to ensure the job is as close to perfection as possible. He said it is a pity that some of that seems to have disappeared today. I do not know what you can do about it, or whether it is the way we now teach apprentices, whether those people do not have the same feeling for a trade as people in years gone by, but he felt that is one of the problems.
I am moving around a bit here, minister. I am interested in whether you have any information on the future of Batchelor Institute. I have heard a number of rumours. One is that it will possibly move to the Summer Institute of Linguistics land in Berrimah or it will move to the Charles Darwin University campus at Palmerston or it may stay where it is. Either way, it will be interesting to know what is being discussed for the future of Batchelor not only because it would be a major upheaval for the institute, but from a Batchelor economy point of view, it would be a major drain on the economy of a small town like that.
Had I more time, I would have tried to do the figures, but basically the Territory over the last few years has not increased in population. We may have some more children in schools but there has not been a substantial increase. I would be interested to know whether our education bureaucracy has increased so much that it is out of kilter with what it used to be. In other words, are we putting more money into the bureaucratic side of schools than the physical side of teaching and resources in the schools?
I will probably be murdered by the educationalists, but we spend an awful lot of money on the theory, then I hear results that our literacy figures are not up to national standards and I say: ‘What is the problem? If we had all these people thinking up all these bright ideas over the last umpteen years, how come nothing has improved?’ Maybe we need to be spending more money on the ground rather the academic side. That is not to say we do not need it, but I wonder whether we are buried in theory and do not have enough in practice.
I am also interested in the behavioural management programs, which are very good. I have heard about discussions at Humpty Doo Primary School. They have a program, as does Girraween, about respect. They try to invoke this idea that if you expect someone to respect you, you must respect the other person. At Humpty Doo, they call it the Tribes Program, which seems to be a very good one.
Many issues in the statement are important. We talk about numeracy and literacy. It would be good every six months to have a report that can tell us at what stage we are with numeracy and literacy, especially in Aboriginal schools. We need regular reporting because there are many statements made in this House that say we are doing this or that, we are spending this, we have this program. The only way you going prove whether anything has changed is to say: ‘We have lifted the level’. From a parliamentary point of view, we need to see those figures to say: ‘Okay, we believe at that what you’re doing is right’. However, if it is not happening, we should be questioning whether we are heading in the right direction.
You mentioned secondary education. The only thing I would like to raise on that is that, and I think the member for Braitling mentioned something about private and government schools - I don’t call them private schools; to me, private schools are Scotch College, Melbourne Grammar and Xavier College. I went to a Catholic school and, I can tell you, with 40 or 50 kids in the class, it was not exactly what you would call a Scotch College or Melbourne Grammar. I call them ‘independent schools’. My parents paid for my education and we basically paid for the school. It took many years of chook raffles to pay for it. It may not be done that way now because there is more government funding towards it …
Members interjecting.
Mr WOOD: Some of them are? Did I hear bats in the belfry? I certainly heard something.
There are people out there who want to make a choice. The good thing about having various types of education is it gives us variety. I know there people who do not think that a non-government schools will get a razoo. They say: ‘That is your choice and too bad’, but that is the value of education in Australia. We do have variety of education and that is important.
Many people who send their kids to independent schools have trouble doing it because they have to pay the fees. I know there is a lot of talk about government schools receiving the same money as independent schools. I asked the question in Estimates Committee last year: ‘How much per child does each school receive?’ I think the answer was something like $12 per child in a government school and about $8 per child in a non-government school. Parents have to find the gap.
Sometimes, there is a lot of rhetoric. I support public schools. I just quoted six out of eight schools that are great schools in my area. At the same time, I support non-government schools because they do a great job, too. They all have their roles in our community. The sad thing is we are now going down the old path of state versus religious schools, and that is sad. We should be working together. Schools in my area work together. We should be working towards the goal of educating our children. Schools have different goals; they strive for different values and that is part of the mix that is important education.
Minister, I mention this every year: I wonder when there will ever be any infrastructure funding for a possible Catholic high school near the corner of Lambrick and the Stuart Highway near Palmerston. It has been around for about four to five years. Nothing seems to happen. I am interested to know whether there are any moves by government to provide some funding for that school. Do they have land that they can say is definitely theirs for that purpose? I am approached by people from time to time saying: ‘Is there another secondary school going to be located in the rural area?’ I tell them the same thing you told me, minister: Taminmin High School is supposed to have a larger population. I suppose these people are looking for a choice and they want to know who whether there is going to be another high school on the edge of the rural area just inside the Palmerston boundary.
The statement is a good one. There is no doubt there are problems the government has to handle, like having enough teachers. That will always be a problem, especially in a large area like the Northern Territory. Remote schools will never be easy to manage. I used to work on Bathurst Island, and teachers used to last one year. Ten years later, they would say: ‘Do you remember me? I used to work on Bathurst Island’ and I would say: ‘Who are you?’ and they would say: ‘I taught at the school’. In the time I was on Bathurst Island, I saw many teachers go through the system. It is hard to keep teachers. You have to keep trying and you have to make sure facilities are good for them.
Minister, with all that in mind, it is a good statement, but I hope you look at the issues I have raised.
Mr BONSON (Millner): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, the Minister for Employment, Education and Training has outlined the government’s fulfilment of the election promises made in 2001. He has spoken about the 100 additional teachers, the employment of eight attendance officers, the implementation of the Collins Report, the commitment to renewing secondary education, jobs and training.
The minister amply demonstrated both his determination to implement the government’s education and training agenda and his success to date in doing so. He and the government are to be congratulated for the effort and focus that has gone into education.
I wish to comment on a few areas of importance to both my constituents in Millner and to the broader community. In my electorate, I have Millner and Ludmilla Primary Schools, Nemarluk School and Millner Pre-School. Like the member for Nightcliff, bot St Paul’s School and Essington School have an impact in my electorate. Nightcliff and Darwin Schools and Casuarina Senior College all take kids whose educational life began in the electorate of Millner.
I am also very fortunate to have schools that are capably run by experienced people. The Principal of Millner Primary, Mr Ron Argoon, the Principal of the pre-school, Mrs Jan Cook, the Principal of Ludmilla Primary School, Helen Southam, and the Principal of Nemarluk School, Pam Young. All are capable educational people and community leaders who are persistent in their determination to improve outcomes for their children.
I agree with the member for Nightcliff who praised the government for its recent announcements on equipment and furniture and its distribution of an additional $1m in February. This meant that in addition to the usual annual funding, schools in my electorate received a substantial bonus for purchasing much needed equipment: Millner Primary School received $7235; Ludmilla Primary School received $5893; and Nemarluk School received $4151. What that means for those schools is that they have the capacity this year to purchase those little things they need to keep the place ticking over. Schools have not had this opportunity. The pleasing thing is that the minister has ensured that it is not a one-off event. In this year’s budget, an additional allocation of $500 000 was made to all schools.
On top of this, the minister has made an announcement of which I am very supportive, and that is the $300 000 Small Grants Program. Grants are available to a value of $5000. The assessment of recipients will be based on the criteria of need. This will provide an opportunity to schools such as Millner and Ludmilla to put a case for additional small grants to support programs throughout the year.
The schools in Millner electorate have also benefited from a robust minor new works program. In the last budget, schools in my electorate received funding for a range of projects: Nemarluk playground equipment - $30 000; Nemarluk safe Time Out area - $4800; Millner Primary School open computer lab and next class room - $5500; Millner Primary School built an ablution block for the caretaker - $38 000; Millner Primary School construction of Stage 2 sheltered covered area in Early Childhood area - $58 000; and Millner Primary School upgrade to maintenance officer’s room - $13 850. I know that the schools are pleased to be able to implement plans for some extensive work on school projects.
The government has also been responsible for programs that will have a long-term, system-wide impact on the Territory. Members have spoken about the literacy issues. I cannot stress this enough. A good grounding in literacy is a critical part of a child’s future and determines how well they are going to do in the employment stakes in later life.
The minister speaks frequently about the accelerated literacy program and the results this is having on young people who have not performed well. I am pleased that this is working, and I am hopeful that, through the additional money on which the minister and government have focussed, we can make some real gains across the Territory.
It is disgraceful that until this government came to power, it was not compulsory for Territory students in government schools to undertake multilevel assessment program, MAPs. I find that outrageous, but that was the circumstance. How would anyone ever be able to have an accurate idea of performance levels of students if the tests were not compulsory? How can you plan for the future unless you know, accurately, the performance levels of students?
I am also strongly committed to an improved secondary education system. I am awaiting with keen interest the outcomes of the extensive community consultation process that has occurred on the Secondary Education Report. I am assured by the minister that this feedback will strongly influence the subsequent decisions of government. I have passed on comments, both favourable and unfavourable, in relation to ideas in the report from members of my electorate. Whatever the outcome, one thing is certain: provision of secondary education to the bush will roll out.
Until this government came to power, no serious effort had been made to establish secondary education on site in bush communities. This is critical. Everyone will tell you that the best way to learn is through face-to-face teaching. This opportunity was denied to secondary students in remote communities prior to this government taking office. Well, that will occur no more.
In addition to secondary education expansion, the implementation of the Learning Lessons report has been an achievement of great pride to me, and great credit to the government. This report should have been acted upon immediately. Instead, it sat idle in the hands of the then government from 1999 until we were elected in 2001. Much has now been put into place, and some of these recommendations are now coming on line. There remain some to be further tested or implemented.
This government is having a go at addressing a chronic failing in indigenous education as well. There is only one place in Australia where the population of 15- to 19-year-olds will increase over the next 15 years, and that is in the Territory. The vast majority of these young people will be indigenous. It is critical now that the government gets the issue of indigenous education and business training right. If we do not get it right today, there will be a serious social outcome in 20 years time.
It makes common sense as well as serves as an important social justice imperative to get education to all Territorians right now. I often talk in this Chamber about the investment that we need to make in the young people of the Northern Territory, and the return that we will get from that investment. We need to invest in young people, both in urban or remote areas, to ensure that the Territory has a brighter future.
If we do not get it right, what we are forever relying on is importing a skilled work force and commitment to the Territory long-term will diminish as a people will be highly mobile across the country.
The one group of people that is here, and here to stay, are indigenous people, especially those living on remote communities. To ensure that they can contribute properly and equally to the future of the Territory, we must now get the education and training system right. I strongly support the government’s efforts to put into place a more effective education and training system. It is a difficult road to travel, but the Territory will benefit from these decisions for years to come.
I support the efforts of the minister and this government. I am sorry that we have heard nothing but negative whingeing and whining from the opposition. This is a positive statement. We are doing positive things. We have invested in the largest education budget ever seen in the Northern Territory. I look forward to improved educational outcomes for all Territorians.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, by point of order. Just as a …
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Macdonnell, excuse me. You have spoken before. Are you speaking now to the proposed amendment or the statement?
Mr ELFERINK: Yes, this is what I was about to seek a point of order or clarification. I wish to speak to the statement. I have spoken to the proposed amendment.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: I will check with the Clerk to see what you spoke on previously.
Mr ELFERINK: I made it pretty clear I spoke on the proposed amendment.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Amendment?
Mr ELFERINK: Yes, so I just want to get a point of clarification ...
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Excuse me. I will clarify that with the Clerk.
The Deputy Clerk has informed me that since you have spoken to the proposed amendment, at that stage you were supposed to speak to the statement and the proposed amendment …
Mr ELFERINK: No, not correct, Madam Acting Deputy Speaker.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: I will seek further clarification.
Mr ELFERINK: I carefully made my position clear.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: I have had further clarification. Please go on, member for Macdonnell.
Mr ELFERINK: No, Madam Acting Deputy Speaker. A point of order is why I am on my feet. I want to ensure that when we vote on the proposed amendment, that matter is dealt with and then I have the opportunity to speak to the statement. That is the point on which I am seeking clarification.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: That is correct.
Mr ELFERINK: I am waiting for the amendment to be put, and then I wish to speak to the statement.
Mr Stirling: If you want to speak to the statement, speak now because once I have spoken in reply closing debate, that is it.
Mr ELFERINK: That is my point. That is why I am on my feet. I am not trying to be …
Mr Stirling: You blokes want to have a right of reply closing debate when it is simply a device that does not exist for the opposition. Speak now!
Mr ELFERINK: Rubbish! Madam Acing Deputy Speaker, this is an issue that I raised yesterday when the government did exactly the same thing and debate was allowed to proceed in this organic fashion against the rules of debate.
I am seeking a clarification, stating that I have spoken on the amendment only, the amendment should have been discussed and put, and then we return to the statement or the amended statement. They are the rules I am applying. I do not want to be deprived, by an abuse of the rules of debate, of my opportunity to speak to the statement.
Mr Stirling: Well, speak now.
Mr ELFERINK: No.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: My understanding, member for Macdonnell …
Mr Stirling: Now is your opportunity.
Mr ELFERINK: The amendment is still on the Table. It has not been dealt with.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Are there any other speakers to the amendment?
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Yes. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: To the amendment? You have spoken to the statement.
Dr LIM: Precisely, yes. Thank you. Speaking to the amendment, Madam Speaker.
I support the proposed amendment to the motion. The minister spoke about it and said he has not had enough time to get the responses from the community. I do not know how much time he wants. He would have received a letter from Darwin High School telling him what they though of his review. I will paraphrase some of the points that Darwin High School made.
The letter says of the stages of school that Darwin High School opts to remain a comprehensive high school. That is quite specific. On learning precincts, Darwin High School rejects the imposition of the precinct mode. It opposes changes to the decision making powers of the school council and the principal. Furthermore, Darwin High School is opposed to changes to staffing from DEET central responsibility to the head of precinct and board. The fourth point is that the school opposes the closure of the NT Open Education Centre and outsourcing of distance education to the South Australian Department of Education. Further, it says that it opposes subsuming the Teacher Registration Board and the Board of Studies into the proposed Quality Services Agency. So he has had direct input from Darwin High School.
I know he received a letter from Kormilda College because I have a letter here addressed to the Honourable Syd Stirling MLA, Minister for Employment, Education and Training. In the letter are quite specific points made by the principal of Kormilda College. Did you not see, minister, this Casuarina Senior College submission to the Secondary Education Report? To hone into the recommendations contained therein, it says:
The minister has had direct input from these organisations to tell them where to put the Secondary Education Report. The minister said: ‘No, no, no, that’s not true. I have not had much input. I am waiting for SOCOM to write its report’. Had you followed, as I have done, consultations across the Territory, you would have heard in no uncertain terms how the community feels about it.
As regards the Northern Territory Open Education Centre, you know full well that the Northern Territory Open Education Centre has had a lot to contend with in respect of the way you have been running the organisation. It had to defend itself against the review. Information from the review had been somehow gathered out of the ether, with very little scientific backing to the information that it purports to have in the report. You know full well, minister, and you stood corrected when I raised the issue at Estimates last June, that in fact the Northern Territory Open Education Centre services a large cohort of students, some 937, 39% of whom are indigenous and 61% are non-indigenous students.
The Open Education Centre has produced several of our top NTCE students each year, with four students in the top 20 last year. Both indigenous and non-indigenous students were, on average, high achievers when compared across the Northern Territory. In 2003, the NTOEC had 12 students who achieved perfect scores of 20/20 for stage one courses. Indigenous students at NTOEC have gone from a low rate of 16% success in the year 2000 to 70% successful progress in 2003. Because of the course of the teaching, 17 students achieved perfect scores, that is 20/20, for junior courses.
To say that the NTOEC is not performing and has to be closed is bunkum. The NTOEC has gone from a deficit of $0.25m in 2000 to a small surplus last year, so there is no rationale for closing the NTOEC. That is why the CLP is so adamant that it wants the Northern Territory government to guarantee that the Northern Territory Open Education Centre remain open with its services enhanced so it can continue to serve as the Territory’s premier distance education facility.
They want to outsource distance education to South Australia. South Australia, for goodness sake, gave us away in 1911. They do not care about the Territory. It is too far from Adelaide. Teachers at the NTOEC will be able to service students better; they will be able to have face-to-face contact with them and that is what we all want. We want to achieve as much face to face contact as we possibly can because we all know that contact will achieve the best student outcomes. Retaining the NTOEC in the Northern Territory is absolutely important. Then if you enhance its services through IDL, any facility you like, it will make it much better.
The minister needs to understand that learning precincts will create huge turmoil in our education community. It is well and good to say that we have clusters now and that it is easy enough to extend the cluster into learning precincts, but it is not. The cluster concept is about schools working cooperatively, sharing resources where they can. A learning precinct is about a single bureaucratic head with a single bureaucratic board, and that board will control the operations of all the schools within the precinct. That is how it was described in the report, and there is no other model from which to work.
The member for Port Darwin asked that the government demonstrate where there is a working learning precinct anywhere in Australia or the world. Do you know what? The report contains a couple of examples in South Australia. When you ring those organisations and say: ‘We hear that you have a learning precinct. Can you describe what you have?’ they tell you: ‘No we don’t. We do not have a learning precinct’.
The minister says they still have to consult. You have been sitting on it for the last eight months since you received the report, and you are still to make a decision. When are you going to make a decision? Show some leadership. It is not about the CLP jumping the gun. The CLP has been out there listening.
As I said to the minister, I have been to Darwin, Palmerston and Alice Springs. I followed the consultation around the community. The minister supported my request that we have an information night in Alice Springs, and I thank him for that. There were almost 100 people in the room that night, and the session provided them with information from priority learning, but also from organisations such as the AEUNT, COGSO, independent schools and the Catholic education system speaking about their perspective. That was what was needed, some unbiased information provided to the community so that they could go away, think about what they want and make up their minds. Make up their minds they have. They have said in no uncertain terms they do not want to do that.
The CLP, while in government, had devolved powers to school councils. We had school council legislation especially enacted to ensure that school councils have powers. The powers were so strong that school councils had quite a level of autonomy. I suggest to the minister that it is the department wanting to claw back this power. They have been trying to do it since the legislation was passed. When I was chair of the Alice Springs College of TAFE, in the amalgamation process with Sadadeen Senior College to form Centralian College, we wanted to have legislation for Centralian College very much in line with the school councils. Guess what happened? The department fought very hard against it. I was the chair, trying to lobby the government of the day to give us strong legislation, and we could not get legislation for Centralian College as strong as for school councils. Here we are, under the pretence of learning precincts, bringing about a full-scale rewrite of the Education Act, hence using that act to try to rob school councils of their powers.
The CLP would continue this policy of devolution of powers to local school communities and put authority back into the hands of parents. They can work cooperatively with the school principal, the professional in this process of governance, rather than centralising governance, as Labor would do through learning precincts, into the hands of bureaucrats. That is where I see the government falling down. The minister said: ‘Look I am still consulting’. You have had plenty of time. You had 12 months of the review under Gregor Ramsey. For five months you sat on it while you contemplated what to do with it. Then you released it for three months of consultation. That was supposed to end on 31 July. Yet, you allowed two weeks extension for people to get their submissions in because the school holidays intervened. You still do not have a response for anyone. Territorians deserve better than that.
If I were you, minister, I would put support into the local community, give the school councils more powers and help them to achieve what they really desire. They are the parents; they want good education outcomes for their children. That is why they are involved in school governance. This is why they are involved in supporting the school. If you give them the power, they will make sure that they achieve the right outcomes.
I have already read to you what Casuarina Secondary Senior College said in its submission. Minister, you need to listen to them closely and make sure you tell the Territory education community that you have heard them and you are going to support them rather than going off on your merry way and causing more angst than ever. Think of the resources you will have to spend implementing only some of the recommendations of the Secondary Education Report. That money would be better spent enhancing teacher employment conditions, enhancing student support, providing supernumerary student counsellors and providing industry-based career counsellors in the system that are supernumerary to teaching numbers. That way, you will have specialists providing students with the services that they need. That way, you will ensure that school kids will turn out at least industry-focussed or, if not, be certain that when they go to university, they are going to achieve an outcome.
You know full well that of all the cohort of Year 12 students in the Territory in any one year, only 30% of them aspire to go to university. Of that 30%, only 50% will graduate. What I am saying is that 85% of Year 12 kids, after they leave school, do not get a university degree. That is 85% of the cohort. A small proportion go through university and the rest need to be looked after. The best way they can get training is if the school council, the whole community and industry are involved. You can do that through good career counselling, and I am sure that the other 85% will be better cared for.
The opposition’s proposed amendment is nothing very stark; it just tells you that you need to concentrate on the bad policies, get rid of them, and support the education organisations that we listed in the proposed amendment, and you will have a strong footing with education in the Territory.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the amendment be agreed to.
Motion negatived.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Members, we now return to the substantive motion, which is that the ministerial statement be noted.
Mr ELFERINK (Macdonnell): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I shall not be on my feet long. There is one issue that we need to discuss. If you believe the members of the ALP in this House, that the CLP had neglected the education system of the Northern Territory for 27 years so badly that not so much as a literate person was produced in the whole period of CLP governance, then I have to ask the question: how on earth did half the members get into this place?
I keep hearing people like the member for Millner telling me about indigenous education and how poor it is. I wonder if the member for Millner has a degree. Oh, yes, he does; he has a Bachelor of Laws. The member for Arnhem also has a degree. If he does not have a degree, he has been educated in the Northern Territory and sat in charge of major organisations such as a land council. He is currently a minister of the Crown. He went to school in the Northern Territory. I went to school in the Northern Territory. I went to Jingili Primary School and the motto of the school in those days was: ‘Aim High’. I was one of the first Year 1 students at Jingili Primary School. The education system did not fail me.
The Minister for Family and Community Services received her education here. What about the member for Barkly, where was he educated? If indigenous education was such a rort and such a stuff up under CLP, how these people find their positions in here today? How did the member for Daly manage it? How did the member for Goyder manage to get his law degree?
What we are talking about is what happens in the remote places in the Northern Territory. Bear in mind that not one new school has been built under this government, not one new school. All the schools that stand today were built under the abhorrent administration of the CLP, according to members opposite. How many schools stand in the bush? Many. Many schools stand in the bush. Are there schools producing students who go on the secondary school? Yes they are. If you go to St John’s College, St Philip’s College, Yirara College, or Kormilda College, you will find any number of Aboriginal students who have come out of the bush and who are advancing.
Is the problem solved? No, Madam Acting Deputy Speaker. If the problem was easily solved, the member for Stuart, who was a teacher in Yuendumu, would have solved the problem in Yuendumu, but the member for Stuart knows that it is not an easy thing to do in some of these remote places because there are cultural differences and attitudes to school that do not sit comfortably with the western education system. The member for Stuart used to bleat long and hard about the shortcomings of education in the bush. Why haven’t they been fixed? This lot have been in government now for three years. They said everything was going to be fixed. They are still reviewing the reviews of what they are doing. I am quite convinced that they are running into exactly the same problem that the former government ran into. What problems did the former government run into? The same problems that are continuing to plague education.
The process of educating people is never easy, especially in remote communities. I travel regularly in the communities and I often see students who should be in school not in school. I continue to advocate, and I know it can be done if the political will is there, for things like the tying and binding of family payments to school attendance. This is something that Mr Collins spoke about or investigated during his writing of the Learning Lessons report. He spoke to me in private one day when he was here in the gallery. I mentioned this and Mr Collins said: ‘Yes, but it is too difficult to get through places like Canberra because that is where the decision has to be made’. It would make a vast difference to education in the Northern Territory if you introduced that simple change alone.
I wish to place on the record a comment about how debates on ministerial statements proceed. Yesterday, we had a ministerial statement and the Leader of Government Business tried to move an amendment to the motion that the Assembly take note of the statement. We ended up having a circus in terms of the rules of debate and how that progressed. It became almost organic. The same thing seems to be appearing today, when who is speaking to the amendment and who is speaking to the original motion is obviously not clear. It has to be sorted out. There can only be one motion before the Chair at a time. You cannot debate two motions simultaneously. So if there is a motion and someone moves and amendment, you speak to the amendment, then that amendment is dealt with, and you speak to the motion. If, as was the case yesterday, there was an amendment to an amendment, then you speak to the amendment to the amendment, then you deal with the amendment, then you deal with the original motion.
Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, the rules of debate exist for a reason: it saves confusion and the little fight I just had to have on a point of order, which should have been a fairly straight forward exercise.
I also want to run this past the minister and get his comments when he closes on record: at Redsand Hill camp, there is a little bit of a scuttlebutt in my neck of the woods that the Education department is planning to shut the school down. I would like to the minister’s reassurance that that is not going to be the case.
Mr BURKE (Brennan): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I want to make a couple of points in this debate. It was comments by the member for Macdonnell that prompted me to stand up.
I wanted to say, for what it is worth, a few words to our Aboriginal MLAs because we have heard over the last number of days statements, particularly the member for Arafura, who, proudly so, and I join her in that, has achieved the position of a minister in the Northern Territory government, first female Aboriginal minister in Australia, and clearly sees the opportunities in that position to promote issues among Aboriginal people that will be listened to Australia-wide because of the experience she brings to that position, an experience that few people who are Aboriginal have, and that gives rise to influence at the national and Territory level. What is also clear is that she is fairly capable in that position of promoting herself and her own capability.
What I find particularly disappointing from the member for Arafura with the statement today, her statement on child protection and, frankly, nearly every time she rises to speak in the Assembly is the tirade of - maybe abuse is too strong a word, but this feeling that somehow, you have to blame the CLP for almost anything and everything that has happened with Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory
I wanted to mention that with regard to the debate today because she could not help herself and said that the CLP has taken no interest in these things, which is very offensive. It is very offensive. There seems to be some idea within the Labor government and the Labor Party that if you are Aboriginal, you can make the most offensive statements to people on the conservative side of politics and we are supposed to sit here and cop it sweet.
These are the same people who talk about reconciliation and we are all Territorians together. I find some of things the member for Arafura says most offensive and, frankly, I wonder why she carries such a chip on her shoulder of what is clearly a dislike bordering on hatred of anyone who is not on the Labor side of politics or has any association with the CLP over the years. In terms of balance in the debate, I made mention the other day to the member Millner, and he strayed back into the old form today, unfortunately, that he and others have potent arguments because of their own experience and their own background etcetera, but you diminish your own argument if you fall into that sort of name calling about the CLP, which is particularly sad.
I can tell you that when I was health minister and Chief Minister, I was asked questions on issues Aboriginal. Of course, my experience is nothing like yours, I can only be a person in the Northern Territory charged with responsibility of trying to understand and react and do things to try to fix the problem, and I am on the record on many occasions as saying: ‘The answer to Aboriginal issues is education, education, education’ because the importance of education in allowing people, particularly tribal Aboriginal people from remote communities, to take their place in mainstream society is so critically important.
For what it is worth, one day I went to one community and after visiting that community, I sat down and I had a bit of a think to myself. I thought: ‘It is very easy to talk about what Aboriginal people have not done for themselves, but if an average white family in Australia, struggling to bring up two or three kids in a three-bedroom house and get those kids educated properly, if you ask that white family is it a difficult business being a family and parent and getting your kids properly educated, properly clothed, giving them the right instructions, etcetera, to make their place in society, any Australian parent would tell you that it is extremely hard work. It is the hardest work that anyone can do’. Then, when you sit back and say to yourself: ‘Imagine you had two or three other families in that same house, then imagine you also had chronic alcoholism in some instances in that house, then put on top of that domestic violence, and then say, how would you cope? Could you possibly get your kids to school?’ If you go through that simple exercise, as I did, you say to yourself: ‘They are flat out getting sleep, some of these mums; they are getting a few hours sleep’.
It is a chronic national problem evidenced more than any other part of Australia in the Northern Territory, although we know that the situation exists right around Australia. It is a national problem, and it has to be fixed nationally. We all have a role to play constructively to try to achieve it. I forget the gentleman’s name, the previous Director of the Menzies Institute of Health Research …
Dr Lim: Professor John Mathews.
Mr BURKE: John Mathews, yes. He once said to me: ‘The problems confronting Aboriginal people today are no different from the problems that confronted slum-dwelling Australians in the 1920s, and they were poor housing, poor sanitation, poor education’. Australia, as a nation, reacted and fixed those things over time to be the modern society that we are today. If you take that example, the problem is abundantly fixable, but it is only fixable in a national way and everyone has to play their part.
Everyone, including me, has to recognise that there are limits to what you can say and do, based on your own experience, but be careful of what you say and how you say it. Now, if I have learnt that lesson too late, I am sorry, but I have learnt it. Do not ever misunderstand that just because you are on the conservative side of politics you do not have a great depth of feeling and sadness and a desire to do better for Aboriginal people.
When I was Chief Minister, I read a book called, Why Warriors Lie Down and Die by Richard Trudgen, which was written in Arnhem Land. I hope members of the Labor government have read that book. I know that some Aboriginal tribal elders do not subscribe to it, which is unfortunate because if it is a bit sensitive and incorrect in some cultural aspects, it is a particularly valuable book for mainstream Australian leaders to read, understand and use for guidance. I sent that book, as Chief Minister, to every federal member of parliament, as I recall, the Prime Minister and all his ministers. I received responses from a number of them that they had read the book and they enjoyed it. In fact, I was at a dinner last evening ..
Mr Stirling: It was written to be enjoyed.
Mr BURKE: If you are going to quibble over the word enjoyed, they enjoyed learning from the book.
I was pleased last night that I was at a dinner with the Chief of the Army, General Peter Leahy, probably one of the most precise intellectual minds in the Australian Defence Force at the moment, an enormously capable person. I said to him, and I hope I am not upsetting him by saying this in the House: ‘When you finally finished in the Defence Force, General, what would you like to do?’ He said: ‘I would like to involve myself in Aboriginal issues because I really feel I have something that I can contribute to that’. I thought that was really interesting. He said: ‘Have you ever read a book called Why Warriors Lie Down and Die, and I said, ‘I bet I was the one who sent it not to you, but probably to the Chief of the Defence Force at the time’. So in a small way, I felt particularly pleased about that.
I say to the member for Arafura that you diminish your status by engaging in a tirade of, essentially, abuse about Aboriginal people. I will give you a message and a warning, for what it is worth: we can throw it back, too, if you want. I will give you an example of that. A guy named Edmond Bourke, a famous politician, no relation to mine, said in 1796:
So when you talk about what we should do or have not done, you are in a position of example and you should set the example. If you want to know what sort of example you are setting, look around your own home first because I reckon you have a gall to lecture us on where the CLP as a government might have failed when you know that you have failed personally in your own way in some areas. If you want to play that game, I will raise to it on every occasion. I hope this is the last time I have to raise it because it is unfair, and we should not engage in it anymore.
On the education review, all of the arguments have been put. I understand the issues, but one thing I would like to mention is that, whatever comes out of it, the strong message that I have from a number of areas is: whatever you do at the end of the day, for God’s sake, do not change the curriculum because the new curriculum that is being embedded in the primary schools in particular is a curriculum that has been warmly embraced. One of the fears coming through the education review is that if there are changes from Year 7 going to secondary, or whatever, this will affect the curriculum they are using. That is one area of emphasis, whatever the result of the review: how will it affect the current curriculum?
I am sure the government is improving this area because I note that there are more and more meetings being held and publicised, but of the meetings that I have attended on the secondary review, the message is not properly reaching parents. Maybe that is an impossibility in some respects. I went to a meeting at one school in my electorate to discuss the findings of the secondary review. First, no one turned up, even though it was broadcast by the school council. It is easy to blame the school, but they had difficulty getting the message out. They put it in school newsletters, but no one turned up. That is not an indication that no one is interested or that everyone is happy, it is just an indication that we live in a busy society and people need to be really engaged at a personal level as to how it will affect them. They are certainly not engaged in that capacity yet. They are depending more and more on their leaders and the peak bodies that represent them to make the right decisions.
However, at that meeting to which no one turned up, I was amazed that the briefing was given by the Chairman of the School Council. He is a great bloke and I like him a lot, but he is certainly no expert on education. He is a concerned and interested parent and he was, essentially, going to brief other parents based on the briefing he had received, which was clearly an unsatisfactory arrangement. As I said, I accept the fact that there have been more briefings by expert panels since then, and I hope that the message is getting out more and more.
Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, with those few words, I note the statement.
Mr STIRLING (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I was very disappointed to hear the comments from the member for Brennan, coming in here, over-sensitive, wearing his heart on his sleeve, in relation to criticism by the members for Millner and Arafura over the CLP performance over many years.
I remind the member for Brennan he has been in the Territory since 1994 and he has occupied fairly privileged positions in the community since he came here, and has limited experience of indigenous living conditions out in these communities. I can tell him, and this would be a surprise to him, that there is residual anger in my electorate today, August 2004, over a decision that the Country Liberal Party government took in August 1980. Twenty-four years ago, in the second term, with 36 hours notice, they closed Dhupuma College, a residential boarding college for indigenous students from around north-east Arnhem Land.
Twenty-four years later, students who went to that college are the town clerks, the council presidents, heads of CDEP organisations, heads of the health clinics right through all of the communities of north-east Arnhem Land because that was their only exposure, their only access to secondary education. These turkeys sent a crew out from the Department of Education of the time, Thursday lunch time they arrived in Nhulunbuy, by 3 o’clock those people were told: ‘Your college is closed’, sending those communities into absolute disarray and uproar because their kids were coming home and not going back to Dhupuma College.
Now, he thinks that the CLP should be immune from criticism from people like the members for Arafura and Millner. Let me tell him, Madam Speaker, if he wanted to walk around some of the communities of north-east Arnhem Land, if he wanted to talk to some of the parents of those kids, and the kids themselves who are now in their thirties and forties occupying senior positions in these communities on the back of the outcomes that Dhupuma College was able to achieve over the years that it was open.
It was too much for the Country Liberal Party because it was indigenous education. He said: ‘Do not point the finger at us; it was not our fault’. How come, in 27 years, they never looked at themselves and asked themselves: ‘Why are we only getting Year 2 year and Year 3 literacy and numeracy outcomes out of our primary schools for indigenous kids?’ How come we are paying teachers and we are opening and running these schools?’ We have never opened a school, said the member for Macdonnell. Well, there are a few you might have closed if you had looked at the outcomes you had been achieving over the 27 years, you goose! You never asked a question …
Members interjecting.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STIRLING: … you then commissioned one Bob Collins to have a look at this question of indigenous education, and what did you do with it? You shelved the report. You never implemented one recommendation, not one recommendation!
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker.
Mr STIRLING: So the member for Brennan can well stand here with his heart on his sleeve, but he ought to be listening …
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Minister, there is a point of order.
Mr ELFERINK: Perhaps the minister would like to consider taking one of those little blue pills he is so fond of talking about.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Macdonnell, withdraw that comment.
Mr ELFERINK: Okay, I withdraw it.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Minister, please continue.
Mr ELFERINK: He should withdraw his bad …
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Macdonnell, excuse me! Cease interjecting, please. Minister, please continue.
Mr STIRLING: I get offended, Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, when my colleagues come under attack. The member for Brennan would do well to visit some of these communities and feel for himself the palpable anger that is directed to this day and held against the Country Liberal Party. If he thinks the comments from the members for Arafura and Millner are over the top, he should come and talk to some of the people in my electorate and hear for himself direct the words of the parents and students and see the difference for himself between these students of 30 and 40 years in positions of leadership and their mastery of the English language, their competence and capability to walk both sides of the cultural fence compared with the outcomes that their own children have experienced since that college was closed. It is a tragedy. It was a tragedy then and it is a tragedy that we have to make up for it where we can.
I want to go onto more positive matters. In reverse order, the member for Nelson talked in very positive and glowing terms about Taminmin High and they are sentiments I share about the school. I enjoy going to Taminmin High.
Mr Wood: See you on Wednesday.
Mr STIRLING: Yes. It has a great reputation in the rural area, and it has real strengths on the vocational training side of it, particularly agriculture and mechanics. I took the Corvette down there a few months ago and the kids were just great. Those who had a licence drove it around the school yard while I was there and when I met with members of school council.
There is a little bit of concern around Taminmin and that is in relation to the Palmerston High School development. I understand that; they do not want to see there Year 12s gravitate to a newer, better, smarter, bigger sort of venture. There is a lot of consultation and discussion going on with Taminmin and with Palmerston High School, which has some of the concerns, too. Let me assure the member for Nelson that Taminmin High rates very highly in the minister’s view as an educational institution. It is one that we hold dear to our hearts and I love going down there and visiting.
I thank him for his commendation of the music school and two new teachers. I was told by the Assistant Principal of the music school that this will go a long way to working toward those programs that have been lost. I do not know exactly the detail on that. I am happy for my office to inquire and get a fix on whether these two new teachers will recover the programs that have been lost. I am keen to know for myself and I will advise you accordingly.
In relation to Batchelor, it is an interesting question, one that has not come by me at all, of relocation to Palmerston or Summer Institute of Linguistics. The only thing I do know is that Dr Brendan Nelson, the federal minister, funded a study for and on behalf of Batchelor Institute Council to look at a number of issues. I do not know what the terms of reference were; it is not my report. Clearly, it belongs to Dr Nelson, who funded it, and Batchelor Council. It is their report. Maybe they will give the minister’s office a copy in time. Relocation is absolute news to me, but I will make inquiries and if there is anything we can learn from that, I will advise accordingly.
The member for Nelson also raised the question of bureaucracy versus schools. It is an interesting question of what do numbers on paper mean? We can be misled sometimes by the size of the staff and say: ‘This is too big. The administration is getting too top heavy. It is costing us schools’. We have come across real difficulties with the department’s ability to unroll its capital works and minor new works programs over the couple of years we have been in government. One of the reasons was a lot of its capacity to do the preliminary design work, flesh out the concepts and get proper design and project briefs across to DIPE so that these projects could be tendered, contracted and started.
That capacity was knocked over in the Planning for Growth exercise conducted by the previous government. It looked good on paper, saved jobs, saved salaries, but actually ate in to the capacity of the department to roll out its infrastructure program over many years and we have had to backfill across agencies because we were being frustrated by putting money into capital works and saying: ‘Yes, we are going to do this school, remote area’, or whatever and then have this difficulty between DIPE and DEET, each department claiming that they had not been given the information.
You have to be careful of that apparent size of the bureaucracy. You have to know what it does and the part it plays in the overall system before you go willy-nilly knocking off jobs, which is what happened with Planning for Growth. I am pretty comfortable with the size of the bureaucracy. It has grown as a result of some of the initiatives. The 100 extra teachers, for example, are going to come into the department, but they are qualified teachers and doing work for teachers on the ground; behavioural management, ESL, a whole range of specialists like that who will come up on paper as departmental bureaucrats, so to speak, but they are teachers working on the ground with other teachers.
We do not see an issue with the question of government versus non-government schools. I have had this discussion with a number of non-government principals, most recently with Stephen Kinsella. We talked along the lines of the system in the Northern Territory being small enough to see it as one and to see the all part – independent, non-government schools, call them what you like, private schools - and the government sector being complementary, working for the same goal and end. That is the way this government sees it. We do not see one as robbing the other or having to pay one or the other. We want to work on a cooperative basis with them.
The Catholic high school: there has been no recent discussion, but I will get an update on the matter and get the answer back to you. From memory, and I do not want to mislead the House or yourself, the Catholics themselves have dropped off the question a bit, I think, but I will get back to you on that.
The member for Macdonnell raised the question of the closure of Redsand Hill School. That is a homeland of Hermannsburg and school closure is absolute news to me. We are a government that is keen on building capacity within the education system and building the numbers of students at school. To close a school, no matter where it is, would, particularly in a remote area, mean that those children do not go to school. I only have to go back to August 1980 and the example of Dhupuma College, and I think I have covered that.
If I become a little emotional, Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, it is because I am representing the anger from those people who, for 24 years, have no longer had access to secondary schooling. To hear from the member for Brennan, who was not in the Territory for another 14 years after that decision was made, become a little sensitive and upset, he ought to look at himself and some of the decisions, particularly that one, that the Country Liberal Party made.
I was pretty disappointed with remarks from the member for Greatorex over Teach for a Term. This is a great new initiative, a departmental teacher recruitment and retention strategy from the People and Learning division, and this comes in the face of national and international teacher shortages and high turnover of teachers in the Northern Territory, particularly in remote areas. It also comes on the back of the successful internship project whereby interns came for a term and many have stayed. We are in the third year of that program. Teachers’ return airfares are paid if they complete the full term of teaching.
The average recruitment cost for a teacher is $20 000 with no guarantee that they will even stay for a term. We have had experiences of recruits from down south who have not stayed. There is one notable example where the teacher recruit would not get off the plane, simply would not get off the plane in the community. So there go a fair few dollars down the drain. This is designed to give these people 10 weeks’ experience in the Territory. If they like it, they can then be recruited. It has the benefit of helping to serve short-term staffing shortages and emergencies that may arise through sickness.
We have had low staffing shortages this year compared with past years, partly as a result of this. There are nine vacancies at the moment. One is a German teacher and the other eight are all English as a Second Language, and they are part of the extra hundred teachers, so they have only recently been advertised.
What I did resent was the member for Greatorex saying that these teachers are coming for a break. If he thinks teaching is a holiday, I suggest he get out in the classroom, any classroom, I do not care, primary or secondary, for a day. Spend a day with these teachers and then come back and tell me if he thinks these teachers are having a holiday or if they are on a break because that is absolutely demeaning to the profession and it is an insult to teachers to suggest that they are on a break or they are having a holiday.
The laptops were commended also by speakers, but I go the member for Greatorex again. He said it was a good idea but we have to be careful that this does not erode capacity within the system and the bandwidth particularly. I suggest he was referring to infrastructure capacity. When we took office, the bandwidth capacity for our schools stood at 0.5 megabytes. I advise the member for Greatorex that it currently stands at 8.5 megabytes and we have provided 2 megabytes for Interactive Distance Learning students. That is a 1600% increase. The cost per megabyte under the contract is about $190 000, so this is not a cheap exercise. The total cost now, including IDL, is $1.995m and growing. So do not tell us that we have to be careful about capacity …
Members interjecting.
Mr STIRLING: You had a system that they could barely turn on! It has gone from 0.5 up to 8.5 megabytes at a cost of $190 000 per megabyte.
I pick up on a couple of points the member for Blain made, and I think it was touched on by the member for Braitling as well. This was a question of attendance at schools. The member for Blain’s approach is all about a big stick: you have to take the welfare payments from them, you have to fine them from time to time, get them in court, whack them with big fines, that will work. It is all about the big stick approach. He commended the attendance officers as well, and a few speakers did, and I welcome that because I believe they are a good idea, too, but they are only part of the equation.
The serious questions about attendance at school come down to the role and the engagement of the school within the community and, too often, our schools are communities are too far removed and little happens by way of engagement in between. This idea of community engagement with the school is not new. It has been done in the past very effectively, but has not been sustained and that has been the problem.
More recently, it has been picked up by Jackie Costanzo’s people in Alice Springs. She is a great advocate for this approach by which the school engages with senior leaders in the community and talks to the community, in their terms, about where they see the community in five, 10, 15 years time. What would they see as the sorts of employment opportunities arising in the community? What would the eight-year-old student of the school, in 10 years time, be doing? What sort of skills mix might they need in order to be carrying out the position they might want that person to undertake?
At the end of that process you, hopefully, you have a pretty clear idea, and that is something you have to continue to work on. The process itself is the important part; it is much more important than the outcome, the continual process of reaffirming and working away at this so that you have an agreed outcome between the school and the community as to what the community is going to look like and what skill sets and educational needs they will want their students to have in five and 10 years time. If you can get agreement of that, have that ticked off, the next step is to back-map the curriculum to reflect the needs that the community themselves have stated that they want to see realised, their aspirations and their dreams. It becomes quite a simple matter. If the 17-year-old woman is going to be required to do this, this, this and this, okay, we back-map that through the curriculum and say: ‘By Year 3, they will have to be able to do this, by Year 4, they should have another set of experiences and competencies’.
If we are able to engage meaningfully with the communities around these issues, I see it as a new role, perhaps, for the Indigenous Education Division within the Department of Employment, Education and Training in conjunction with the Department of Community Development with those groups working together at this engagement process. It is proactive, it is not big stick, and it goes to the heart of that question of passive resistance because that is what we are up against. It is a style of passive resistance to education in our communities because half the time, they do not know what is happening in school. If they are not getting the outcomes, it makes no difference to the student’s chances in the wider world outside of school, anyway. If we can get into these processes of community engagement school by school, community by community, it is a much better way to go.
Just to touch on the Palmerston secondary education facility, there were questions about it being on the budget; and that is true. However, feedback on the proposals has been sought and consultative sessions held with the Australian Education Union and the Northern Territory Board of Studies, Palmerston City Council, the school council, Taminmin and Palmerston High Schools, and the Education Advisory Council. Community consultation sessions were held in both Palmerston and rural areas for parents, teachers, local business and non-government organisation and other interested people. Copies of the concept paper were provided to those who attended these sessions, and a web site was launched that provided more information about the proposal and the opportunity for online feedback. That consultation has concluded. Favourable comments have been received, and the issues of concern, and I raise these in relation to remarks from the member for Nelson, are the futures of both Palmerston and Taminmin …
Mr HENDERSON: Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I move an extension of time of 10 minutes to allow my colleague to continue his remarks.
Motion agreed to.
Mr STIRLING: Thank you, Madam Acting Deputy Speaker. I want to finish on this point.
Obviously, Palmerston and Taminmin High Schools have concerns about a flash new senior high school placed not very far away from them, and how that might affect their ability to offer a wide range of subjects and, possibly losing Year 11 and 12 students. These are issues that have to be worked through.
There is the issue of co-locating Year 10 students and whether they are going to be Years 10, 11 and 12 or Years 11 and 12 is one final question that needs to be answered. Of course, all of those issues of pedagogy, behaviour management and that how we organise the governance arrangements between the new college and the university would have to be worked out, but there has been a very favourable response and positive feedback. The department will be seeking my approval to endorse the proposal and to build this new senior secondary college to be co-located within the Palmerston campus of Charles Darwin University.
I am now advised that the $10m ain’t going to buy a senior college and the final figure, I am not about to drop here, but it is at least double that. How we progress will be challenging for us all, including Treasury who must find the money. However, find the money we will. We will move forward because too many students in and around the Palmerston area travel to Darwin, some by choice I suppose, but if we have a state-of-the-art brand new facility down there, we will encourage more students to stay and attend school in Palmerston.
I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the remarks from the member from Brennan. I caution him about his warning to the member for Arafura. This Chamber is not a place to issue threats. This Chamber is not a place to issue challenges and threats that ‘If you say this, I will say this about you’. The member for Arafura conducted herself with utmost grace and dignity at the time when a member of her family had disappointed her, broken her heart, you might say, in relation to a particular drug offence. I was on the phone as quickly as I could to the member for Arafura to commend her for her courage and dignity in taking this on the chin as she did.
For the member for Brennan to threaten the member for Arafura that if she dares criticise the Country Liberal Party’s 27 years of unforgivable history in some instances, particularly on indigenous matters, he ought to have a good close look at his conscience. He ought to have a good close look at his own experience in the Northern Territory, which stems, as I said, from 1994, during which time he occupied very privileged positions in the Northern Territory community and simply never came to grips with the history of the Country Liberal Party prior to 1994 and has never come to grips with the many challenging issues on indigenous communities.
Motion agreed to; statement noted.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly at its rising adjourn until Tuesday, 5 October 2004 at 10 am or such other time and/or date as may be set by Madam Speaker pursuant to Sessional Order.
Motion agreed to.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
I recently had the pleasure of opening the 2004 Royal Darwin Show, and what a great show it was this year. It was a perfect Dry Season day, the main arena was in wonderful condition and Territorians were present in all their rich diversity. The show is a very important event on the annual calendar because it brings our community together. It is a place where Territorians from the city and the bush can meet and appreciate each others’ lifestyles, and it is a place where all the people who make up the Territory’s rich cultural fabric come together.
The show’s Chief Executive Officer, Cherry Court, said that although they have not yet finalised the numbers, it looks as though there were close to 50 000 visitors through the gates over the three days. Cherry also said that the upgrading of the show’s infrastructure had been great and the reliability of the electricity and water supplies had improved out of sight.
Members may recall that my government provided $600 000 for the upgrade, the first major upgrade in 25 years. When you looked around the showground, you could see everything from upgraded car parks to improved toilet facilities and know that the power outages and blackouts are a thing of the past. In my speech opening the show, I also noted the $5000 we provided to convene the first meeting of the new Northern Territory Show Council, as well as $10 000 to engage a business consultant to develop a strategic plan for the council to use for all Territory shows.
Presiding over the official opening was, as ever, Percy Ellis OAM, President of the Royal Agricultural Society of the Northern Territory, accompanied by his wife, Judy. Also participating in the official opening was his Honour the Administrator Ted Egan AO and Nerys Evans. One of the things I really enjoy about the show is the way it recognises and acknowledges the involvement of people, particularly in the rural community, as participants in the competitions and as volunteers.
The Administrator announced the Rural Ambassador for 2004 Royal Darwin Show, and presented the sash to Beckie Kernich. He also presented the Administrator’s Medal to the Junior Steward of the Year, Millicent Crowe. Let me talk about Millicent. She is only 14 years old and has been making a significant contribution to the show for the past four years. As well as stewarding in the pet section and the animal nursery, Millicent assists with their setting up and packing up before and after each show. She also overnights at the show to care for the animals, getting up at the crack of dawn to feed them. Apart from the general care of animals, Millicent educates very young children about the basics of caring for animals. She is also willing to assist in other sections; run errands, assist the general public and encourage her friends to participate by helping out and stewarding. Millicent is a wonderful ambassador for the Royal Darwin Show and truly deserving of this award. Congratulations, Millicent.
I was also delighted to present the Chief Minister’s trophy for the Senior Steward of the Year at the Darwin Show to Ann Shaw. Ann was first involved with the show as a St John Ambulance volunteer in 1975. In 1980, she commenced as a steward in the needlework section and this year notched up 25 years of association with the section, the last few as the Chief Steward.
In the early years, Ann was ably supported by her husband, Graham, a former show councillor himself, with the small livestock section. She told how she would iron six shirts, pack a hamper with food for six days and they would move from their home at Humpty Doo to camp at the showgrounds for the duration. For a number of years, Ann also assisted with the horticulture section. She is a highly accomplished needleworker and has won numerous prizes including Best in Show several times over the years. Ann’s talents have also won prizes in the cooking section. Ann recently retired from her position with the Northern Territory Treasury, and she and Graham are moving to Queensland to be closer to family. Each year, however, they intend to return to Darwin for the show.
Following the official opening, we moved to the members’ enclosure to watch the Grand Parade before joining the President for refreshments. Also enjoying the parade were several of my colleagues from the federal parliament as well as this parliament. I have to say that I love the Grand Parade; it provides a snapshot of the show’s events as the exhibitors, the prize winning livestock and small animals and vehicles pass by. I particularly enjoyed the harness horses; their turnouts were superb with most drivers in period dress.
The winners of the stallholder awards were:
Commercial and Industrial: first Waterfall World; second Country Sounds, third Red Centre Farm.
I must say I am surprised at those awards because Community Development was inundated by people wanting little hammers through which you could also blow bubbles, and they were a wild success so I am surprised that they did not do better.
The Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Trophy for the Outstanding Exhibitor at this year’s show was won by Charles Darwin University Rural College at Katherine. Congratulations to all the winners and placegetters. I commend all the exhibitors at this year’s show. My congratulations also to Noel Padgham and to Rink van der Velde who received awards for 20 years service as councillors.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I want to pay tribute to a modest but very important person. Percy Ellis has been involved with the Royal Darwin Show for 30 years. In this time, he has become intimately involved with every aspect of organising and running this complex community activity. He started in 1974 helping as a gate keeper for his first few shows. The next year, he became a show councillor, working as a jack of all trades using his carpentry skills and background to enhance the show itself. Percy built the newest horse stables, extended the agricultural hall and each year makes trophies that are presented to exhibitors as the President’s Encouragement Awards for Poultry, Horticulture, Craft and Aviculture.
Following eight years as Senior Vice President, Percy undertook the challenging task of President of the Show Council, a role he undertook with great enthusiasm, patience and goodwill for the past nine years. This year, due to a change in the constitution of the committee, Percy is stepping down from this beloved role with the Show. Percy’s love for the show is seen in his active participation as an entrant in many of the cooking and craft competitions. Everyone knows that Percy’s fruit cake is without peer, his sultana cake and damper are blue ribbon, and he has won first prize three years in a row for his alcoholic ginger beer.
As President of the Society, Percy has worked hard to keep the show focussed on being an event for the whole family. He and his wife, Judy, have made significant contributions to the show. Judy is very supportive of all the time and effort that Percy puts in, and she is equally as active a participant in the workings of the show each year. Although she will not compete against Percy in cake baking, Judy’s excellence is in the field of craft and decoupage.
Percy Ellis received the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2001 for his contributions to the Agricultural Show and to umpiring. A Life Member of the Umpires Association, Percy has been a volunteer umpire in the Territory since 1974, and has made major contributions to the sport and the discipline.
Percy and Judith will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in November this year. I wish them all the best and congratulate them on the years that they have given their time, effort and support to our community and to the show.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I take this opportunity to thank the many staff and volunteers of the Australian Red Cross in the Territory. This is a milestone year for the many hundreds who have participated in Red Cross programs, and who give their time and effort regularly to assist those in need in our community. Australian Red Cross was initially formed as the Australian Branch of the British Red Cross on 13 August 1914. Red Cross in Australia reached a landmark 90 years of operation this month.
The inaugural meeting of the Northern Territory Division was held at Government House, Darwin, on 19 May 1915. It was initially chaired by the wives of Northern Territory Administrators, Mrs Gilruth and later Mrs Hilda Abbott. The support of the Administrator, and particularly the wife of the Administrator, has always been very strong, and this year, as patron of the Australian Red Cross, Nerys Evans has been working with volunteers at the hospital, selling raffle tickets and visiting all of the programs that Red Cross run.
The work of the Red Cross was focussed initially on assisting our soldiers during war time. Given our small population at the time, we can be proud that funds raised by the Northern Territory Division during the First World War was over 13 000, and extrapolated to today’s dollars, this is a very significant amount.
Over the years, Red Cross in the Territory continued this amazing effort of fundraising for our boys overseas. Women in Pine Creek, Brocks Creek, Tennant Creek, Katherine and Alice Springs knitted socks for soldiers, sewed clothing for children and pyjamas for hospital patients. Fund raising in pastoral properties, townships and small communities allowed garments, tobacco and food essentials to be sent as overseas relief Equipment was purchased for local hospitals and military bases, evacuees were assisted, victims of the bombing of Darwin were comforted and cared for.
Over the past 90 years, the work of the Australian Red Cross has changed in nature. Now the staff and volunteers of this organisation provide important services for youth and in aged care. Home care and hospital care still exists in the forms of Meals on Wheels and library services.
When we think of the Australian Red Cross, the first aid training and the Blood Bank service come immediately to mind. The first Blood Transfusion Committee was established in 1946.
As an aside, and as an important historical fact, in 1996, Greta Quong took over the running of the Blood Transfusion Service. Greta and Eddie have been constant supporters of the Red Cross over the years, and can still be seen in the Mall or at Casuarina encouraging people to buy raffle tickets.
Another well known and long time supporter and worker for the Red Cross is Rosemary Burkitt. Rosemary took over management of the Home Help Service in 1976 and, almost 30 years later, still occupies that position.
The Northern Territory Division of the Red Cross played a prominent role in the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy in December 1974 in what was to become the largest relief operation in the Australian history. Among other things, Red Cross organised emergency food distribution, the disbursement of cyclone relief funds and the movement of people to and from evacuation centres. Social worker services were provided; more than 2000 mattresses, 6000 sets of sheets, thousands of pillows and pillow slips and numerous blankets were given out.
The Meals on Wheels service was quickly restored, using relatively primitive cooking facilities in the early days after the cyclone.
The tracing service was very active and tonnes of clothing was also distributed.
The Blood Bank was re-established as soon as possible, operating out of temporary facilities at the pharmacy of Darwin Hospital.
The work of the Red Cross in humanitarian crises is well recognised. The Darwin Red Cross has been very active in this endeavour, both through their ongoing commitments to humanitarian law and participation in times of need.
In the most recent the example, the Northern Territory Division volunteers assisted during the time of the East Timorese conflict by registering for tracing purposes more than 300 refugees from Timor in 48 hours. Food and clothing assistance was provided to family and friends of victims evacuated to Darwin. Several days later, the Executive Director and another manager were deployed to Bali to participate in the Australian Red Cross delegation sent to assist the families of Australian victims, support the Pelang Merah Indonesia, which is Red Cross Indonesia, and identify the optimum use in Bali of funds raised through the Bali appeal being run by Australian Red Cross.
There are around 150 people on the staff of Red Cross in the Territory in addition to the wonderful team who operate the blood service in Alice Springs and Darwin. Ian Watts is the very capable Executive Director who leads a hard-working team. Moya Perry heads the very busy and growing Youth and Community Services area, which runs the Tiwi Island holiday program, the SHAK, the Energy Cruz after-school program, Breakfast Clubs and many other activities.
The disaster response area is headed by Leo Price, who was awarded an OAM for his efforts immediately after the tragic bombings in Bali. He also oversees the opportunity shops throughout the Territory.
In Alice Springs, the Regional Manager is Leony Bowey. Leony is a bundle of energy who recently took the lead in establishing a great breakfast program at Yipirinya Primary School.
Red Cross operates the Territory’s longest-running aged care facility. Located in Katherine, the facility is overseen by committed Regional Manager, Susanne Brown. The large finance and administration activity for Red Cross is managed by Kathy Sadler. Kathy has a very strong commitment to Red Cross and recently returned from a three-month deployment to China, where she was involved in the very important Red Cross HIV-AIDS program.
The raising of funds is very important to the operation of Red Cross, and relative newcomer to the management team, Margaret Richards, has wasted no time in getting on with the task. Well known local, Andrea Lee, plays a great role in coordinating the many volunteers who are the lifeblood of Red Cross.
This team, working under Ian Watts, is supplemented by many extraordinary staff members, each doing their best to keep the many arms of Red Cross working efficiently in service provision to our community.
The Divisional Council of the Australian Red Cross is chaired by John Reeves QC. The Northern Territory is also well represented at the national level with two of our prominent Territorians and NT Divisional Council members holding the important positions of Vice President of the National Council. Dr Bill Wilson is Chairman of the National Disaster Response Committee, and John Pinney is Chairman of the National Committee for Tracing, Refugees and Asylum Seekers. Their election to the positions of Vice President indicates the high esteem in which they are held both locally and nationally.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I note the shortness of time. The balance of my speech is non-controversial and completes the history of the Red Cross in the Territory. I seek leave to have the remainder of my remarks incorporated into the Parliamentary Record.
Leave granted.
providing support to staff in the various offices; and
I thoroughly enjoy visiting this learning unit, which is located in R Block. In December last year, I decided I would visit them for their Christmas function. I was invited along and the students had prepared Christmas lunch for me. They had gone to a great deal of trouble, decorated the table and room to make it very special.
As a result of that, I have been there several times for a meal, and I promised to host the students for lunch early this year. Unfortunately, I had not got around to doing that in the first term of school, but I made a promise that I would do it, and I was very fortunate and honoured to be able to fulfil that promise today by hosting a lunch on the Speaker’s Green. Student Teacher David Arnold does a fantastic job with these students, and he arrived today with his helpers, Bev Arnold, Colleen Hodgson, Teresa Festing and Toni Stevens.
The students they brought to Darwin for two nights and three days of some good fun and relaxation were Anthony Smith, William Mudge, Bradley Stevens, Conrad Barnes and Tasha Paddy. Those students have been eagerly awaiting this trip to Darwin. They have been counting the days, especially Anthony Smith, who has been so excited about this trip to Darwin. It was a joy to have them in Parliament House today. I would especially like to thank Toots and her staff at Speaker’s Corner for setting up the table for us outside in this magnificent weather and with the fabulous view of Darwin Harbour, which was a real treat for the students. Of course, she prepared plenty of delicious food that was enjoyed by the group. I also want to give special thanks to the security staff who assisted David Arnold with the parking of the bus, which he had a little difficulty doing, so it was very much appreciated.
Following the lunch, the students went ten pin bowling and were pretty excited about it. I am absolutely delighted to have had the opportunity to host them at Parliament House and I will welcome them back whenever they would like to come. I look forward to visiting them at Katherine High School again very shortly.
Another issue that I would like to talk about tonight is the restructuring of Tourism Associations in the Territory. Earlier this year, we had the restructuring of the Tennant Creek Tourism Association. There are now two separate entities for marketing and for visitor information in two different locations. At this point in time, discussions are also happening in Katherine with almost, by the look of the paper yesterday, a foregone conclusion that the same situation will eventuate in Katherine where we will have a marketing position and a visitor information service. I do not say it is all bad, but what concerns me is that it seems that the demise of existing visitor information centres has been an underlying ambition and plan of the government.
About five years ago when I was Chairman of the Katherine Region Tourism Association and Sharyn Innes was General Manager, this proposal was put to us and we were dead against it because we could see the breaking down of the supply of information and the marketing of the region. This is an area that concerned us greatly. At that time, the discussion was a marketing position for Top End and Central Australia. There was no mention of one for Tennant Creek or in Katherine. So we fought for that, we fought hard to retain marketing in those two regions. In Tennant Creek, it was Joan Small, in Katherine it was Sharyn Innes and our respective Chairmen fought very hard to retain marketing in those areas.
Mr McAdam: You are talking about 10 years ago, member for Katherine.
Mrs MILLER: No, it is not. I have been involved with the tourism industry and have been the Chairman for nine years in Katherine. What we have now is a marketing position in Tennant Creek and obviously they have decided to retain a marketing position in those outer regions, which I am very happy about.
What concerns me is that there seems to be an underlying plan for the demise of the way they are set up at the moment. Katherine had a public meeting this week for comment on the restructuring of the Katherine Region Tourism Association. Comments from people who attended the meeting on Monday night was that they were railroaded. They said the meeting it was a foregone conclusion and their opinions did not count. So what I would like to know is: is it planned to go down the same road with Tourism Top End and with Central Australian Tourism Industry Association? They share some genuine concerns about the direction that they may be heading.
I do not say that it is a bad idea, but I would like to know if there is an underlying reason for the demise of tourism associations as they are structured at the moment.
Mr McAdam: There is no demise in Tennant Creek.
Mrs MILLER: Pardon?
Mr McAdam: There is no demise of tourism …
Mrs MILLER: No, it is restructuring of the way it works.
Mr McAdam: No, absolutely not.
Mrs MILLER: Yes, it is.
Mr McAdam: No.
Mrs MILLER: I have a briefing tomorrow with the Tourist Commission, and it is a restructuring of the way it works. The same in Katherine; there is going to be a restructure. What I want to determine is whether the same restructure going to happen with Tourism Top End and CATIA. I will hopefully have those answers tomorrow.
I was not going to say anything tonight, but I believe everyone in this Assembly is here to do the best they can for the Northern Territory. I respect that, and I respect everyone here because we all come into the House with the best intentions to represent the people of the NT to the best of their ability.
I don’t often sit in my office listening to proceedings because I like to be in the Chamber if I can, but I urge members to ensure, when they are making comments and utterances, that they close their microphones because it has been so disappointing for me over the past few days when I haven’t been well and have been lying in my office listening to hear some of the things that are said. It makes it hard for me to retain respect. It applies to both sides of the House. I urge everyone to ensure that they close their mike before making detrimental remarks or derogatory comments.
I will conclude with a quote that I heard in a film when I was very young: ‘People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones’.
Mr STIRLING (Nhulunbuy): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I rise to acknowledge Andrew Smith’s contribution to the Northern Territory. Andrew will leave his position with the Northern Territory public sector next week to return to his home state of Queensland. I want to place on record the government’s appreciation to Mr Smith for his effort and dedication over the last eight years.
Andrew’s first involvement with the Territory was as a consultant to Treasury, developing the Territory’s Tax Equivalents regime. On completion of this project in 1996, Andrew accepted a position with Treasury and commenced as Director of Revenue Development in August of that year. By April 2003, Andrew had been promoted to Deputy Under Treasurer, Revenue and Licensing.
In recent years, Andrew has been responsible for two major portfolios within Treasury: the Revenue Division and the Racing, Gaming and Licensing Division. Andrew has also held the statutory responsibility of being Commissioner of Taxes since 1998. In his role as Commissioner of Taxes, Andrew presided over significant changes to the Territory’s revenue office and tax system by introducing contemporary governance and management. This included significant legislative and organisational reform to the NT’s taxation regime by reforming the pay-roll tax rate and threshold - the then Treasurer acknowledged Andrew’s assistance with these measures on the Parliamentary Record by referring to him as being ‘as sharp as a box of razor blades’ – as well as improving the availability and readability of taxpayer information, increasing the business community’s awareness of the role of Territory revenue management, and improving the way in which tax payers return tax to the Territory.
Andrew also played an important role in looking after the Territory’s interests as part of national tax reform and the impact of the High Court’s 1997 decision questioning the constitutional standing of the states and territories business franchise fees drawn from tobacco, fuel and liquor.
Andrew placed a high priority on reducing compliance tax costs for tax payers, but held a firm stance for championing the integrity of the tax system, ensuring compliance with the Territory’s tax laws and ensuring the correct penalties were payable in instances of non-compliance.
Andrew developed a close rapport and was well respected by Treasury staff, ministers and the other state and territory Commissioners of Taxation. Andrew could always be relied on for offering a well reasoned approach for resolving problems.
Andrew has been the senior Treasury manager in the Racing, Gaming and Licensing Division, working in conjunction with the Northern Territory Licensing Commission and Northern Territory Racing Commission to oversee the policy development of compliance and enforcement activities of the division.
Andrew presided over the review and re-establishment of the Community Benefit Fund and was appointed Chairman of the Community Benefit Committee, the formation of the Responsible Gambling Code of Practice Working Party and its transition to the Responsible Gambling Reference Group, the formation of the Northern Territory Principal Racing Authority and establishing of the Thoroughbred Funding Agreement, the establishment of the Greyhound Funding Agreement, the acquisition of MGM Grand Casino by SKYCITY Australia Pty Ltd, the National Competition Policy Review of the Territory’s gambling and liquor legislation, and the establishment of the Alcohol Framework project.
Andrew strongly represented the interests of the Territory’s in national forums and working parties, especially in relation to bet exchange issues and cross-border betting negotiations.
Andrew’s work with the Northern Territory Licensing Commission is another example of the positive working relationships he built in his time in the Territory. The current Chairman of the Commission, John Withnall, has asked that I place on the record his appreciation of Andrew’s professional approach in working with both the Licensing and Racing Commission, and the commission wishes him well in his future endeavours.
As Treasurer and Minister for Racing, Gaming and Licensing, I have valued Andrew’s advice and support. I am sure that he will continue to make a significant contribution in whatever he chooses to do. We wish Andrew well for the future. I want to acknowledge in this House the value of his contribution to the Territory. All the best, Andrew.
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Arafura): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I rise to inform the House of Arafura constituents’ involvement in this year’s Darwin Festival.
The Arafura electorate has a long tradition of involvement by its artists, performers and musicians in the Northern Territory’s premier community arts festival, and I am pleased to say that this year is no exception.
At the Black Music, Bright Future concert, Warruwi was represented by the talented vocal acoustic duo, Rupert and Renfred Manmarulu, and the rock band Northern Gentlemen. Paul Djolpa McKenzie from Maningrida is a potential superstar, so prodigious is his talent and capacity to play across all musical styles that he could be the next Prince. Djolpa and his band Wildwater have been wowing Territory audiences for years and played several times and this year’s festival. He is a very worthy nominee in the Best Indigenous Male Artist category of the inaugural Northern Territory Indigenous Music Awards, another worthy Martin government arts initiative.
Nabarlek from Manmoyi Outstation near Gunbalanya are also nominees in the Best Indigenous Act category at the awards and will be playing on the bill at the awards presentation this Saturday, the 28th, at the Botanic Gardens.
The Injalak Dancers from Gunbalanya had five night seasons as part of the traditional indigenous dance component of this year’s festival. Injalak dance the story of the yam and how the Kunwinjku came to use it for the first time.
I congratulate the Festival Director, Malcolm Blaylock for this new dance initiative. I have had very positive feedback from locals and tourists alike about the world-class dance experience afforded to festival goers this year.
Whilst in town, the Injalak Dancers were able to attend a lunch in their honour hosted by His Honour the Administrator at Government House. The Government House Foundation, chaired by well known Darwin businessman Kerry Ambrose Pearce, has commissioned six large paintings by very significant - indeed, famous - artist from Gunbalanya and outstations to reflect the six seasons recognised by the Kunwinjku people of the region.
The artists represented in the collection are Danny Djorlom, Bardayal ‘Lofty’ Nadjamerrek AO, Thomson Yulidjirri, Isaiah Nagurrgurrba, Gabriel Maralngurra and Bruce Nabegeyo. Members should ensure they view these magnificent paintings next time they visit Government House. They are beautifully displayed in the dining room.
For members’ edification, this time of the year in the Kunwinjku view of the world is wurrkeng, the time when the hunting fires are many, when mankung or honey becomes plentiful as the plants begin to flower and native bees become active.
Gunbalanya held its famous open day last weekend, and I was delighted to, once again, for the third year, to open it together with the senior traditional owner, Jacob Nayinggul. Again, visitors came from near and far, including Madam Speaker and members of her family. They enjoyed the day with a number of visitors, both national and international, who once again descended upon Gunbalanya for this great open day. Everyone enjoyed a great weekend of cultural and sporting attractions.
Highlights included visits to the world famous Injalak Arts and Craft Centre, where visitors were able to purchase works of art directly from the artist and observe paintings and fibre works being created on site.
Rock art tours to the impressive Injalak Hills Rock Gallery proved to be the hottest ticket in town, with all tours sold out early.
Demed Outstation Resource Centre provided popular tractor tours over the flood plain and Demed Rangers conducted quad bike tours.
Other highlights for visitors included the availability of bush tucker all weekend, and the impressive yam dancing of the Injalak Dancers at the opening ceremony.
Football and basketball carnivals were held with a wide representation from Top End communities. Of course, in the football, St John’s College, once again, proved too good, winning the football competition for the second year in a row.
Shellie Morris performed during the afternoon and the Nabarlek Band rocked the night away with their unique style of reggae, rock and soul music. As usual, the night was completed by a spectacular fireworks display. To see the Arnhem Land sky lit up this way is quite a unique experience, and one not easily forgotten by those lucky enough to be there.
Most festivities occur at school, which graciously allow its facilities to be used for the day. It was great to see several classes displaying their work and selling cards and paintings to raise money for extracurricular activities like excursions.
I am delighted to inform members that they sold out. Congratulations to those little kids because they spent many weeks leading up to the open day creating these paintings and hoping that people would buy them. All the visitors took great delight in them.
This open day is largely put together by the community itself. In fact, this year is the first year that they have received funding for development of the festival. I congratulate the Gunbalanya community on their efforts with this year’s festival, and, in particular, organiser Adam Blake. It demonstrates loud and clear what can be achieved when everyone works together: Gunbalanya Council, Demed Association, Gunbalanya Community Education Centre, Injalak Arts and Craft, Gunbalanya Meatworks, Gunbalanya Store and Gunbalanya Air Charter.
In a ministerial report to this House recently, I outlined the success of the Community Cabinet recently held in my electorate Gunbalanya and Jabiru. I would like to add a few comments about individuals who were particularly helpful with our visit. I know my Cabinet colleagues were particularly impressed, as I was, with the very comprehensive and professional presentation made to them by Matthew Fagin on the Kakadu Sustainable Development Project.
I would like to add my personal thanks on behalf of Cabinet staff and departmental officials to Geoff Naumann, Lare Stanton and staff of the Gagudju Crocodile Hotel for the superb way they looked after us whilst there. The Gagudju Crocodile Hotel is an outstanding Territory business, one that enriches any Kakadu experience.
Another thriving Territory business in my electorate is the Maningrida Arts and Culture Centre. This world-famous arts organisation recently opened, in the front of the Crowne Plaza, a new retail outlet in Mitchell Street, Darwin, where a full range of Maningrida paintings, fibre work and sculpture is available for sale. The shop is managed by Matt Ward, and early sales indicate a bright future for this progressive organisation’s retail capacity. Maningrida Arts and Craft deserve every success in the future, and I wish them well.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I want to comment on two issues tonight.
The first is recent media coverage about FreightLink and its difficulties, and what implications there might be for us in Central Australia, in Alice Springs, and also in Darwin, without a doubt.
You will recall that construction of the railway line when it was ahead of schedule and the Chief Minister was so happy about it, literally delirious with joy that things were coming together so well. She was interviewed on ABC by Barbara McCarthy on 7 February 2003. She was asked about the railway line and what she thought about how it was going to help Darwin. The Chief Minister was happy to talk about Timor Sea gas and what it could do for the Territory. She went on to talk about the railway line. I quote a little from 7 February 2003:
I know the Chief Minister has said on other occasions that this railway line will bring freight into the Territory and our cost of living will defiantly decrease. Later that year, she was interviewed by Daryl Manzie on TOP-FM on 12 May. Daryl Manzie said:
Martin:
Early this year, we are told that freight charges on the railway line were going to increase. The amount they are going to charge per tonne per kilometre was going to be greater than what it had been to bring the same tonnage into Alice Springs on the old rail.
The truckies and trucking companies were really concerned, voiced their objections, and I remember some media at that time, and we were told that our freight prices were going to go up by 20% plus.
I recall also when the Deputy Chief Minister and I were on the Territory Food Price Review and we found that food prices in Alice Springs were consistently between 2% to 5% lower than Darwin. With this increase in freight prices, we are concerned that food prices in Alices Springs would also increase, but what I found out later from FreightLink is that per tonne per kilometre of freight coming to Alice Springs is going to cost more than the per tonne per kilometre of freight coming to Darwin.
That tells me that the Alice Springs community will have to subsidise the Darwin community; a population of 25 000 to 30 000 subsidising a population of 100 000. How idiotic is that? Surely, freight in the Territory should always retain its differential. After all, Alice Springs is closer to the manufacturing base than Darwin.
Recently, we heard in the media that FreightLink is going to increase its charges by anything between 18% to 20% more than it is charging already. What is going to happen to our cost of living? It is going to increase. If the government had been intimately involved with FreightLink right from the beginning, making sure it has input into it and if the Chief Minister is the minister in charge of the railway, she should have been there, talking to them from the beginning making sure that our contribution to building the railway brings some benefits to the Territory.
At the moment in Alice Springs, we see a loss of some 150 direct jobs in the trucking industry plus an estimated 400 to 500 indirect jobs. We see food prices increasing even though the recent Territory Food Price Review showed that Alice Springs food prices remain the lowest in the Territory, though only marginally.
The railway line was to bring benefits to the Territory and all it has done so far is cause the Alice Springs community more grief than anything else. I blame it on the government for not keeping its eye on the ball, for not being involved with the railway line from the beginning. If we do not do that, we are going to get ourselves into trouble. The Chief Minister must not walk away from it and say: ‘That is private enterprise. I cannot be seen to be interfering with it’. Of course you are not going to interfere with private enterprise, but as the government representing the Territory, a place that contributed $200m to the railway line, we have every right to expect some benefits. As the government, you have to make sure that Territorians are heard so that FreightLink does not impose unreasonable prices on Territorians. If you do not do that, prices will keep going up and we will lose out.
One of the things we know can help the railway line is to see how many containers move up and down the track. Surely, if we can increase activity at the Darwin Port, it will increase freight moving up the railway line. I do not know what the port is doing at the moment. I understand it is probably about one-third of what a shipping company in Darwin is putting out through its own port. If that is the case, we have to have cooperation between the port and the shipping company so we can maximise output from the port. By doing that, we will create a critical mass or at least a sense of a critical mass so that others will be encouraged to use the port. The more it is used, the greater the freight volume and, hopefully, FreightLink will have a profitable business running the freight train to Adelaide and all of us, from Alice Springs to Darwin, will benefit from the railway.
The other issue I want to raise is a matter that has been burning in Alice Springs for some time. As late as November last year, the issue was publicised in the Alice Springs News, and to date we have heard nothing about a resolution of this matter.
I raised this issue with the Commissioner of Public Employment at a briefing that I had with him recently. Understandably, he did not want me to raise this issue too widely because it is particularly sensitive, but he was not able to give me a briefing, either. One way or another, I believe a briefing is essential. Because the minister had not been briefed at that time, he couldn’t brief me, either, and I accept that.
The issue relates to the mistreatment of several teachers in Central Australia. It has been going for quite a few years. A principal who had saved a bush school from collapse and went on to achieve recognition for the school at Territory and national levels for innovation, resilience and education reform, had been forced out by the education system in the Territory and denied due process at every turn. I quote from the Alice Springs News of 12 November 2003:
I will not go into the names of the individuals. That would not be proper. Obviously, this person encountered difficulty within the department. It reached the stage where the school council and some parents, some 27 people all up, wrote to the CEO of the department saying that this person is:
Despite all the pleadings from the community, the department continued to work against this person and, finally, she left. Letters to the CEO haven’t been able to get her anywhere. I quote the paper again:
After that report, other teachers then started coming to the media to tell their stories. There was another case of a bush principal who was also pulled out at short notice, in the middle of a flood, forced to risk driving through creeks where the water came over the bonnet of her car, carrying three small children.
After two years of battling the department, they finally settled out of court, causing the teacher more stress and anxiety. Anyway, the teacher has now left the Territory. I have had communication from this teacher and her husband. I know that they have contacted the Chief Minister and have not had a single response from her. It is a real pity that these people who have a grievance and have tried, through due process, to get somewhere and they have got absolutely nowhere. This government, through personal approaches by the victims, has not seen fit that they should respond to their pleadings.
There was a third teacher who was a specialist teacher who waited more than 16 months for an apology from the department over the administrative errors that caused that teacher to lose her position and to suffer chronic depression and anxiety, and now having to undergo psychiatric treatment. Over and over again, she pleaded with the department. In fact, the psychiatrist said her situation had been aggravated by the lack of response from the department. So, finally, she had to leave the town.
These three cases, plus several others that I find in the papers, are all waiting for justice, for some resolution to their situation. They need to have answers. The minister, rightly, decided to call for an enquiry, which he did late last year. Immediately, it was followed by an investigation. I know that the Commissioner for Public Employment was involved, as was a private company from Western Australia which undertook the investigation. Well and good. I also know that the report has been done for quite some time. It is probably collecting dust, just like every other report that has gone to this minister. We have been waiting for the minister to let us know what is going on.
I say to the minister: it is time it is you released the report. Let these people have their day in the sun so that they can get on with their lives. They want to have justice and closure on this part of their life that they have found most unpleasant. I hope the minister will do this soon so that we can get on with it. I hope I can then say to the people who contacted me: ‘Yes, the minister has done this and here is the report,’ and do what you need to do with it to move on with your lives.
Mrs AAGAARD (Nightcliff): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I rise tonight to congratulate and thank the Indian Cultural Society of the Northern Territory for bringing the very special dance troupe of Purna Das Baul to Darwin. This was the first visit to the Territory of this very special troupe, and I would like to note that these people were in the gallery today and it was good to see them again.
It was my pleasure to attend the concert at the Sound Shell at the Botanic Gardens on Saturday, 14 August as part of the Festival of Darwin. Baul is a folk tradition that believes in love for humanity, irrespective of caste, faith and religion, colour and custom. It conveys a universal message of self respect, inner enlightenment and peace using the Bangla language.
The Bauls have taken elements from devotional Hinduism, Buddhism, Christian and Sufi Islam. Purna Das Baul has been vital in maintaining and reviving the Baul tradition. This unique tradition is based on song, dance and music, and meditation which focusses on moner manush, the inner self. By honouring the inner self, one can honour others, and therefore Bhagavan or God. Baul songs express one’s attitude towards nature, love, the human body and society.
Members of the troupe are Purna Das Baul, who is the lead vocalist and strings player. He is an internationally acclaimed performer, having performed with legends such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. He was accompanied by his son, Dibyendu Das Baul, on vocals and strings; Sukumar Das on flute; Rabi Bhattacharya on percussion; and local residents Jayasri Chakravarti on harmonium, Priya Chakravarti, who was the Master of Ceremonies, and Sumati Chakravarti, who is a dancer.
It was a real pleasure to sit and enjoy this special presentation and particularly a delight to watch the 10 local children dancing in the Baul style with the troupe. My congratulations to the Indian Cultural Society of the Northern Territory for bringing this troupe to Darwin. It was pleasing that the Territory government was able to support this troupe with a $20 000 grant under the Cultural Linguistic Awards.
Tonight, I want to put on record my thanks to Liz McFarlane, who is leaving the Substance Abuse Committee as its researcher and taking up a permanent position with the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee. As Chair of the committee, I wish her well and thank her for her considerable contribution to the committee over the past three years. I am sure that all members of the committee wish her well in her new position.
I also thank His Excellency the Consul of the Republic of Indonesia, Mr Zacharias Manongga and Mrs Murni Manongga for their generous hospitality on the occasion of the celebration of the 59th Indonesian Independence Day on 20 August. The reception was a great success, with local entertainers, singers, dancer and musicians. I also congratulate Darwin historian, Mr Peter Spillet, who received a special award for his involvement in matters relating to Indonesia over a very long period. His acceptance speech moved many of us when he referred to Australia as his father and Indonesia as his mother. Peter is a great Territorian, and I congratulate him on his award and his continuing work for Territorians.
I also wish to recognise the Essington School this evening. I have had several occasions to speak on the successes of the Essington School in this House. It is my pleasure to do that once again, and to mark the occasion of the opening of its new music centre and fete on 21 August. This is the 15th year of the Essington School’s operation and, during those 15 years, the school has moved ahead in leaps and bounds. At the beginning of this year, the school required five new school rooms. At the beginning of 2005, the school will require a further five rooms, certainly evidence of what a success the school is.
The new music centre was officially opened by the Chief Minister, with the Principal, Mr David Cannon and School Council Chairman, Mr John McLaren. One of the highlights of the opening was the beautiful singing of the national anthem by Grace Ness, a student at the school and a new Australian citizen. Grace, congratulations on becoming an Australian and also on your very beautiful singing voice. I imagine we will hear more from you over the years.
The new music centre had many supporters, both from within the school and from the corporate world. The Northern Territory government was also very pleased to provide the land for the centre. I extend my thanks from the Nightcliff community to Mr Duncan Begg from ADrail who assisted in project management, Mr Tony Smith from NT Link who built the buildings, the Alexopolous family who assisted with the concrete and pathway, Cridlands for providing the curtain material for the music centre, Christina Spargo for making the curtains, and Top End Sounds who have always been generous supporters of the Essington School music program.
I also recognise Mrs Jill Kuhn, the Essington School Music Coordinator, and her excellent team, who have created the demand for such and outstanding music offering and program.
Mr ELFERINK (Macdonnell): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, tonight I raise an issue with the minister for police because I have some concerns about a series of facts that occurred around the time that Mr Anderson was being harangued by the Northern Territory government. It deals with the traffic apprehension in the Daly Street area, if memory serves me correctly, when Mr Anderson was pulled up at gun-point by the police.
I want to go through the facts as they occurred, which led to that traffic apprehension. When the police pulled him over, they must have been acting on a complaint because, as I understand it, he was committing no traffic offence at the time. The fact is that, even had he been committing a traffic offence, it is not the custom of police officers to deal with traffic offenders at gun-point. Therefore, the police must have been in receipt of some information that made them do what they did.
I now go to when Mr Anderson got off the aeroplane and picked up his firearm, which was securely fastened in a firearms case and was entirely lawfully transported. It is not unusual for aircraft to carry firearms when the bolt is removed and they are secured in the hold. Everything that Mr Anderson did whilst transporting that weapon was entirely appropriate.
How I know this is that when Mr Anderson got off the aeroplane, he obtained his firearm and took it to the car park where he picked up his hire car. He was escorted, as I understand it, by either Australian Protective Services or Australian Federal Police. In either instance, the federal authorities had no problem with the way Mr Anderson was conducting himself and transporting the weapon.
Mr Anderson made his way through a media scrum, got his hire car and started to drive into town. On that journey, the police must have been in receipt of some information. I am guessing that the information was this: they had received a telephone call and were acting on complaint that a person was armed with a firearm, driving into the city centre. I believe that to be the case because that is the only reason police would engage in a hostile vehicle apprehension in the way that they did.
The radio call must have gone something like this to the police officers in the car: there is a car that we are looking for with such and such a number plate, of such and such of a description, and in that vehicle there is a firearm, approach with caution or something like that. That is the only reason the police would engage in a hostile vehicle apprehension. So that call goes out. The direction of the vehicle is known or police were simply lucky in finding the car. So they pull over Mr Anderson and, at gun-point, get Mr Anderson out of his car and everything is determined to be fine and, ultimately, Mr Anderson is allowed to go on his way.
The question is: if the police were acting innocently, and I absolutely believe that they were and they were acting on information they received, who made the call? Who told police that this vehicle was of such a threat to the community that the police thought it was necessary to do what they did at gun-point?
It would be very easy for the minister to simply state in this House that they know who made the phone call because when someone rings the police, one of the first questions you are asked is: what is your name and address? Calls are recorded. I want to know from the minister tonight who made the telephone call. I would also like to know why that person has not been charge with making a false report to police.
It is a criminal offence to make a false report to police when that report requires some sort of action or investigation. Clearly, from the film footage that we have seen, there was action taken by police in such circumstances that it appears, on the face of it, to have been a false report to police that instigated the series of events that next occurred.
If the minister is not prepared to tell this House that someone has been charged with an offence or not prepared to investigate the matter any further, we have to make a few summations. We know what the government’s attitude is in relation to its media officers on the fifth floor because we heard an answer from the Minister for Community Development the other day saying he has no problem with his media officer under any circumstances talking to the media, despite the fact that environment was being used to hound Mr Anderson.
If the minister is not prepared to either tell this House that an investigation has been completed and appropriate action has been taken, or if the minister is not prepared to hold some sort of inquiry, I will try to find out what happened in that sequence of events to fill in the blanks, and woe betide this government if it had anything to do with it at all.
Mr AH KIT (Arnhem): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I rise this evening to pay tribute to an employee of the Northern Territory Public Service who recently announced his retirement, a man who gave 25 years of excellent service to the Northern Territory, Mr Neil Prosser.
For any new government, being elected creates some uncertainties and trepidation for new ministers like me. There is a lingering feeling about how you will go about your job and how well you will be received by the public and, perhaps even more scary, by that vast bureaucracy of public servants you need on side to help with policy, legislative developments and advice.
After over 27 years of a single government, you had to consider what reception you would have. It is a great credit, however, to say that our long-standing public servants were more than up to the task and took a change of government in its stride and with ease. From the first days, it was apparent that I was not going to be eaten alive, and that the information and advice I sought was timely and forthcoming.
Whilst there are some who would argue that the long-standing Westminster system in this country has been corrupted and politicised, after three years on the job as minister, I can safely say that this is a myth. It is one of my greatest pleasures in this job to know that support and professional advice is provided by our public service without fear or favour. Many of these public servants remain in the background and carry out their work largely unsung. In particular, our long-serving officers continue to provide role models for new recruits and are there to lead the way in maintaining the high traditions of the public service.
Neil Thomas Prosser retired from the Department of Community Development, Sport and Cultural Affairs on 6 August this year. Neil joined the Department of Lands in March 1979 and spent his first six months with the Planning Branch before moving to the Pastoral Branch where he undertook research into the Territory’s pastoral leases, including their currency, existing covenants and lease terms.
In 1981, Neil moved to the Land Development Branch and busied himself with land sales under David Beale. During this time, the branch was involved in a major review of the Territory, particularly Darwin, to identify all available blocks and getting title to all Housing Commission properties. This period saw some phenomenal prices achieved at auction and was a very exciting time in the Territory’s development.
In 1989, Neil moved to Capital Works, which provided head works for the new suburbs of Karama, Leanyer and the commencement of Palmerston before the Palmerston Development Authority was established.
In 1991, Neil made a career move into the Legislation area of the Department of Lands with the legendary Joe Sarif. During this period, he was associated with the development of the Cullen Bay Marina Act and the Pastoral Land Act.
In probably his best known role in the public service, Neil moved into the Secretariat of the Department of Lands, Housing and Local Government in 1994 where he continued his career from Ministerial Liaison Officer through to Acting Director, Secretariat, in that department. Neil noted at his retirement function that in six years, he had served under five different ministers, which created quite a challenge.
In May 2002, Neil moved from Director, Secretariat to the Acting Director’s position in Legislation, his final position within the department. It was, of course, during this period that I had the pleasure of working closely with Neil as we pursued our legislative agenda. Over the past three years, Neil was instrumental in seeing through the amendments to the Local Government Act, the new Swimming Pool Fencing Act as well as major work on the Animal Welfare Act and the Places of Public Entertainment Act.
Amendments to the Local Government Act had taken over six years to get to the Assembly, and it was my first experience in taking legislation through all stages. Leading up to the second reading and committee stages of the bill, Neil spent considerable time with me to make sure I was comfortable with the bill, and his patience and explanations were greatly appreciated. This process was repeated a number of times and, in particular, during the introduction of the Swimming Pool Fencing Act.
Neil’s qualities as a long standing public servant are well known to many. It would be difficult to find a more loyal, committed and honest public servant who has never been afraid to put his point of view, but always politely and courteously. Neil’s commitment to achieving our policy objectives is a great example of our long standing public servants who work quietly and conscientiously in the background, often unheralded.
Neil has had a distinguished career, and has served under a number of chief executives in that time, including Ross Fountain, Don Darben, Col Fuller, Paul Tyrrell, Bob Beadman, Graham Symonds and, finally, with Mike Dillon. In such distinguished company, however, Neil singles out Don Darben as the best administrator the Territory had as Secretary for Lands, followed by Bob Beadman, with whom Neil worked closely for over six years.
Neil said that the most memorable and exciting times in his career were the booming years of land development and major headworks in the mid- to late 1980s, followed by the demanding but highly rewarding work in Legislation and Secretariat.
Neil was joined by his wife, Elaine, and his two daughters at his farewell from the department, among his many friends and colleagues, and it was a pity that I could not be there on the day. However, I am assured that he was sent off in appropriate style.
Neil has bought a new caravan and, after an appropriate time around the house, intends, with Elaine, of course, to join the grey nomads in travelling around the country.
I take this opportunity to say thank you to Neil Prosser for his assistance and dedication to our policy development and implementation, which has made my task as minister all the easier. I wish him and his wife, Elaine, a long and happy retirement.
Members: Hear, hear!
Mr AH KIT: Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I would also like to raise the issue of hockey, and how hockey is progressing in the Northern Territory. As most members of this House would agree, hockey in the Territory has gone from strength to strength over the past few years.
The Northern Territory Hockey Association has both men’s and women’s teams represented in the Australian Hockey League. The Territory Stingers men’s team has been participating in the league for the past seven years, and the Territory Pearls for the past five years. Competing in the Australian Hockey League provides an important platform for aspiring Australian representatives, and acts as a stepping stone for hockey’s future international stars.
Both the Territory Stingers and the Territory Pearls have had their most successful results ever this year, with the Pearls finishing in fifth place, and the Stingers in sixth position, with both teams being highly competitive against the larger states.
I am particularly happy to announce today that I have, for the first time, this year approved the creation of a National League Incentive Fund. This fund will provide sporting codes such as hockey with a financial reward to assist towards the extremely high cost of fielding teams in national competitions on a weekly basis. Indeed, I hope that this fund provides incentive to other local sporting codes to consider building their sports to such a level that enables our local athletes to participate in national competition on a regular basis. I will be writing to those sports, such as hockey, that currently have national teams, to provide details to them on how they can apply for this funding.
In the life of the Martin Labor government, we have replaced synthetic pitches at Traeger Park to the tune of $800 000, and the Vodafone Hockey Centre at Marrara. I announced only a week ago that, at a cost of $300 000, we would be replacing the number two pitch at the Vodafone Hockey Centre. This will finalise a complete upgrade for the Territory over the last three years. The importance of these pitches to hockey cannot be underestimated. It allows players from a junior level onwards to play on world class surfaces. The proof of that pudding can be seen in Hockey NT’s national and international success.
In the current Olympics, two Hockey NT stalwarts are contributing as officials: Pip March and Jen Cook. Both the Hockeyroos and Kookaburras trained in Darwin before Athens. While the Hockeyroos could not repeat previous games success, all of us hope the Kookaburras will get up in the final.
The Northern Territory presently boasts 12 athletes in Australian squads, with the pinnacle of this being Mark Hickman, competing in hockey for Australia in Athens at the Olympic Games.
Australia bolted into its fourth Olympic men’s hockey final with an emphatic 6-3 victory over Spain in their semi-final in Athens last night. The Kookaburras will playing in the Olympic final for the first time since Barcelona in 1992 when they meet the Netherlands in Friday’s final after the reigning Olympic champions dismissed Germany 3-2 in an earlier semi-final. The Kookaburras have never won Olympic gold despite making the semi-finals in the last six Olympic campaigns. On behalf of all Territorians, we wish Mark every success if he makes the cut in tomorrow’s final and we hope the Kookaburras get up for an historic first win.
Hockey is unique in Territory team sports, as our elite athletes can reach the top of their sport whilst still representing the Northern Territory and playing in the Northern Territory.
A final point: Hockey NT has got to where it is not just through government support, past and present. They have done it through hard work and good governance. Congratulations to hockey President Peter Stoner and the other officials on your committee who serve your sport well, and Executive Officer, Carol Williams.
Ms LAWRIE (Karama): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I add my congratulations to the Northern Territory Hockey Association to those of the minister. I have played hockey here since 1971 and am very passionate about hockey in the Territory. It took me throughout Australia as a Territory representative, and I have seen how much it builds a great social fabric and network among the hockey players.
There have been some fantastic stalwarts in hockey, from Keith Kemp right through the good work done by Peter Stoner now, who is a constituent of mine. I thank the minister for using his valuable time here tonight to identify just how successful we are as a code in the Territory and how well governed hockey is.
Tonight, I wish to Manunda Terrace Primary School in my electorate. They held their annual auction on Saturday, 21 August, and it was a fantastic event. I do not have the final figures, but they tend to raise in the vicinity of $20 000 at the school auction, which, by any standard, is a phenomenal fundraising effort by a local primary school. The majority of hard work that goes into the auction, the collection of auction donations and the organising of the auction, is done by the School Council Chair, Mr Barry Brown, who is the auction coordinator, and his lovely wife, Deanna Brown.
Barry and Deanna are an absolute credit to the school community. They are committed to the school and to organising a successful auction. Barry takes annual leave from work for a couple of weeks each year leading up to the auction to organise everything. Deanna goes around for months leading up to the auction securing donations. Deanna was on the stall all day, cooking food and serving people. She had a babe in her arms, and they have young kids at the school. They pick up their young children and work hard. I have the utmost admiration for Barry and Deanna Brown. They are wonderful hard-working members of the Manunda Terrace School community.
It really was a lovely auction. I probably spent too much of my hard earned dollars there. It is very tempting. We have a great auctioneer. Jim Henderson conducts the auction for the school and he really does make it a fun and entertaining afternoon for all of us.
I congratulate the school principal, Dr Terry Quong. He puts a lot of effort into the auction and he was very busy all afternoon, filling in serving at the bar and doing a range of activities. We had a beautiful performance again from the Manunda Terrace Rope Ragers and I congratulate Jan Marie Cooper who puts a huge amount of effort into teaching those young girls at the school the finer art of Jump Rope. They are off again in a few weeks time to compete at the nationals in Sydney where they came overall second last year. I wish them all the very best for that competition.
It was my pleasure, during a break in the auction, to present the school with a cheque for $120 000 for shade on the basketball courts that the government committed to in this budget.
The school is absolutely delighted. I was overwhelmed by the applause that erupted at the auction to the presentation of that cheque. In a really lovely touch, the school presented me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and I thank them for that. That did not need to do that, but they are such a delightful school community and they are very grateful for any work that you can put in to assist them. They have an International Day coming up and I am looking forward to that. I have been along there for successive years and all the kids get out and cook different food from all over the world. It is just a fantastic day.
I want to particularly single out someone in the school community who ensures the auction is a financial success, and that is Nica La Pira. Nica La Pira is Patron of the school and each year, she donates significant indigenous art work for auction. Nica excelled again this year. The art work that they were able to auction was absolutely first rate, each piece going for several hundred dollars. There were several pieces donated by Mrs La Pira. I know that the school community is eternally grateful for her generosity and her magnificent support of Manunda Terrace Primary School.
Nica is a woman whom I greatly admire. She is a woman of strong opinions, not necessarily the same political ideology as my own. I know she has been a great supporter of the CLP over many years. What I do know about Nica is that she is a great supporter of the community and she has a very good ethic in terms of philanthropy in the community. She loves assisting, in particular, children in need and she has identified a very positive role for her philanthropy at Manunda Terrace Primary. I promised the school I would acknowledge her and I am tonight, and I will be writing to thank her as well because she is a fantastic Patron for the school.
There is a whole range of businesses which donated, far too many for me to single out and acknowledge. I am sure the school will be writing to each of them to thank them. It is great to see how so many different small business throughout our community step up and assist schools with their fund raisers. I know each of the schools in my community of Karama and Malak are able to get really nice donations from local businesses. I congratulate the small business community of the Territory for putting their hands in their pockets and helping out local schools in their fundraising efforts.
As we know, by the end of September, any school fundraising will be matched dollar for dollar by the NT government and that really provides for essential equipment to go back into the schools. I know Malak Primary School has recently been upgrading playground equipment through its fund raising and its dollar-for-dollar from the school council budget.
So congratulations to the wonderful community of Manunda Terrace Primary School. I thank Jim Henderson from Raine & Horne for his role as auctioneer. I thank the school community. It was so refreshing to see the principal, front office staff, teachers and parents working side by side on the food stalls, drink stalls, on the art and craft and the knick knack stall. My children fleeced me of money to buy everything out of the junk stall for which I thank the school!
I look forward to being back at the Manunda Terrace auction next year and supporting the school in any way I can because it is a fantastic school community in the electorate of Karama.
Mr KIELY (Sanderson): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, at Parliament House on 18 March this year at a function to celebrate National Harmony Day, the Minister for Ethnic Affairs, the Honourable Kon Vatskalis, launched the inaugural Multicultural Awards.
Four awards across three different categories were announced, after nominations closed in mid-April. A total of 30 nominations were received. The minister, in his wisdom, appointed a panel of six prominent Territorians to assess the awards. They were John Anictomatis AO, Raymond Chin AO, OAM, Mohammad Nurul Huq OAM, Jenny Medwell OAM, Joan Mullins and Maria Scaturchio. The panel considered awards in four categories: young person aged under 25; a person aged over 25; an organisation category; and the initiative and project category.
Nominations were of a high calibre, which is not surprising given the value that this community places on multiculturalism. In the individual under 25, the nominees were Emanuel Siriotis, Michael Siriotis, Thomas Siriotis, Melissa Siriotis, Deng Mador Koch and Atigoni Charalambous. The Siriotises are part of the Mediterranean Dance Group that get around to a lot of functions. I saw Emanuel the other day. He has a broken arm resulting from basketball, of all things. He was with his dance troupe at Anula School doing a presentation for the annual Literacy Olympics. It was a great function. Emanuel was leading it all and interacting with the students. I am not surprised that they were nominated, but, unfortunately, they didn’t get up. Another worthy nominee, Deng Mador Koch, was the winner of the Under 25 award.
If we look at the Individual over 25 years, I am proud to say that I know most of them on a personal basis. The nominees were: Mr John Rivas; Ms Fele Mann; Ms Paula Simeone; Ms Gloribeth Mondragon; Ms Emma Tantengco; Ms Lea Mussak, a wonderful woman with whom I used to work in the NT public sector; Ms Marguerite Baptise-Rooke; Ms Fredericka Gaskall; Mrs Suzanne Beynon; and the indomitable Ms Judith Ventic. What a great person she is and what a great worker for the Filipino and all communities. She will get in and MC anything at the drop of a hat. She is a great person.
I appreciate that it was for the panel to select an individual who stood out in that group. It was just as well we had a panel of such prominent Territorians who could separate these people because it would have been very tough. The winner, though, was Ms Marguerite Baptise-Rooke.
In the organisations, and this comes as no shock, the nominees were the Filipino-Australian Association that have the Barrio Festiva this Saturday night. I will be there, as will the members for Karama and Johnston, the Minister for Infrastructure, Planning and Environment, Dr Chris Burns, will most certainly be there.
Ms Lawrie: He never misses it.
Mr KIELY: No, and I won’t be surprised if we see many other government members come by because we value the Fipilino community. We value all our multicultural communities and what they do to enrich our society. I am pleased to say that we will all make time to get to the Barrio Festiva, which is a fabulous event, with Mr Rivas guiding it along.
Another nominee was the Melaleuca Refugee Centre. What great work they do. The Multicultural Council of the Northern Territory, whose work is just fabulous. The Greek Orthodox School, of course, we know well, and the interaction that our wonderful Greek community has with the broader community of the Northern Territory. We saw the fabulous effort on the soccer night. It is a shame that people from the CLP, particularly the member for Drysdale, slammed the event and continues to do it, saying we should not do too much for people from the multicultural sector. We do not subscribe to that view. I hope that they get over that before too long because it will come back to haunt them.
Great news! Anula Primary School was nominated, as was the Mediterranean Greek Cultural Dance Group and the Gray Primary School. It was fabulous that the Anula School was nominated. Once again, it was hard to split, but it was the Multicultural Council of the NT that picked up the award.
In the project initiatives, we had the Cultural Exchange to Japan by Katherine School, the Adult Greek Language Program at the Greek School, the Harmony Day Citizenship Ceremony at Anula Primary School, and I was there for that. It was fabulous. The nominator for that was Ms Sue Hyde, the Assistant Principal. The school got behind it, it was fabulous. There was a citizenship ceremony. It was great. A really great person and a great hard worker to the community, you see him at the Parap and Nightcliff markets, Mr Bobby Wibisono, was naturalised. It was a fabulous day.
Also nominated was Harmony Day at Alawa Primary School and Friday Morning Friends of Wagaman Primary School, nominated by Linda Neve. What a fabulous job they do over there. Harmony Day Celebrations at Sanderson High School, was another nominee. I attended that, too, and it was simply fabulous.
Once again, it would have been hard to split, but the committee had a good hard look at this. There can only be one winner, and that was Sanderson High School, and well done to them.
It was my pleasure, on Thursday 12 August 2004, to represent the Minister for Ethnic Affairs to present the school with the inaugural Multicultural Award in this the initiative/project category.
Sanderson High School’s project revolved around the 2004 Harmony Day Celebrations and gave students the opportunity to participate in activities to promote cultural understanding, respect, goodwill, appreciation of multiculturalism and work towards the elimination of racial discrimination. Preparations began in term four of 2003, with the launch of the Pastoral Care Group Poster Competition. The posters identified which ethnic groups are represented among the group and what Harmony Day means to them.
It was actually down to the visual arts group led, I believe, by Carol Rollason, a tireless hard worker for the school and a great artist. The arts staff and students enthusiastically supported the school’s big Harmony Day celebrations on 18 March. They initiated the idea of collecting the flags of all the countries and cultures represented at Sanderson High by students, staff, parents and guardians.
Twenty-six of the 46 flags were donated for display in the GBA. I had the pleasure of donating four flags: the Australian flag; the Territory flag, of which we are all so proud, but which we do not have to wear on our sleeve like some badge and wrap ourselves up in it; the Aboriginal flag; and the Torres Strait Islands flag. The flags were presented to the school in a colourful and moving ceremony at the commencement of the Harmony Day assembly. A procession of flag bearers entered the GBA to the strains of We Are One, sung beautifully by the Harmony Day Choir.
Mr Ron Strachan of World Flags, who sometimes pops in here, I see him up having a look around the place; is a tireless worker in Rotary. He is a great bloke and it was good to see he was behind that. Ron Strachan painted a little of the history and symbolism of each flag as it entered the GBA. Fabulous ceremony!
There are still 26 country flags to be collected. They are Angola, Bangladesh, Denmark, Ethiopia, Fiji, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Laos, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Korea, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Portugal, Samoa, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sudan and the United Kingdom. You can see the diverse multiculturalism in the community of Sanderson. What a fabulous thing that these teachers do to work with all these peoples of the world. This is just not a high school; this is a high school of the world; it is fabulous what goes on out there. This is an ongoing project, and while we still have 20-odd flags to acquire, and the ask is on for families with connections with community groups to seek a donation of $40 and then the flag can be purchased from Ron.
Part of the award was a $500 cheque, and I am informed by the Principal, Ms Denise Wilkowski, that the $500 will go towards purchasing flags. That is about 12 flags, so they are well on the way to having everyone represented.
As I said, 18 March was the chosen day for the culmination of Harmony Day activities, and the first activity of the day involved the preparation of the banners, and they promoted the You + Me = Us theme. Students were then involved in activities to increase their awareness of, and appreciation of, other cultures.
There was another activity that brought students together for an assembly featuring the recognition of the traditional owners. I have mentioned the parade of national flags. There was Shellie Morris, the Harmony Day Choir and a performance by the Darwin Greek School dancers. The Indonesian and Sudanese dancers were just fabulous. The choir sung Peace, O! which students had written and put to music with the assistance of Shellie Morris at workshops leading up to Harmony Day.
Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I seek your indulgence to table the lyrics of Peace, O! It is a great little song and it should be there for posterity, written by the students and Shellie Morris.
Leave granted.
Mr KIELY: The third activity featured the Inter-School Theatre Sports Challenge conducted by Corrugated Iron Youth Arts. Their theme was Moments Like These. It was a theatre sports-type challenge. This challenge will be an annual event involving students from Sanderson, Dripstone and St John’s competing in theatre sports and challenges highlight working and living in harmony.
This could not have happened without the great work of Tom McCall, the Harmony Day coordinator and the organising committee who did a fabulous job. They were Ms Hill, Ms Sara, Mrs Bartlett, Mrs Easterbrook and Mrs Rollason. As I said, Carol was right in there with tireless efforts leading up to the day and beyond.
The panel was impressed with the preparation required and the level of student and community involvement apparent in Sanderson High School’s Harmony Day celebrations. I put it to you: who could not have been? From this initiative, the school has instilled in its students respect and appreciation for cultural diversity and sense of community harmony. I congratulate all involved in this fantastic project. It sets a great example for other schools and elevates the profile of Sanderson High School.
We must not forget that Sanderson High is committed to moving all students towards a sense of harmony and reconciliation. This commitment is producing young adults with the sense of social justice, which is built into the fabric of the school.
These events could not happen, of course, unless they had an active high school committee and student representative council. Sophia Hoving was at the youth concert and the Youth Parliament contributing, particularly, on the issue of youth suicide and what could be done helping prevent it. She is very active in the school community. Brock Hall, Shane Boots, Ceah David, Ashlee McInnes and Daniel Pukeroa are the senior school members of the SRC and are doing a great job.
The school council is ably co-chaired Greg Gibbs and Sharon Clark, Co-Treasurers Denise Thomas and Gayle De La Cruz, and Secretary Tom McCall. They all do a fabulous job at Sanderson, led by the Principal Denise Wilkowski, and the Assistant Principals, Jan Moore and Marie Boland. I am thankful for the work they are doing with the kids there.
Council members are Fran Davies; Doreen Walsh; Anne-Marie Tully who, I understand, is heading off around about September - maybe a little later - to Canberra - I wish her all the luck; Gerry De La Cruz, and Bronwyn Clee. It is a wonderful team that they have at Sanderson who do it all.
I was a bit surprised and annoyed when the member for Greatorex, in his role as the opposition spokesmen on Education, Employment and Training, mentioned the consultation in respect of the Secondary Education Report. He said that I had not been to any community consultations, and that he had been to Sanderson.
I am sure that the people of Sanderson remember me sitting in the front row. There was the member for Greatorex, the CLP candidate for Sanderson - and I certainly hope that he is a bit more accurate with the truth than the opposition education spokesman - and the member for Karama. I was affronted by his claim that I had not attended community consultation. I am sure that the people of Sanderson would be affronted by it, too. I am an active participant in our school community. I am proud to get in there and help out the community, particularly our schools.
They are great schools. They deserve all the support and assistance that the government and opposition can give them. This government will support them. I, as the local member, will always be there fighting the hard fight so that Sanderson gets its fair share of the education pie.
Mr HENDERSON (Wanguri): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I would like to talk tonight about recent activities and profiling the Northern Territory as a business and skilled migration destination in the Philippines.
Increasing international awareness of business and skilled migration opportunities in the Northern Territory is a key initiative of the government and aligns with our economic development strategy, our Asian engagement focus, our international trade strategy, and our priority of population growth.
Between 5 and 13 August, an officer of my Department of Business, Industry and Resource Development worked closely with the Northern Territory government’s representative in the Philippines, Mrs Violy Searby, and conducted a series of seminars to highlight business and skilled migration to the Northern Territory.
The seminars focussed on rasing awareness in the business community about business opportunities, and the visa and migration options available to business people for establishing businesses or investing in the Northern Territory. The seminars also profiled opportunities for skilled migration to the Territory. This reflects recent Commonwealth changes to the requirements for skilled visas and an increasing demand in Territory business for skilled metal trades people to service the needs of our oil and gas projects.
Filipinos, especially those who have worked in the oil and gas industry in Singapore and the Middle East, have the international certification that is required by our Territory businesses.
Around 100 people participated in the four seminars conducted in Manila, Baguio, and Cebu. Two of these seminars were invitation only and drew from within business networks of Filipino entrepreneurs in the Northern Territory.
At this point, I acknowledge the contribution of Emilio and Nanetta Suntay of Suntay Aquaculture to this promotional activity. The Suntays are the business people who are developing a world-class aquaculture project here. They have long standing and influential business connections in the Philippines and they have been generous in providing access to their networks. Through their experience in doing business in the Territory, they were able to provide first hand testimony to doing business in the Territory and to the support they have received from Northern Territory government agencies.
Individual meetings followed the seminars. These catalysed interest in pursuing a number of potential business opportunities.
I am advised that several business people identified business and investment opportunities of interest and that arrangements are now been made for a business delegation from the Philippines to Darwin in September or October this year. During the visit, meetings were arranged with Australian Embassy Officers including a representative of the Department of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs. In this meeting, processing difficulties that have been experienced and visa applications through the embassy were canvassed and potential solutions and approaches to the problems discussed.
Whilst I recognise that there is a need for vigilance with the security issues that are part of the international environment today, I am also keen to ensure that we minimise potential barriers to genuine business people seeking to invest or do business in the Territory.
Given the increasing interest by Territory employers in recruiting skilled workers from overseas, meetings were also arranged with other senior representatives from Philippines agencies responsible for Filipinos and Filipino workers overseas. These meetings including Mr Jose Molano, Executive Director and Commissioner of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas and Director Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz who is the Administrator of the Philippines Overseas Employment Administration.
The meetings provided an opportunity to profile the Territory and skilled worker and migration opportunities to raise the awareness of these officials of the developments that have taken place in the Territory and of the presence of the Territory’s representative in Manila. A verbal invitation was issued to representatives of the Philippines Overseas Employment Administration to visit the Territory and to gauge their interest in visiting in the future.
In concluding, I must acknowledge the work of the Northern Territory government’s representative in the Philippines, Mrs Violy Searby, in putting together the comprehensive promotional itinerary and for work for the Northern Territory business people
Mrs Searby’s networks facilitate valuable access to potential business and trading partners in the Philippines for Territory business. I also recognise the officers in my department who do a great job in promoting the Northern Territory. In addition, I acknowledge the Philippines-Australia Business Council and their assistance with meetings in Cebu and Manila.
Finally, I believe it is also important to recognise the work of the Northern Territory’s Filipino community. Members of the Filipino community actively contribute to community activities, particularly in assisting new migrants and visitors from their country of birth to settle in the Territory. This work is vitally important in building our population through the attraction and retention of new migrants.
The Territory needs to increase its population and its skills base for future economic development. This recent work in the Philippines is testimony to the government’s commitment to these priorities.
Tonight, I wish to place on the record my thanks as member for Wanguri and minister for police, and the thanks, appreciation and recognition of this government to the great career in the Northern Territory Police Service of Sergeant Rod Strong who retired just a few weeks ago after 25 years.
Members: Hear, hear!
Mr HENDERSON: Every member of this House would know Rod personally. He is someone who has made a difference in the Northern Territory and has had a great career with the police.
Rod Strong joined the NT police in February 1979 and, over the next 15 years, served in remote communities in Central Australia, Darwin and on Groote Eylandt before being promoted to Sergeant in 1985.
In 1995, Rod began the role that would make him so well known to many Territorians, taking up a role in the Crime Prevention Unit as Neighbourhood Watch Coordinator. In the last nine years, Rod has become the police face of Neighbourhood Watch in the Top End and, as a certified Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design instructor, has helped many Territorians improve the safety of their homes and businesses.
Rod was always available to assist in any crime prevention forum that was being held in my electorate. When there were issues of businesses having problems with security, Rod and the team would be there to conduct security audits and talk to business people about improving their security, they would attend all Neighbourhood Watch functions. Rod is a person who is passionate about community policing and had a great relationship with everyone in the community.
He really is a people person, a pretty old-fashioned cop inasmuch he recognised that if the police have good relationships with the community, as they do in the NT, it makes for a stronger community and a much better policing environment for police in the difficult work that they do.
So, Rod, from everyone here in the parliament, from myself as a local member and minister for police, we recognise a great career. Thank you for your commitment to Neighbourhood Watch in the Top End and in the NT. You are well regarded and respected by many thousands of people across the Territory. We wish you well in your retirement. I am sure that all your colleagues in Neighbourhood Watch and the NT Police Service wish you well in your retirement as well.
I am pleased to hear that you are staying in the Northern Territory and are going to continue on the Neighbourhood Watch Board. So, Rod Strong, 25 years commitment to the NT Police Service, best wishes on your retirement.
Members: Hear, hear!
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
VISITORS
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, we have visitors in the gallery today wearing beautiful bright uniforms. These are Wagaman Primary School students participating in the Boys in Education Program, accompanied by Gary Fry. On behalf of honourable members, I extend to you a warm welcome.
Members: Hear, hear!
STATEMENT BY SPEAKER
Corrections for Daily Hansard
Corrections for Daily Hansard
Madam SPEAKER: Members, following resolution of the ministerial statement yesterday, we need to send a transcript of the debate to Canberra quickly. I would appreciate if you would convey corrections to the Daily Hansard to the Hansard Unit by the end of the day, please.
MINISTERIAL REPORTS
Festival of Darwin
Festival of Darwin
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, this morning I rise to talk about the Festival of Darwin.
It is appropriate to provide a report to the House because it is disappointing that support for the festival has not been given by the opposition. In fact, the Leader of the Opposition issued a media release saying, and I quote from the release:
- The festival had become an event essentially organised out of Melbourne…it has been taken out of the hands of the local arts community...The government should give the festival back to the people...
I believe this year’s festival showcases some of the very best of Territory talent in the arts. The opening night of the Darwin Festival, 12 August, was a huge night with a turnout of around 6000 for the annual free Santos concert on the Esplanade.
At Kultura, over 40 local community and school groups performed with an audience of about 4500 attending throughout the afternoon and evening.
Local involvement has been huge. Tin Hotel, which doubled box-office expectations, was a truly local production on the playhouse stage in Darwin with local music, scripts, direction, and acting, a first for Darwin Theatre Company at that venue. I went on the closing night, Saturday, and I would say there must have been close to 700 there. It was a wonderful night. I was told that, in all, about 2500 people saw Tin Hotel in its four days plus matinee run.
Local media coverage of the festival has been excellent with ABC 105.7, Mix 104.9, Top FM, NT News, Darwin and Palmerston Sun, TEABBA Radio and Larakia Radio all covering the events.
Responses from indigenous communities regarding the high level of indigenous involvement this year have been extremely positive. This is supported by festival goers who have said they believe that Traditional Indigenous Dance is an opportunity to see important cultural performances not often available in Darwin. Shows have been selling well and the new Star Shell venue at the Botanic Gardens is proving to be very popular.
There has been good collaboration between the local community and international visited including Purna Das Baul, and the Indian community and Sri Lankan visitors collaborating with TRACKS Dance for Snakes, Gods and Deities.
Let me go through a list of the local events and groups involved in the Darwin Festival: Kultura, featuring local community groups and schools; the Santos Concert on the Esplanade featuring three prominent local groups; Traditional Indigenous Dance featuring indigenous groups from the Top End; Yilila Concert, a group of talented Territory musicians; the Northern Territory Indigenous Music awards showcasing the Territory’s best and finest musicians; Black Music Bright Future, the local indigenous musicians studying at Charles Darwin University; Outside and Over the Top presented by Corrugated Iron Youth Arts; Tin Hotel, as I mentioned, by the Darwin Theatre Company; Surviving Jonah Salt, presented by the local Knock’em Down Theatre Company in collaboration with the Just Us Theatre Company from Cairns; as I said, Snakes, Gods and Deities from TRACKS Dance; Streets of Dance from the local Ausdance group; Urban Village Cultured Beats, presented by the Cultural Village of the Northern Territory; NT Music Festival, presenting local Northern Territory musical talent; Tunas Mekar Balinese Collective, presented by the Darwin-based Balinese collective; Fire In Your Belly presented by locals in collaboration with two interstate performers; Splendour of Yue Ju presented by the Darwin Cantonese group in conjunction with the Hong Kong Phoenix Opera Troupe, Iolanthe from OperatuNiTy, a Darwin company; Australian Central’s Teddy Bears Picnic; Music NT workshops; Masters of Ceremony workshop; belly dancing and African drumming workshop; the 21st Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award; Art Gallery Openings bus tour; Sculpture in the Park; and Galuku Gallery. That is a mouth full of local performance and local talent.
In addition, our Darwin Festival has attracted national media attention confirming Darwin as an exciting tourist destination. Both SBS and Radio National travelled to Darwin for the festival and they ran outside broadcasts from the Botanic Gardens. There has also been positive media coverage by the Financial Review and The Australian.
The Darwin Festival has received an immense amount of assistance from 50 local volunteers who have given up much of their free time to help in the Mitchell Street information centre, to assist at the Star Shell and the festival club, conducting market research surveys selling T-shirts and numerous other tasks.
The Festival of Darwin is a wonderful celebration of our local community and culture. To all the organisers, volunteers, community groups, schools, artists, and art organisations who participated, you are to be congratulated for a wonderful and unique Darwin festival.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I, too, congratulate the organisers and all participants. It has been an activity that Territorians have enjoyed. The principal point, however, is that the opportunity that has been afforded to community groups, such as our students up there in the gallery, in times past and students in our school communities across the Top End of the Northern Territory to focus on this festival and to actively play a part by way of the community parade is indicative of the change of focus of this festival.
That has, Chief Minister, whether you can hear it or not, raised concern within our community. The purpose of arts festivals is to strengthen and raise the capacity within our own local community to be engaged in community arts.
That has been the issue raised by the arts community themselves, that by the demise of such activities as the community parade, it could be revamped, it could reformed, but it provides the very best means whereby the wider community can have access to this community festival. Otherwise, we end up in a situation where it is basically entertainment for the masses with some token involvement from locals so that we feel that we are involved, but not at the level that has been enjoyed in the past.
I accept that there has been a significant increase in funding. I accept that the direction and focus of this festival has changed. You will need to accept, Chief Minister, whether you like it or not, that has not received overwhelming support within the arts community.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, it is disappointing. I read out a very long list of local involvement in this festival. The Opposition Leader said schools have been excluded. Kultura, a Sunday afternoon event involving our local schools and our local community, was attended by 4500 Territorians, a great success. To hear to the opposition leader bag the committee that is running this very fine festival is very disappointing. The decisions made are made carefully. They are made to ensure that our festival is dynamic, is meeting community needs and, very critically, involving our community.
I want to put proudly on the record that they have done a terrific job this year. Our community has participated more than ever before. To bag them about an idea that stuck in your head is very disappointing.
Defence Schedule to
Charles Darwin University-NT Government Partnership Agreement
Charles Darwin University-NT Government Partnership Agreement
Mr HENDERSON (Defence Support): Madam Speaker, this report is to advise the House of a new partnership agreement between Charles Darwin University and government to identify skills requirements to enable business in the Territory to capitalise on defence expenditure.
The Department of Business Industry and Resource Development and Charles Darwin University, in consultation with the Department of Employment, Education and Training and the Northern Territory branch of ADIN have created a schedule to the CDU-Northern Territory government partnership agreement that aims to help grow the defence support industry capability of the Northern Territory.
The Defence White Paper 2000, the Defence Capability Plan 2004-14 and the Forward Defence Sector Development Plans for Ship Building and Repair, Electronics, Aerospace, and Land and Weapons Sectors have created a framework of both opportunities and demands for the Northern Territory’s defence support industry.
Just three outputs of the Defence Capability Plan alone will result in three new major defence platforms being based in the Territory within the next two years. These platforms are the Armidale class patrol boats; the Tiger armed reconnaissance helicopters and the Abrahams tank, which will all require through-life support and repairs and maintenance to be provided for at least 15 years. The collective value of the through-life support activities related to these platforms could exceed $135m a year.
In addition, the Commonwealth has entered into an agreement with the US government to develop the Delamere bombing range and the Bradshaw Field Training area as components of the US-Australia Defence Joint Training initiative.
These and other developments in the defence sector will create work force demands in the Northern Territory for highly skilled people in respect of existing and new technologies. In recognition, the Department of Business, Industry and Resource Development and CDU have created a schedule to the CDU-Northern Territory Government Partnership Agreement. It aims to help grow our defence support industry to maximise economic and community benefit to the Territory from engagement in the major defence activities and projects being based or evolving in the Territory over the next 15 years.
The first step planned is to commission through the Australian Industry Defence Network, AIDN NT, an industry-endorsed quantitative assessment of the potential demand for skilled labour, including professionals, by vocation, number required and year expected to arise from current and emerging defence projects over the next 10 years.
The aim is to tailor training courses to meet Defence support industry requirements and map infrastructure needs to develop industry-endorsed VET training. The linkages between the needs of the Defence Force industry and existing and emerging local industries will be investigated and mapped.
The schedule has been created in recognition of the skill shortage in the engineering sector, which is a barrier to supporting existing and new Defence platforms in the Territory and attracting new Defence activities. The schedule, approved by the CDU-NTG Partnership Agreement Peak Group, has a current focus on undergraduate engineering studies.
The department also has two longer term ambitions. The first is to establish a defence support industry Engineering Masters level study program sponsored by key industry players with the aim of increasing the local engineering gene pool and the local industry’s reputation with Defence and Defence Primes interstate. The second is to explore whether a Defence Industry Science and Technology Centre of Excellence could be established in the Territory, which will focus on niche areas of research and technology such as electro-optic engineering, which is not currently addressed elsewhere in Australia.
I congratulate everyone involved in this, Madam Speaker. It has been a very considered project. It demonstrates the value of the CDU-Northern Territory Government Partnership Agreement. I congratulate the ADIN NT executive and branch, which has really put its shoulder to the wheel assisting government and my department in building this schedule. It goes to show that the Territory is a can-do place and that business and industry recognise that businesses in the Territory need to be world class to gain these Defence contracts.
I hope that the Commonwealth sees sense about the DIDS contract and puts a hold on this for a couple of years to allow Territory businesses to get up to the mark. Many of them are already world standard, but we can grow even more. The efforts being put in by ADIN NT and my department to understand those skills requirements and grow them is a great effort and I congratulate all those involved.
Mr BURKE (Brennan): Madam Speaker, first, I warmly welcome the report. One cannot possibly address it in the time available. I am sure he would agree that I have always wanted to work in a bipartisan way on these issues, and I have alerted this House of the possibilities of the Defence build-up and the opportunities it brings to the Northern Territory.
It is very pleasing to see this new initiative, particularly coming through from Charles Darwin University. It is focussed on the opportunities for business, and that is right, and I, too, congratulate ADIN and the efforts they have made in alerting a whole range of agencies and areas as to the particular circumstances of the Northern Territory.
To involve Charles Darwin University in the way the minister is describing is absolutely superb. It gives an opportunity to build some real capacity in the Northern Territory that can influence Defence thinking in a whole range of areas, not only particular businesses and particular contracts.
I will give you one example. More and more, the logistics system in Defence will be depending on prime contractors who are using civilian operators. Those operators will require, in many respects, to deploy to support the operational base, particularly in training. To get them to deploy properly will require reservists who are freed up from work to deploy. One of the things that we can be leading Australia on, for example, is finding ways whereby the NT government can describe employment opportunities for apprentices working in Defence, being reservists and particularly supplied with capacity to deploy on operations. That will be the way of the future, and that is one area where Charles Darwin could be involved with industry in developing those initiatives.
I do not have the time to talk about it. I hope the minister presents a statement at the next sittings because I would like to discuss this further. I am sure, with him, we can come up with some interesting ideas that will help in this area, and I thank him for his report.
Mr HENDERSON (Defence Support): Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Brennan for his support for this initiative. I do recognise that he has enormous experience in this area and bipartisan support for the ADF in the Territory is fantastic for our Defence forces.
Specifically, in regard to apprenticeships and the capacity for apprenticeships to work across the sector, and potentially to be deployed in operational areas, the private sector is not alone with its skills shortage in the blue collar trade areas. Talking to regimental people at Robertson Barracks, they have real problems recruiting and retaining skilled tradespeople. It is not only an issue for the private sector; it is an issue for our Defence forces as well. Hopefully, together with the private sector and CDU, we can start meeting those demands. I thank the member for Brennan for his support.
Secondary Education Report
Mr STIRLING (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, I rise to bring the House up to date on the extensive community consultation program conducted in respect of the outcomes of the Secondary Education Report. The government decided very early that the recommendations of this review would be subject to extensive community discussion before any final decisions were made.
The consultancy to lead the Territory-wide community consultation strategy was awarded to SOCOM NT. The Chairman of SOCOM, Ms Sheila O’Sullivan, is a nationally renowned community engagement expert, and a three-phase community consultation process, which commenced in May, has just been completed.
Phase 1 involved parents, educators, professional associations, youth workers, business and industry participating in workshops held in the Territory’s regional centres. One hundred and forty-eight people representing 109 stakeholder groups participated in phase 1. Twenty remote communities were also represented. Workshop participants discussed the issues, the proposals and the outcomes of the report, and were given tools, including a Reader’s Guide to the Secondary Education Report to assist them to facilitate discussion of the report’s proposal within their school or local community in phase 2 of the process.
A simple survey was also distributed to encourage feedback. Both the reader’s guide and the survey were made available on the Priority Education web site, as was the full secondary report and the Executive Summary. Two information nights were held in Darwin and Alice Springs. Over 100 people attended the Darwin event at Sanderson, and approximately 60 attended the evening in Alice Springs. Two hundred and fifty educators, half of them indigenous from remote communities in Central Australia, attending the Remote Schools Conference at the end of July spent a significant proportion of time providing feedback on the secondary report.
At a student forum hosted by DEET Chief Executive, Peter Plummer, 27 students engaged in discussion around the report’s proposals. Consultation visits to a number of remote indigenous communities were also conducted. Principals of remote schools were provided with story boards depicting the report’s main proposals for remote communities to use to inform their local communities and seek feedback.
Phase 3 of the program: nominated spokespersons from each interest group involved in Phase 2 discussions represented the views of their constituents in public discussion forums. Members of the public were able to attend, listen to the discussion and complete individual response sheets that formed part of the feedback. They were conducted in early August across the regional centres. They were well attended; over 260 people representing a range of stakeholders participated in the audience and on panels.
In addition, a number of other mechanisms were in place to enable the community to provide feedback. These included: telephone hotline, priority education e-mail address, the priority education web site with on-line feedback forms and the option of mailing or faxing written comments or a survey response. Over 370 responses were received through these mechanisms; all of which have been forwarded to SOCOM NT for consideration.
We have not wavered from our commitment to listen to the views of Territorians before deciding what shape the outcomes will take. When we make a commitment to consult and listen, we mean it.
The rumour-mongering and the false assumptions that have emerged during this debate do not do either the opposition or those who are perpetuating the stories any credit. It does not shift us from our determination to listen to all of the groups involved here, although, sometimes, these false assumptions circulating do try one’s patience. For example, the deployment of DEET staff on a modelling exercise to look at the real impact of some of the recommendations of the review has been perceived as an effort by DEET and the government to lock in an outcome. Nothing could be further from the truth; it was simply a way of fleshing out what was pretty conceptual in the report into something tangible that people could get their heads around. It was all about modelling and testing a concept in the recommendations.
Travel by department staff to South Australia was seen as a conspiracy whereas, in fact, three staff went there to make a formal contribution to the South Australian Certificate of Education Review that is being carried out in conjunction with our own review and to meet with the SSABSA Board, the people who administer Years 11 and 12 certificates in South Australia and the NT. They visited the South Australian Open Access College at the same time to have a look at those operations. At no stage were any of the recommendations or joint arrangements discussed.
None of those activities provide any indication of the intentions of the government in regards to the secondary report. It is wide open. The government has made no decision at all. I await the Sheila O’Sullivan Report with great interest.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, for a minister to report on such a significant issue and give me two minutes to respond is very unreasonable. If the minister had something to say on the secondary review, it should be a full debate; not a five minute report.
He talked about extensive consultation. Well, the three phases of the consultation were restricted to selected people only. The only time that the public felt fully consulted was in Alice Springs when I wrote to every school, faxed and e-mailed them, and invited groups such as AEU, COGSO and independent schools to contribute to an information night. It was only during this session that people got fair information. The rest of the time, if I were to objectively assess what happened through SOCOM, it was more like push-polling. The Reader’s Guide was written in a way that created motherhood statements. You could not disagree with anything in the Reader’s Guide. You could not disagree with anything in the surveys. You could not! They were all simple: ‘Do you want good outcomes for your school children?’ Of course you do! We all do. ‘Do you want good schools?’ Of course we want good schools. ‘Do you want to have good teachers?’ Of course we want to have good teachers! Those are not questions to which anyone can object.
I have attended many sessions across the Territory, and the general reaction to the whole consultation process has been hostile. I am really disappointed that the government has decided to gloss over all this. There are hostile reactions out there. The AEU has said to the minister: ‘Get rid of the report; it is a waste of time’. Even COGSO has given only mild support for the report.
Minister, bring on the debate. Do not do it in a five minute report. Bring on the debate and talk it through properly. As regards rumour-mongering, you are the one who started it all by sitting on it.
Mr STIRLING (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, I will be brief in reply. Just a little more of the posturing from the opposition …
Madam SPEAKER: Order, minister! The member for Nelson has the call.
Mr STIRLING: Sorry, member for Nelson. I am a bit excited.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Thank you, minister. I will probably help you get a bit more excited because I, too, have concerns.
I have been contacted by students from the Open Education College who believe the process of consultation was more about being led rather than listened to and they felt that their view points were not accurately recorded. I believe the minister will have a letter to that effect.
I held a public meeting in the rural area. One of the reasons I held that meeting was to get it outside of these restrictive guidelines that were imposed. I am not saying that they do not have a use, but I did find that it allowed people to talk about issues out of that restrictive process. The only problem is the public servants, and I thank the minister for allowing those public servants to come, could not debate anything. They could tell you, but they could not debate.
One of the difficulties we have, and I would like the minister to say whether teachers and principals, for instance, could be released from public service requirements not to speak to politicians. How am I, as a politician, supposed to ask a principal what he thinks about it, a person who works in the system, or a teacher?
Members interjecting.
Mr WOOD: No, not through the union, not through an association, but to ask those people who deal on the ground with these issues. I am not an expert on education. I need those people who deal with education day by day, to be able to talk to them, to learn from them and to be able to provide reasoned input into this debate.
Minister, it has been too restrictive. It needs to be broader. I ask you to take on board those considerations.
Mr STIRLING (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, just briefly in reply: nothing in the Public Sector Employment and Management Act prevents staff or principals attending these forums and having input the same as everyone else. They can have their views as an educator the same as everybody else.
Let’s have a look at a bit of the posturing from the opposition: on 15 April, opposition welcomes review of secondary education. ‘Wide ranging…comprehensive…commend the authors for their hard work’. The next day, Mr Mills:
- We must move to a middle school structure with the senior secondary and primary structure, but we must not rush into it.
So he is urging more time, Madam Speaker, by saying we must not rush into it. Here we go to June and Dr Lim:
- The report has been with him now for over six months. All he has done is produce paranoia…All these things are causing a lot of concern. This minister must get out there and act.
Who is talking to whom over there? We need more time from the Leader of the Opposition, but the spokesperson for education said we have to get out there and act and put an end to this paranoia.
Then we get to August, as recently as August: Mr Mills:
- The government is showing no real will to make decisions on this process…Notwithstanding the fact that we have had an extensive community consultation process, we need to have a clear position.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
Mr STIRLING: Get your act together, you blokes! You do not know what you are talking about.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, I am sure that we will have quite a debate when you deliver your statement this afternoon.
Memoranda of Understanding – Non-Government Organisations and Counter-Disaster Management
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Family and Community Services): Madam Speaker, I am pleased to announce today the signing of five Memoranda of Understanding with non-government organisations for the welfare recovery phase of counter-disaster management in the Northern Territory.
The Northern Territory is no stranger to disasters and emergencies. The Department of Health and Community Services and non-government organisations have responded magnificently to such events as cyclones, the Katherine floods, events in East Timor, and most recently, the Bali bombings.
Within the terms of the Regional Counter-Disaster Plan, the department is responsible for coordination of welfare recovery services across the Northern Territory and calls upon the services of non-government organisations to provide specialist help and additional resources.
The Memoranda of Understanding will formalise actions that have already been taking place with non-government organisations and expand agreements to include details of response capabilities to some rural and remote areas of the Northern Territory. Development of the MOUs saves time and effort during a declared disaster or emergency by having the details of planned reporting structures and protocols worked out at times when there is no current threat to our community. By developing these Memoranda of Understanding, the department has increased the counter-disaster management preparedness of all parties so that we can respond more quickly and efficiently when an emergency is declared.
It gives me great pleasure to advise the House that the Memoranda of Understanding will be signed today, and I acknowledge the presence in the Gallery of the CEOs from the following non-government organisations:
Major Kelvin Merrit from the Salvation Army who is responsible for coordinating transportation, support and provision of clothing. The Salvation Army is well known throughout Australia for its support of the homeless and provision of care for those most needy in our community;
In addition to this, Red Cross provides services to the aged and many other practical supports to our population.
The Territory can proudly boast a strong non-government sector that is in a position to take on disaster recovery. It is these people working alongside government employees who rise to the challenges presented by any disaster that affects our community.
Disasters are usually of a nature that provide little warning or time for preparation. The impact of disaster on people involves effective practical support and more intensive trauma response for individuals and communities. Many communities need support to mobilise and tackle the impact of a disaster, and this can include such impact as loss of life or a threat to our sense of community.
I note the skills and coordination required to provide such recovery support and commend the commitment by these non-government organisations to participate in joint disaster recovery training run by the Northern Territory. I know that the work of these non-government organisations earn them great respect from Emergency Service workers such as Police, Fire and Emergency Services who deal with the immediate disaster response.
The logistics of managing the impact of a disaster on the community requires a high level of expertise, creativity and compassion. Each of the non-government organisations represented in the memoranda have demonstrated ongoing skill and generosity in their commitment to supporting Territorians through any disasters in addition to the significant skill and compassion demonstrated in their every day roles.
Madam Speaker, these are important MOUs; they ensure that our response is in line with national standards of disaster recovery. I thank all those here today for the ongoing work and support they provide, and congratulate all involved on the signing of the MOUs.
Members: Hear, hear!
Ms CARTER (Port Darwin): Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for her report and congratulate all those organisations that have signed memoranda.
Territorians watch with pride whenever we have a disaster, and one of the things that gives us great pride is the way that we all work together to assist people from overseas, for example the people from Timor, or our local loved ones, for example the victims of the Bali bombings. We see the way our non-government organisations rise to the challenge. It is great to hear of the signing of these Memoranda of Understanding by the Salvation Army, Anglicare, the Council of Churches, the Employee Assistance Scheme and Red Cross. I congratulate the minister and government on this step.
However, in the short time I have to respond to the report, I hope that non-government organisations in the NT are rewarded for their commitment to the Territory and their offers of assistance to the NT government by being adequately funded by the government to meet their ongoing costs.
We are all well aware of the fact that most non-government organisations, each year from the government, receive funding that equates to their usual funding plus CPI. Many of these organisations now struggle financially to cope with issues such as increasing wages, increasing insurance and increasing rents. I hope the government listens carefully to their calls for financial assistance because memoranda of understanding are all very well, but if the organisations with whom you hold them are struggling financially, they will not be able to meet the needs which we are all hopeful that they can meet.
Madam SPEAKER: Ministerial Report time has expired.
Reports noted pursuant to Sessional Order.
POISONS AND DANGEROUS DRUGS AMENDMENT BILL
(Serial 247)
(Serial 247)
Bill presented and read a first time.
Dr TOYNE (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
The Martin Labor government has a clear and long-standing commitment to reducing the harm that drugs cause in the Territory community, including that caused by the misuse of prescription drugs. As part of this commitment, shortly after we came to office, we set up a task force on illicit drugs.
In 2002, the final report of the Task Force on Illicit Drugs made a number of recommendations to tighten up the control of prescription drugs, including:
- ∙ that a mandatory notification or permit system be introduced in the Territory for patient authorisation of prescribed Schedule 8 drugs;
∙ that an up-to-date prescription monitoring system be established; and
∙ that a panel be established to oversee policy and guidelines, deal with difficult patient issues and audit practice in relation to the monitoring of Schedule 8 prescribing.
In particular, the bill refines the amendments concerning Schedule 8 and Restricted Schedule 4 substances passed by the Legislative Assembly in August 2003 by:
- 1. addressing the function of the Clinical Advisory Committee, known as the committee;
2. further refinement of the base level of regulatory control of Schedule 8 and Restricted Schedule 4 substances in regards to prescription matters and the guidelines; and
3. updating the financial penalties whilst maintaining the prison term penalties currently available under the act.
First, the amending act has established a Schedule 8 and Restricted Schedule 4 Substances Clinical Advisory Committee formerly known as the Clinical Advisory Committee that will oversee policy matters, the guidelines and the actual supply of these substances. It will also deal with difficult patient issues and provide expert advice to the Chief Health Officer on all matters relating to Schedule 8 and Restricted Schedule 4 substances.
Madam Speaker, to make the function of this committee more efficient, it is proposed to amend the act. The current provisions for the committee allow for a quorum of three members. This is insufficient for a membership of 11 people. It is proposed that the quorum be defined as the chairperson plus not less that one-third of the appointed members. It is also proposed that a co-chairperson be appointed to the committee, and for provision to be made for the Chief Health Officer to appoint any person with suitable expertise as the chairperson, than rather restricting this to the Chief Poisons Inspector.
The committee will meet three or four times a year only, unless urgent matters arise. Under the amending act, medical practitioners are obliged to obtain an authorisation from the Chief Health Officer and the committee before supplying restricted Schedule 8 substances such as buprenorphine and methadone. In practice, this means that every patient who needs pharmacotherapy would have to wait until the next committee meeting. It is therefore proposed that the Chief Health Officer be allowed to grant these authorisations where prescribed conditions are fulfilled so that timely commencement on these programs can take place.
Another important function of the committee is to provide expert advice to the Chief Health Officer. The bill will provide a statement to clarify that if the committee does not agree on certain matters, a majority decision will be submitted to the Chief Health Officer. However, ultimate responsibility for decisions will remain with the Chief Health Officer.
The second area of consideration in the bill is the guidelines. The minister currently issues them and it is proposed that they remain at ministerial level. Presently, they include matters relating to restricted Schedule 8 substances - buprenorphine and methadone - but they should be extended to include all Schedule 8 and Restricted Schedule 4 substances as well.
The next area to be addressed concerns issues related to the supply of Schedule 8 substances. Under the current and amending acts, some details concerning the supply of Schedule 8 substances are grouped under Prescribed Matters and are included in the regulations. Prescribed Matters include, for example, the time frame and particulars that must be provided to the Chief Health Officer when a Schedule 8 substance is supplied, or the circumstances in which the Chief Health Officer may grant a doctor an authorisation to supply a restricted Schedule 8 substance. Other similar matters are to be declared by notice in the Gazette; for example, the approved number of patients for whom a doctor may prescribe Schedule 8 substances.
It is more appropriate to include these and others matters in the ministerial guidelines rather than the regulations and gazettal notices. The guidelines can then provide a coherent, detailed and comprehensive regulatory framework that is more accessible to health practitioners, and which allows for more timely revision of the regulatory framework.
The guidelines cover all aspects of supply of these substances including the prescribed conditions for routine authorisations, conditions imposed on authorisations, requirements for notifications, periods of supply of substances, and administrative procedures. The Chief Health Officer and committee will advise the minister concerning the guidelines. The bill addresses this issue. It follows, then, that all supply of Schedule 8 and Restricted Schedule 4 substances occur in accordance with the guidelines, and that failure to comply with the guidelines is declared an offence under the act.
The legislation specifies that a prescription of a Schedule 8 substance will be valid for only two months unless otherwise specified by the guidelines. This will limit the potential for over-supply and diversion. Under the amending act, a mandatory notification system for Schedule 8 substances has been introduced, resulting in every prescription being subject to notification and unnecessary paperwork for doctors. Notification should occur in certain circumstances; for example, if a medication is prescribed for a long period of time. The proposed bill will provide for notification according to the guidelines, which will provide a regulatory framework for that supply.
When the amending act was drafted, the reference to supply for the treatment of addiction was removed. The statement prohibiting the supply of Schedule 8 substances for the treatment of addiction unless authorised by the Chief Health Officer needs to be reinstated to ensure that doctors are aware of the types of substances that may or may not be supplied for the treatment of addiction and under what circumstances. Exemptions from authorisations to supply a restricted Schedule 8 substance are sometimes necessary. In a hospital situation, for example, it may be imperative that these substances are supplied without delay in order to provide the best possible clinical care. The bill will allow the Chief Health Officer to declare, by notice in the Gazette, exemptions to the authorisation requirement in specific circumstances.
There are also a number of issues not addressed in the current act. All other Australian jurisdictions have legislative procedures to prevent health professionals prescribing potentially addictive substances to themselves. There is currently no legislation in the Northern Territory dealing with self-prescription. It is proposed that this issue be addressed in the amendments.
The Northern Territory is also the only jurisdiction in Australia that allows pharmacists to supply patients with Schedule 8 and Restricted Schedule 4 substances prescribed by interstate doctors. This bill requires that prescriptions for Schedule 8 and Restricted Schedule 4 substances may be dispensed only if they are written by doctors registered and practising in the Northern Territory. This will ensure that the supply of these substances remains within the Northern Territory regulatory framework and can be more closely monitored.
There is also the matter of disposal of Schedule 8 substances. Specific legislation dealing with witnessed and documented disposal is in force in all other Australian jurisdictions. This bill will provide for an appropriate disposal procedure for out of date and unwanted Schedule 8 substances.
Finally, the bill contains a number of housekeeping amendments which are considered necessary for the effective administration of the act. The general penalty clause was removed from the act by the amending act, which has left some sections without specific penalties for non-compliance. The insertion of penalties for offences is required before commencement of the amending act. In addition, all penalties have been reviewed to ensure there is consistency in penalties relating to imprisonment between the operating act and the act as amended, and with other acts such as the Misuse of Drugs Act.
Madam Speaker, this bill is an important and long overdue step towards implementing an effective control system for the supply and use of Schedule 8 substances in the Northern Territory. I commend the bill to honourable members.
Debate adjourned.
CHILD PROTECTION (OFFENDER REPORTING AND REGISTRATION) BILL
(Serial 246)
(Serial 246)
Bill presented and read a first time.
Mr HENDERSON (Police, Fire and Emergency Services): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
This bill creates mandatory registration and reporting obligations on adult child sex offenders. It also empowers a court with discretion to order the registration and reporting of juvenile child sex offenders in certain circumstances.
Obliging a sex offender to keep police informed of his or her personal information and movements for a period after their release into the community will assist in the investigation and prosecution of sex offences committed by recidivist offenders. It will also provide a deterrent against re-offending, assist in the monitoring of high risk offenders, provide a level of community protection, and assist police in the enforcement of a prohibition order where granted.
As members would be aware, child sex offences have a devastating impact on the innocent child abuse victim, their families and, ultimately, on the community in general. The national framework for the development of a complementary state and territory police-administered Child Protection Offender Registration Scheme was endorsed by the Australasian Police Ministers Council on 2 July 2003.
Similar legislation has existed in New South Wales since 2000. Furthermore, Queensland has a limited registration scheme, whilst Victoria introduced its bill in June this year. The Territory bill closely follows the Victorian legislation, however, it contains some important improvements over its Victorian counterpart. As an example, the bill includes the making of a child protection prohibition order against a reportable offender and allows for alternative reporting for remote offenders. In addition, it confines the proscribed offences to sexual offences committed against a child, but also includes the offences of murder and manslaughter where the victim is a child. A court may also order a person register and report for other offences if the court is satisfied the person poses a risk to the life or sexual safety of a child or to children generally.
There are more than 60 such schemes worldwide, including the United Kingdom, USA, Canada and New Zealand. Overseas studies point towards a shocking rate of recidivism by paedophiles and other serious sex offenders.
This bill will not be a panacea against child sex offences occurring again in the future, but it will make a difference. Some recidivist offenders acting on compulsion will, unfortunately, reoffend. However, by ensuring police have the person’s personal information and are aware of his or her movements, the investigation and prosecution of offences will be greatly enhanced. In many cases, ongoing monitoring by police will be a sufficient incentive for the person not to reoffend.
I now turn to the bill, which is in seven parts:
Part 1 provides the relevant definitions adopted in the bill.
Part 2 deals with identifying the classes of offender, known as ‘reportable offenders’. Reportable offenders will be obliged to register and report for the purposes of the bill. Essentially, there are three ways a person may become a reportable offender:
First, where the person is sentenced in the Territory on or after the commencement date for a prescribed Class 1 or Class 2 offence where the victim is a child. A person who is in government custody or is under the supervision of a supervising authority on the commencement date is also taken to be a reportable offender. A person is in government custody if the person is a prisoner or is a juvenile detained in a detention centre and includes a person under a supervision order made against the person because of their mental impairment.
The regulations may prescribe an authority having control of a person to be a supervising authority. As an example, the regulations will prescribe the Director of Correctional Services for people who are subject to a Home Detention Order or Community Work Order and people subject to a Good Behaviour Bond where a term of the order was that the person be under supervision.
Class 1 offences are serious offences such as sexual intercourse or gross indecency involving a child less than 16 years and include the offences of murder and manslaughter where the victim is a child.
Class 2 offences extend to indecent dealings with children and child pornography. As studies indicate, there are demonstrable links between these types of offences and child sexual offences.
Second, the court may, on or after the commencement date, make an Offender Reporting Order against a person, including a juvenile, if the person is found guilty of an offence that is not a Class 1 or Class 2 offence. I should add that the court also has the discretion to make an Offender Reporting Order against a juvenile for a Class 1 or Class 2 offence. The court, however, may only make these orders if the court is satisfied the juvenile possesses a risk to the sexual safety of children or of children generally.
Finally, a person may become a reportable offender if the person committed a reportable offence in another jurisdiction before or after the commencement date. ‘Another jurisdiction’ includes an overseas jurisdiction. It is regardless whether the person is obliged to report to the corresponding Registrar in the place where the offence was committed.
As I previously alluded, the primary trigger for becoming a reportable offender is that the person has been sentenced for a reportable offence. The word ‘sentence’ has been defined extensively to capture a wide range of penalties. A ‘sentence’ includes an order under section 53 of the Juvenile Justice Act, a supervision order under Division 5 of Part IIA of the Criminal Code Act in respect of a person who has been found not guilty of a reportable offence by reason of mental impairment and similar sentences, equivalent orders or undertakings imposed under the laws or a foreign jurisdiction.
Part 3 of the bill details a reportable offender’s reporting obligations, including the initial and annual reports and the power of the Supreme Court to exempt a person from his or her reporting obligations in certain circumstances.
The length of any reporting period is established by the class of offence. For instance, a Class 1 offence has a reporting period of 15 years, although where the person is sentenced for a further Class 1 offence, the period increases to life. On the other hand, if the offence was a Class 2 offence, the reporting period is eight years. This again increases to life if the person subsequently commits a Class 1 offence or two or more Class 2 offences.
An Offender Reporting Order is taken to be a Class 2 offence for the purposes of the bill. The reporting periods for juveniles are half of those applying to adults or, in the case of a reporting period for life, 7.5 years.
Notwithstanding these periods, a person may apply to the Supreme Court for an order exempting compliance with any of the reporting period if a period of 15 years has elapsed since the date of sentence excluding any periods in government custody. The Commissioner of Police together with other relevant government agencies are to be parties to the application.
Owing to the serious nature of the offences and the effect of section 78BB of the Sentencing Act, an offender will almost certainly serve a term of imprisonment. As a matter of commonsense, the requirement to register and report will not arise until after the person has been released from custody.
Initial reports are to be made in person but, depending on the prevailing circumstances, different time periods are specified for the giving of the initial report. The kinds of information required to be disclosed in the initial report include: the person’s name including any former names; the person’s residential address and any residential address under his or her former name; his or her date of birth; details of the reportable offender’s employment; details of his or her affiliations with any clubs or organisations that have child membership or child participation in its membership; details of any identifying marks or features of the reportable offender; and details of any children with whom he or she has regular unsupervised contact.
Despite the above matters, the reportable offender must also provide a passport-sized photograph of himself or herself for identification purposes. If, after a review of the information, the attending member receiving the report is not satisfied with the identity of the person, the member may require the reportable offender to provide a fingerprint or a finger scan.
In the event that the reportable offender’s personal circumstances change, the person must notify the Commissioner of Police of the changes within 14 days. It is an offence to fail to do so. It is also an offence for a reportable offender to not notify the Commissioner of Police of any travel arrangements or any changes to any travel arrangements outside of the Territory.
Besides the initial report, a reportable offender is to report his or her personal details to the Commissioner of Police on an annual basis. This report is similarly to be made in person, unless it is impracticable for the person to do so because the person is a child or has a disability. In those circumstances, the person may nominate another person to make the report for him or her.
Special arrangements apply to enable a remote reportable offender to comply with his or her obligations under the bill.
Owing to the imposition of statutory obligations on a reportable offender and the potential offences the person may incur for non-compliance, the Commissioner of Police is required to give the reportable offender written notice of his or her reporting obligations. The notice also summarises the consequences for failure to comply.
Part 4 of the bill provides that a Child Protection Offender Register must be established and maintained by the Commissioner of Police. Access to the register will be restricted. Additionally, a reportable offender’s personal information must not be disclosed unless authorised by the Commissioner of Police, or as otherwise required under any law or act for law enforcement purposes.
In view of the nature of the person’s information and the potential harm it could cause to the reportable offender, heavy penalties apply for any unauthorised access or use of the information. Moreover, in keeping with the principles established under the Information Act, a reportable offender may request access and correction rights to any information held on him or her in the register.
Part 5 of the bill gives the court the power to make a Child Protection Prohibition Order. A prohibition order is similar to a domestic violence order in that it prohibits the person from engaging in specified conduct. In determining whether to grant the order, the court must be satisfied the person poses a risk to the lives or sexual safety of one or more children, or of children generally, and that the making of the order may reduce the risk. For example, a prohibition order may be sought in the circumstances where the reportable offender was a convicted paedophile who intended becoming a member of an organisation or association that had child membership or child participation in its activities. In those circumstances, depending on the nature of the offence committed and the likelihood of the particular person re-offending, a prohibition order may be sought.
In cases where there is an immediate risk to children, a member of the police force may apply for an Interim Child Protection Order. Such an application may be made by telephone and will remain in place until confirmed or discontinued on the hearing of the application.
Prohibition orders remain in place for a period of five years or, in the case of juveniles, two years. However, there is nothing stopping the Commissioner of Police from seeking fresh orders if the reportable offender continues to pose an ongoing risk.
A court may vary or revoke a prohibition order on application by the Commissioner of Police or the reportable offender. Similarly, the commissioner or the reportable offender may appeal the court’s decision to make or dismiss an order under this part. All proceedings are heard in the absence of the public.
Part 6 of the bill provides that a reportable offender must not apply for or engage in child-related employment during the prohibited period set by the sentencing court or the reportable offender’s reporting period. The court may, on application, vary a prohibited period. The term ‘child-related employment’ is defined in the bill to include employment involving contact with children in a number of circumstances. The list is not exhaustive.
Finally, part 7 of the bill contains miscellaneous provisions to give effect to the bill. For example, it requires the Commissioner of Police to provide me, as minister for police, with an annual report in relation to the administration of the act, including the number of registered reportable offenders in the Territory, and of any orders made over the previous 12 months.
I am sure this bill will have the support of every parent in the Territory. Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members.
Debate adjourned.
TANAMI EXPLORATION AGREEMENT RATIFICATION BILL
(Serial 242)
(Serial 242)
Continued from 18 August 2004.
Mr DUNHAM (Drysdale): I shall be very brief, Madam Speaker. This is a good idea. It is the second of a 10-year agreement; the first due to lapse within weeks.
It is important that this agreement be put in place. It benefits the Territory in a number of ways. There is requirement for expenditure in a highly prospective area of the Northern Territory that has yielded significant wealth for the benefit of this place. It is for that reason that the opposition has absolutely no qualms in supporting this bill.
Dr TOYNE (Central Australia): Madam Speaker, I wish to place on record my support for the Tanami Exploration Agreement Ratification Bill.
The basis of the Tanami exploration agreement is that Newmont will, within the agreed area of 20 000 blocks, approximately 64 400 km, be able to hold exploration licences or exploration licence applications for up to 10 000 blocks throughout the 10-year tenancy agreement in The Granites mine area. In return, Newmont will guarantee to expend a significant amount on exploration.
As a member of this government and Minister for Central Australia, I am well aware of the economic importance and benefits the mining industry in the Tanami region has for Central Australia. Over the past 20 years, about $200m has been spent on exploration in the region by North Flinders, Normandy NFM, and now Newmont.
Newmont already has a capital investment of over $150m in Tanami operations, with processing and mill facilities both at The Granites and Tanami Mines. It employs over 700 people, many of whom are based in the Northern Territory and, since commencing operations, they have had dealings with in excess of 600 Territory businesses.
There are another 64 people employed in oil and gas projects in Central Australia, adding to the Centre’s overall 26% of the Northern Territory’s minerals industry work force.
In 2003, Newmont reported they had spent approximately $265m doing business with companies in Alice Springs, and a further $117m in Darwin. I am sure that the news of Newmont having well developed and long term plans to continue extensive exploration in the region is good news for Central Australian businesses. It is certainly great news for our economy.
As legislators, it is always rewarding to be able to see the benefits of the legislation that we pass in this House. I am particularly pleased as the member for Stuart, because I will, no doubt, see and hear first hand these benefits when visiting communities in the Tanami region.
The signing and ratifying of this agreement will ensure the continuation of significant employment and training opportunities for people living in that region. Newmont has, for some time, stipulated in their contracts a 20% indigenous employment target for their contractors. While its indigenous employment is around 11% at the moment, I believe this target has been achieved during peak activities at the mine. They are working with the Northern Territory and Commonwealth governments to facilitate further training and employment opportunities, targeting local communities.
Newmont in partnership with one of their contractors, Roche Mining, have jointly funded lung function equipment and hearing booths to the community clinics at Lajamanu and Yuendumu, and to help relieve the burden of travelling to Alice Springs to complete pre-employment medical checks.
This government has also recognised the economic importance of the region by investing a $5m upgrade to the Tanami Highway. In fact, ultimately, it will be $6.5m. During my time as the local member, I have continually heard the calls from both business and community people about the state of the Tanami Road. Where was the CLP when they were in government? What money did they put into the road over the time I lived at Yuendumu? I think we had about 15 km of black top in the whole time I was there.
I take this opportunity to congratulate Newmont on developing such a proactive and successful partnership with the Central Land Council over the years. These are the types of relationships and partnerships that this government is proud to support because by working together, we can bring the Territory economy up to new levels. To government officers from my Department of Justice, from Mines and Energy and DIPE who have worked on this agreement, I thank them for their efforts in working towards getting the agreement ratified. Madam Speaker, I fully support the bill.
Mr STIRLING (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak in support of the Tanami Exploration Agreement Ratification Bill today.
The signing and ratification of a new agreement will ensure that significant business, employment and training opportunities continue. We will also see new business and employment opportunities emerge over the longer term for the Tanami region. As the minister outlined to the House, Newmont has a capital investment of over $150m in Tanami operations with processing facilities including The Granites mill and the Tanami Mine Joint Venture mill. Newmont employs over 700 people, many of whom are based in the Territory and engage with some 250 Territory businesses with further flow-on effects to the Territory economy.
Since operations commenced, they have generated revenue for the Territory by way of royalties of approximately $62m with $11.5m paid in 2002-03. A significant aspect of operations for the region is the generation of employment and training and the growth of social and economic opportunities for indigenous Territorians. Newmont actively engages in contracts with local indigenous business, they sponsor cultural activities and the investment in local community infrastructure including injecting some $5m per year into the local communities. As the minister has advised, indigenous employment reached 20% in 2002 and currently runs at about 15%.
I am pleased to add that the Department of Employment, Education and Training is working with Newmont and is currently committed to contributing financial support for a pre-vocational program for 10 indigenous people. The program will assist them in gaining employment in the Tanami. The initial program will commence in September 2004; the second program for a further 10 indigenous participants is due to be run in November. This is a joint effort by Newmont, DEET and the Central Land Council to increase employment and training opportunities for indigenous people in the Tanami.
A priority for the government as outlined in the Jobs Plan Workforce and Employment and Training Strategy is to get partnerships in place. Partnerships such as this one between indigenous Territorians, government, land councils and industry open up opportunities that will lead to the development of indigenous economic independence. The government is working across the board to improve economic opportunities in regional Northern Territory. Although the range of opportunities for employment is still not as great in remote regions of the Territory than in the larger centres, opportunities for employment in the remote regions continue to grow, especially in the mining industry.
The government is targetting and supporting, through training and partnerships, the capacity of indigenous Territorians in remote areas to access jobs in the industry. I am advised that DEET has provided $36 000 in funding to assist with the assessment of indigenous trainees undergoing training at the McArthur River Mine. Further training and employment opportunities for indigenous and local Territorians are being pursued by DEET in mining and related industries in the Tennant Creek and Nhulunbuy regions. Improved opportunities in the regions improve social and economic outcomes for all Territorians.
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to add my support to the Tanami Exploration Agreement Ratification bill.
Mr VATSKALIS (Mines and Energy): Madam Speaker, I thank the opposition and my colleagues for their support for the Tanami agreement.
It is an agreement that is very good for the Territory. It is an agreement to ratify the rights of a mining company that has made a big investment in the Territory and will continue to make an investment in the Territory not only by spending money in exploration or processing and mining, but also spending money on training and the communities around the mine.
It would be foolish for the Territory not to ratify the agreement because, first, it would send the wrong message to the mining industry, and second, it would create the same problems about sovereignty that were created in Queensland when that government decided to reacquire the bauxite tenements at Weipa, which angered many industries in Australia and overseas. The message we have is that quite a few mining industry consortiums and operations are not very happy about that.
On the question of timing, The Granites agreement had clause that provided for renewal. However, when Newmont sought to extend the agreement, the Department of Justice advised that The Granites agreement renewal would require Legislative Assembly agreement and may have required passage of new legislation.
In that context, it was considered better to develop a whole new agreement that benefited both the Territory and Newmont. The new agreement is simpler than the complex Granites agreement and provides the Territory greater benefits that will lead to continued long term employment and training the Central Australia. It also provides the long term security of tenure required for Newmont to build on its existing exploration base.
In addition, the new Tanami agreement took some time to negotiate and required the endorsement of the Central Land Council, which is responsible under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act for administering agreements between the traditional owners of the land and the company. It is only recently that CLC consultations concluded and their endorsement was given.
The reason I did not seek to introduce the legislation in previous Assembly sittings was because I determined that the legislation should be subject to full competition impact analysis prior to introduction. Legal advice indicated that there were some concerns, but if the competition analysis was done after the event, the effort required to alter the legislation would be excessive. It was therefore better to wait for the completion of the competition impact analysis and proceed today with urgency rather than present the bill earlier.
Once again, Madam Speaker, it is a good agreement for the Territory. It is my dream to see another mine open in the Territory. Mining is the future of the Territory. We need more mines to provide employment. Until now, mining provides 23% of gross state income and employs about 3000 people. The industry has the ability to employ not only more Territorians, but more indigenous Territorians. They are very good at operating equipment, plant and machinery. We have seen that at Alcan in Nhulunbuy and at The Granites with Newmont. One again, I thank members for their support and I commend the legislation to the House.
Motion agreed to; bill read a second time.
Mr VATSKALIS (Mines and Energy)(by leave): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a third time.
Motion agreed to; bill read a third time.
STATEMENT BY SPEAKER
Correct form for Naming Parliamentarians in the Assembly
Correct form for Naming Parliamentarians in the Assembly
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, before we go into the ministerial statement, I inform the House that I made an error yesterday in a ruling on use of the word ‘senator’. I was a bit overzealous because I was concerned that we are becoming sloppy with the use of Christian names in interjections.
When the minister said ‘Senator Scullion’, a point of order was raised. I ruled that it was out of order. In fact, as the Clerk advised during the luncheon adjournment, there is more than one senator for the Northern Territory so obviously we have to name the senator to know who we are talking about.
When we are referring to parliamentarians from other jurisdictions, it is in order to use their Christian and surnames and, for courtesy, also their electorate. Minister, I apologise. I made an error of judgment and perhaps was a bit overzealous, but all members are advised accordingly.
MINISTERIAL STATEMENT
Government Commitments to Education and Training – Progress Report
Government Commitments to Education and Training – Progress Report
Mr STIRLING (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, I take the opportunity today to report to the House on where the government is up to in terms of improving educational outcomes because it has been one of the highest priorities of this government. Prior to coming to office, we made a number of commitments in education and training policy. Three years into government, it is an appropriate time to examine those commitments and note the progress made against them.
A key promise made by government was the creation of 100 additional teaching positions. These positions are above formula and aimed at maximising support for teachers and improving educational outcomes in key areas. This financial year, 2004-05, will see the completion of that promise. Already, 60 positions have been filled and an additional 40 teachers are currently being recruited.
Positions already in place are: 20 new special education positions, being three teachers for urban schools at Casuarina Street Primary, Bakewell Primary and Woodroofe Primary, six teachers to each of the group schools in Katherine, Barkly, Alice Springs East and West and the Top End Group School, 11 teachers to non-urban schools at Borroloola, Maningrida, Shepherdson College, Yuendumu, Batchelor, Ngukurr, Ti Tree, Yulara, Mutitjulu, Yirrkala, Gunbalanya and Angurugu.
Other positions created include: three teachers for a Capability Development Unit in Darwin; five teachers employed as assistant principals for group schools; two teachers for a Remote Education Resource Development Project; five teachers for Alternative Education programs; four additional Special Education teachers at Numbulwar, Papunya, Moulden Park and Tennant Creek; 10 positions for English as a Second Language teachers, four teachers for Learning and Technology in schools; two positions have been allocated to resource and research literacy approaches in schools; one position allocated to research in effective education interventions; one position for an Alternative Provision Manager in Alice Springs; and two teacher positions to supplement relief teacher pools in regional centres.
In this financial year, 40 positions are to be allocated. These will include: 11 teachers to behaviour management in Northern Territory schools; two music teachers for the School of Music; and 12 positions for literacy teachers to assist with the government’s plans for expanding the Accelerated Literacy Program. The remaining positions will be announced in the near future.
Attendance Officers: the government promised to address truancy and we have kept our promise in this regard. Eight attendance officers are now in place. Their job is to re-engage young people with the education system or, in some cases, engage a young person for the first time with education. It is a difficult job, which has been performed extremely well by all staff involved.
The first two of the eight attendance officers commenced in March 2003 in Palmerston and Alice Springs. A position was provided to Thamarrurr Regional Council at Wadeye, and positions based at Sanderson High and Katherine commenced at the start of the 2004 school year. Officers based at Groote Eylandt and Tennant Creek commenced during Term 2 2004. The final attendance officer position, based at Yirrkala, started during Term 3, 2004.
The initiative is proving highly successful. The Katherine Attendance Officer has identified and engaged 175 school-aged students, 64 of them new enrolments. In 2003, the Alice Springs Attendance Officer identified 127 students, enrolling 109 in schools. This year some of those children have returned to homeland communities, but around half remain engaged in the education system in Alice Springs.
Attendance Officers in Palmerston and Sanderson provide intensive support to students and their families to reintegrate students back into schools.
Behaviour Management: poor student behaviour is identified by teachers as one of their most critical issues, and it is increasingly a factor in why teachers leave the service or why young people choose not to go into teaching in the first place. The government is acting to assist teachers in this most significant area in line with commitments made in 2001.
The Student Services Branch currently has nine Behaviour Management Advisory teacher positions located in Nhulunbuy, Katherine, Alice Springs and Darwin. There are also four Special Education Behaviour support officer positions in Alice Springs and Darwin. Four hundred students are currently being supported by these officers. Furthermore, the government has funded the employment of 11 additional teachers to support schools in managing student behaviour.
A project entitled Building Relations and School Wellbeing has been designed around this initiative. Schools involved include: in Darwin - Parap, Stuart Park, Jingili, Karama, Malak and Wulagi Primary Schools, Dripstone and Nightcliff High Schools; in Palmerston - Moulden Park, Bakewell, Humpty Doo and Howard Springs Primary Schools; in Katherine - MacFarlane Primary School and Katherine High School; in Tennant Creek - both the high school and primary school; in Alice Springs - Gillen, Bradshaw, Sadadeen and Ross Park Primary Schools.
A total of 7552 students, 694 teachers and 6466 parents will be involved in this project. The initiative will see teachers supported in the development of contemporary behaviour management strategies as well as promoting self- esteem and wellbeing in the students.
Alternative Education Provision: with the best will in the world, there are some children who are so disengaged or disruptive to the system that an alternative means of providing education must be found. Government has provided the Department of Employment, Education and Training with $500 000 per year for the years 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2004-05 to address this problem. A mobile team of five new teachers commenced work in Term 1, 2004, located in Darwin’s northern suburbs and Palmerston. DEET is currently exploring options for location of staff to youth-friendly sites, including a northern suburbs shopping centre and a better location in Palmerston.
Staff are currently working in partnership with a range of organisations to include the NT Police Juvenile Diversion Unit, Family and Children’s Services, Youth Beat run by Mission Australia, Corrugated Iron Youth Theatre, Northern Territory Stock Cars Association, Harmony Group, Larrakia Nation and the Save the Children Fund. The program is working to capacity with more than 60 students involved. Government is also looking to establish an alternative education provision site in Katherine and has allocated a teaching position to the initiative as a first step.
The program identified young people between 10 and 15 years who rarely attend school or, in some cases, are not even enrolled. Staff and students negotiate suitable programs that will stimulate these disaffected young people with a view to re-engagement in school education.
Literacy and numeracy: one of the strongest commitments made has been to improve the literacy and numeracy of Territory students. I have made it clear at every available opportunity that this is a centrepiece goal. I recognise it may be years before we see the full impact of policy decisions made today. In pursuit of this outcome, the government has introduced a number of measures.
Every government school in the Territory now has a documented literacy and numeracy plan. An accelerated literacy trial was run 2001 to 2003, and this program demonstrated significant success in improving student outcomes. In the six trial schools - Ngukurr, Ludmilla and Gillen Primary Schools, Nightcliff, Dripstone and Anzac Hill High Schools – literacy levels increased fourfold. The program has also been implemented at Jilkminggan and Minyerri, and will be further extended to 10 new schools in Semester 2 2004. They are: Ngukurr Community Education Centre, Ramingining Community Education Centre, Wugularr School, Jilkminggan School, Minyerri School, Alekerange Community Education Centre, Tennant Creek Primary School, Nganmarriyanga School, Peppimenarti School, Anzac Hill High School, and Ti Tree School. By the end of the year, 100 teachers will have been provided with training to deliver the accelerated literacy approach.
Other actions we have taken include the Count Me In Too numeracy teaching program, which is developing teachers’ understanding of how to teach maths in the early years of primary school. In 2003, 16 schools across the Northern Territory trialled this program. In the 16 trial schools, student assessment data demonstrated significant improvements. In 2004, the Count Me In Too numeracy program has been expanded to 20 schools, with a further six schools joining the program in Semester 2.
Sixty-five schools now have part-time or full-time ESL specialist teachers. These additional teachers work with class room and subject specialist teachers to meet the English language learning needs of ESL students across the curriculum and throughout the school. Five hundred and fifty indigenous language speaking students in their first year of formal schooling are currently receiving intensive oral English teaching through ESL for indigenous language speaking students.
The government has also made MAP testing compulsory. Prior to this, the multilevel assessment program was not compulsory, particularly on schools in remote communities. The multilevel assessment program results for 2003 indicate improvement over 2002 in Year 5, particularly for indigenous students; 58 more students achieved the national benchmark in numeracy and 37 more in reading. There was a fall in numbers from 2002 for students in Year 3; 77 fewer students, 38 of them indigenous, achieved the national benchmark in reading. In Year 3 numeracy, 54 fewer indigenous students achieved the national benchmark than in 2002. Those results show we still have a long way to go.
There is no doubt that our urban students are performing equally to national standards. Clearly, our remote indigenous students are not, and we will continue to work hard on these important outcomes.
The Learning Lessons report implementation and progress: we consider improving indigenous education outcomes of critical importance to the future of the Northern Territory. Government made commitments to do two primary things: we wanted indigenous education to be the core business of the agency and we wanted to implement the decisions of the Collins Report, a report widely applauded by both sides of politics, but which was unfunded and not implemented.
I believe indigenous education is now front and centre core business of the agency. It is instructive to know that indigenous enrolments in the Territory currently sit at 15 665 in government schools. Total government school enrolments are 32 390; just a shade under 50% of our school student cohort today are indigenous. Despite this, indigenous education was not core business until 2001. The government has set about implementing major change in indigenous education. Of the 151 recommendations made in the Learning Lessons report, 40 have been fully implemented, 98 are under way, and 13 are subject to further consideration to determine whether they are still relevant five years down the track.
The Learning Lessons Implementation Steering Committee has provided me with frank and independent advice on current issues in indigenous education, and the views of indigenous parents and families. We have started rolling out secondary education in remote communities. Four remote schools are now offering secondary programs on site. That stands in stark contrast to a previously held policy position, which refused to allow the teaching of secondary education programs in the bush.
Distance is a major issue in the Territory. We have made a major investment in providing state-of-the-art interactive distance learning technologies for remote students. There are now IDL studios in the Territory and there are two-way satellites in 80 remote schools.
This government has also recognised the critical role played by indigenous staff in schools. We are the first government to stop relying on Commonwealth funding to pay for Aboriginal and Islander education workers by making these permanently funded positions. Major investment has delivered stability for indigenous employees, schools and indigenous students.
While we still have a long way to go, we have made progress. There are more indigenous students in secondary education. There is a greater number than ever attempting Year 12 and completing their NTCE. Last year, for the first time ever, three indigenous students from a remote community completed their NTCE within their own community. Those Kalkaringi students and their teachers, the Hewitsons, performed outstandingly against seriously adverse circumstances. We need to build on the gains made so far. To this end, we are currently developing a blueprint for action for the next four years in a new indigenous education action plan.
Secondary education: in 2001, we said we would make all sectors of education achieve better outcomes for students. This included a serious effort to provide the best possible secondary education for young Territorians. The Secondary Education Report, written by Dr Gregor Ramsey and his review team, has, over the past few months, been discussed widely in the community.
The government has taken no position on the recommendations of this report. We have made it clear that public consultation on the report is critical. We have hired one of the best public consultation experts in the country, Sheila O’Sullivan, to conduct this throughout the Territory. A steering committee with members from the Australian Education Union, the Council of Government School Organisations, the business sector, schools, the Association of NT School Educational Leaders and the Department of Employment, Education Training executive has been appointed to guide and monitor that consultation process. The three phase community consultation process began in May and has just been completed. A report is now being written for government, detailing feedback from the community on the issues raised.
Building better schools - infrastructure, furniture and school equipment funding: in 2001, the government committed to improving the physical structures of our schools. We have maintained a strong capital works, minor new works, and repairs and maintenance program over the last three years as well as putting a great deal of actual cash into the program.
Recently, we have put into place significantly improved internal arrangements to ensure that projects move from design to reality in a smooth and more timely fashion. This has been of major importance since the Estimates Review Committee process of the early 1990s and the Planning for Growth outcomes of the late 1990s gutted the ability of the department to adequately plan facilities needs.
In addition to fulfilling our announced capital works commitments in urban centres, the government has also ensured that funds are set aside to improve the parlous state of buildings in some of our remote communities. Currently, Shepherdson College, Minyerri and Emu Point are all being worked on with numerous other communities having already received important upgrades.
The government has fulfilled commitments to improving facilities for teachers and students. In February this year, I announced an injection of $1m for school equipment and a further $1m for remote teacher housing furniture. This money is now being spent on bulk orders of much needed equipment. Significant improvements have been achieved through these additional funds, and a further $500 000 is allocated to schools equipment for 2004-05.
The $1m for remote housing furniture is being used to achieve a basic minimum standard for teacher housing. For example, in Central Australia where temperatures in winter drop overnight to freezing, heaters have been supplied to 91 DEET houses for the first time. A further $750 000 has been provided for remote housing furniture in 2004-05. These funds will continue the improvement in living standards for our remote teachers.
I also announced in April this year a $300 000 schools grants program for 2004-05. Schools will be able to access grants up to $5000 on a needs basis for resources such as books, furniture and fittings, information and communication technology items and other equipment. Improving resources in Territory schools will continue to be a high priority for this government and it is reinforced through this new school grants program.
Focussing on jobs and training: the government promised to provide a new focus on employment and training. This has been achieved. Since taking office, the government has introduced VET through to Year 9, created a new Employment Division in the agency and implemented a three year Jobs Plan.
Jobs Plan NT is focussed on getting results for all Territorians, with a particularly strong emphasis on support for young Territorians. In addition to new and effective incentives for industry, we are building closer links between schools and employers. VET in Schools has proven to be one of the most successful programs to assist young Territorians to become job ready. The government has increased the funding commitment to VET in schools to $980 000 in 2004. Close to 900 Northern Territory students will have access to vocational education and training while at school in 2004.
Another success story for young Territorians has been the growth in opportunities to undertake school-based apprenticeships and traineeships; from 19 in 2001 to 137 in 2003. We expect the number of students entering school-based apprenticeships and traineeships in 2004 to grow to 180.
In the specialised vocational education and training Taster Program developed by Charles Darwin University and Kormilda College, 45 to 50 indigenous students attend training two days a week to gain competencies within the sport and recreation, seafood and automotive industry areas. To assist 14 to 19 year old indigenous students to reconnect with schooling or training, $1.2m will be provided under Training for Remote Youth in 2004. Approximately 500 young indigenous students will access this program in 2004.
In late 2003, I had the privilege of launching the government’s Get VET campaign and I am pleased to advise that based on the success of the first stage, we will be building on this program again later this year.
Madam Speaker, I believe I have covered the critical promises made to Territorians in 2001. I do reflect with a degree of pride on the significant advances we have made in education and training. We have fulfilled the commitments we made to Territorians. We are working hard on improvements across the entire education sector. I assure all Territorians that education and training will remain one of this government’s highest priorities for as long as we are in office.
Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly take note of the statement.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I am disappointed with this statement. The minister had all the time in the world to produce a well thought out, detailed report on how education has been going in the Territory for the last three years. This is an indication that this government has forgotten why we are here. For the last six days of the sittings, five days plus today, we have done hardly any work in this Chamber. We have had the bells going at six o’clock at night saying that we are done for the day. This government has produced filibustering statements containing little information on a range of important issues.
With all the time in the world that he has to produce a ministerial statement, the minister could do something better than a 15 or 20 minute speech articulated in a very dull, depressed voice. He has no enthusiasm for his portfolio. What is the problem? If you do not want to do the job, then move on and let someone else do it.
This government has really shown its appetite for work. They do not want to do it. It is a real tragedy. Here we are in parliament debating issues and doing work for Territorians, and this government comes up with filibustering statements that contain very little of significance.
Let us talk about what the government has done in the last six months of this year. They have had three or four reviews from early childhood right through to university, all happening in that short space of time. The education community is exhausted by consultation after consultation after consultation going over the same ground, noticing that this government does not really give a damn about what they think. The input they have provided to government has fallen on deaf ears.
Let us go to the first point that the minister made about the 100 additional teachers. When he talks about additional teachers, he talks about positions, 60 positions or 40 positions and so on. When he has real bodies, he talks about eight officers. There are people in those substantive positions, but the rest are nebulous. You can create as many positions as you want. You can create 100 or 1000 teacher positions in the Territory; if the teachers are not there, you do not have anything anyway.
In respect of creating these positions and trying to recruit teachers, what this government has done is to advertise on the DEET web site. It is a very nice web site heralding ‘Teaching in the Territory’. Well done; it looks very good. At the top corner, it says: ‘Special offer if you teach for a term’. Hey, I would like someone to pay me a full return airfare from anywhere in Australia to the Territory for three months. I can come here during the Dry, have three months to look around every weekend, take sick leave when I can, as long as it is legitimate, and have a great look around the Territory, and then this government will fly you home after three months.
If I were living overseas and wanted to spend six months in the Northern Territory, I will be flown to the Territory for free, have six months break from my current job, take leave without pay and go to the Northern Territory and teach in Darwin and Alice Springs, maybe even Katherine or Tennant Creek and some remote communities just for a six-month change of environment and then this government is going to fly me home.
This is such a bad way of spending public funds. It is really very wrong. If you talk to the teachers who are living in the Territory, working so very hard to try to do their job professionally, they say this is a mockery of what they are doing. They are giving money away for people to come to the Territory for a holiday. They would be better off if they spent the money looking after existing teachers, giving them better conditions, making sure their work and support is adequately funded. Instead, they are giving money away for people to fly to the Territory for a holiday, be it three or six months. That, to me, is an insult to our Territory teachers.
Anyway, coming back to the positions, you would have thought the minister, in his statement, would provide a good description of all the teachers in those 100 positions. He cannot tell you that. He speaks about a few, but he cannot identify the 100 teachers he says he has. He does not have them.
Attendance Officers are something that I support strongly. It is important for us to ensure that truancy is not an issue and that we can ensure students are turning up to school. Again, he said: ‘We have done a very good job. The attendance officers have identified the kids who are missing out on school and make sure they turn up’. He said that in Alice Springs there have been 127 students identified and have enrolled over 100. What he did not say is what continuing support are those attendance officers providing, not only in Alice Springs, but across the Territory? What are they doing to ensure that the retention rate is high?
Now, 50% in Alice Springs is acceptable, but it should be well up in the 90 percentile. We should have programs to ensure that these children who are not attending school actually turn up because without them going to school to attain at least primary education, there is no way in the world are they going to able to even aspire to go to secondary school, no way. Unless you have your basic primary schooling and show that you have adequate numeracy and literacy, you can forget about thinking about secondary school; it just does not work.
Minister, you spent hardly any time providing information. You are doing all of us a great disservice. If you think that a program such as the Attendance Officers program is working, tell us about it, be proud about it and give us some figures, give us the numbers so we know exactly where it is working well. Tell us also what is wrong with the system if, in some parts of the Territory, we do not have the students turning up. Then we can address those things.
Apart from the Attendance Officers, behaviour management is important among the kids who do not turn up to school and for those who do turn up to school. How can we deal with them? It is important to have specialised student counsellors outside of the teaching numbers. They should be specialised counsellors, social workers, psychologists, supernumerary to the teaching complement so they can concentrate on their work. That way, you will ensure that kids get proper counselling and those specialised counsellors can concentrate on the kids who are causing problems and distracting the rest of the class from its main purpose, which is to learn and achieve success in their education. It is when this government does not do that I find really offensive.
Talking about students who are not performing well at school, I was shown a program that has been designed by the Alice Springs High School, a model where they have a student-teacher contract to achieve a stated outcome for the student’s success. The teacher, parent and student undertake to ensure that the student achieves the outcome they are seeking. That is the way to go and, if we do that for every student, we will have not only an aspiration to achieve, but measurable outcomes for the kids.
Without a doubt, literacy and numeracy is the key in all education. For many of us brought up in mainstream education in Australia, or even in other English-speaking countries around the world including places like Singapore, Malaysia, where I grew up in an English-speaking school system, the first thing that is impressed upon all of us is to be able to read, write and to understand figures. That also means that you have to go to school in a regulated way. Parents, families and the community all value the education and encourage every child to turn up to school. There are no ifs or buts about it. There are no excuses. No excuse is going to be acceptable; every child had to turn up to school.
We say we have to make some allowances for our indigenous kids who might not see the relevance of education as we know it. If we are not able to demonstrate the significance of education for indigenous kids, then it is us who have failed. We have to ensure that they know and understand why so that they want to aspire to learn.
I agree with the minister that, in teaching indigenous kids, maybe for the first couple of years of their formal schooling there should be a dual language system where they can be initially introduced to a topic in their vernacular, but very rapidly move through into the English medium. After all, we live in a country in which English is the official language. If we do not do that, and we teach only in the vernacular then, again, you will short-change these kids. They are not going to be able to move into mainstream education and employment, and that would be a real tragedy.
Then the minister went on to speak about the Collins report or the Learning Lessons Report. I am glad to see that he has already got a few things going. However, at the very beginning when the report was tabled 3 years ago, they, in opposition then, said we must implement the lot. I see they are still struggling with all the recommendations. Only 40 have been fully implemented and the rest are still subject to consideration or partly underway. When you speak to professionals in education, they will tell you that not many are fully implemented, and so this government is also struggling with it, without a doubt.
I quote from the minister’s statement:
- We have started rolling out secondary education in remote communities. Four remote schools are now offering secondary programs on site. That stands in stark contrast to a previously held policy position, which refused to allow the teaching of secondary education programs in the bush.
That is an absolute untruth. We have always encouraged secondary education to be delivered where a student is capable of receiving secondary education.
What do you think the existence of the Northern Territory Open Education Centre is about? It is obviously about providing secondary education to students who are able to receive and benefit from secondary education. I come back to my point: unless you have a good grounding in primary education, only then can you be ready to receive secondary education.
The reality is that while we all recognise that there are a huge number of indigenous students who are accessing mainstream education out bush, particular secondary education, one needs to ask the question. It is really that these secondary-aged are not accessing education at all. More to the point, secondary-aged students are not accessing education. I can understand why they struggle. Think about it. You are living out there, you are in your teens and you are not going to be sitting in a class with 7 year-olds or 6 year-olds in a primary school because it is a shame job. I mean, you are a man, after all. You are initiated. You are a man and you are not going to be sitting in a class room with primary school kids.
You can create a structure by which you can bring these kids of secondary age into a separate class of their own but provide them with primary education on their own so that they can progress from there, and I think the accelerated literacy and numeracy program is going to be good.
When the minister came to the Secondary Education Report, he must have spent about a good minute and a half or two minutes on it. Let me tell the minister that the Secondary Education Report is badly written, has provided recommendations that have very little bearing on the research or the detail that is provided in the body of the report. That is why people are very unhappy about it. In fact, AEU NT, COGSO, the Independent Schools Association have all been saying to you that this is a terrible report, there are too many things wrong with it, and you must get rid of it.
Mr Kiely: No, they have not.
Dr LIM: The member for Sanderson interjects: ‘No, they have not’. The member Sanderson has not turned up to any of the community consultations. I have been to many and let me tell you …
Mr KIELY: Not true. A point of order, Madam Speaker. The opposition spokesman on education sat beside me at a public meeting at Sanderson High School. He knows that. He was sitting beside me. I will not have him stand there and say that I have not been to consultations.
Madam SPEAKER: Perhaps, member for Greatorex, you might like to withdraw that.
Dr LIM: For a member who is supposed to be particularly interested, he has been to one. Well, I tell you that I have been to many …
Mr KIELY: A point of order, Madam Speaker. How can he know how many I have attended if he has only attended one with me?
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Greatorex, do not make assumptions.
Members interjecting.
Dr LIM: Speaking to the point of order, he said that he has been to one.
Madam SPEAKER: Just make the point that you have attended several.
Dr LIM: Anyway, while the empty vessels continue to rattle, let’s move on. Let me say this to the minister: the CLP will not close the Northern Territory Open Education Centre but instead will enhance its services. I look forward to the minister supporting the CLP on that position.
The other thing they talked about was learning precincts. Everywhere you go across the Territory people are saying that learning precincts are going to be the death of school councils and the independence of principals and the school community. The CLP will not support learning precincts because they will rob our community of their autonomy. Under the CLP, we deliberately devolved powers to school communities so that they could run schools within a framework that best suits their community. It is a real pity that this government cannot see that. I hope the minister will assure us that learning precincts are not going to be there.
The other thing that the minister should have heard if his members had turned up to all these community consultation meetings is that Casuarina Senior College does not want Year 10 students. He should listen to them. The students have done a survey among themselves. The teachers have done a survey among the staff. They have consulted the school community and they are loud and clear: no Year 10 at Casuarina Senior College. That is what you have to do. They tell you over and over again that if you do that, you will damage the school ethos, the offerings that the senior students can receive from the school, teaching would have to change, pastoral care will have to change and it will disrupt the school completely. Besides that, where are you going to find the room at Casuarina Senior College to house these Year 10s? They do not want them.
On the issue of three-tier schooling, it would be interesting to hear what the minister has to say about it. Let me tell you now: the CLP is not going to force any schools to give away their Year 7s or to take their Year 10s. What we will do is to encourage the principals and school communities to work out for themselves whether it is the appropriate move for their school community. That is what we will encourage and we will ensure that they have support from government to progress in the way that they see as fit.
Minister, your three phase consultation program was flawed from the beginning. The Priority Education Reader’s Guide is more push-polling than anything else. It is all about motherhood statements, as I said earlier, and this questionnaire, the Individual Response sheet, everyone who has completed it says: ‘It is all motherhood statements. I cannot disagree with any of these’. When they have completed it, they lock themselves into a direction that they know is wrong.
When it comes to VET, while the government has been actively encouraging students to take up VET in schools and at TAFE colleges, there are not enough instructors. Take the electrical trade: students want to do electrical trades, but there are not enough instructors to service existing students. It is no good beating the bush to flush all these students out and then have the resources behind them.
The minister talked about improving the infrastructure of schools and the money that he has committed to it. I notice that money has been committed to schools, primary schools particularly, in Labor electorates. Very particular, that is. Parap got millions. Why, because it was in the Chief Minister’s electorate? Yet the Chief Minister, you will recall, promised Darwin High School millions of dollars for refurbishment. What is happening there? That money has been promised and promised and promised, but nothing has happened. The Palmerston Secondary College: in three budgets, you put that money up and in three budgets we have seen nothing. You are still talking about planning the Palmerston Senior College. If you are seriously doing anything about schools, show us where.
With regard to primary schools, I put to the minister during Estimates that we have lost hundreds of primary school kids this last 12 months, an indication that the schools are all contracting. What is he doing about it?
When it comes to the university, I put a question to the minister during Estimates on what he thought about the amalgamation of Centralian College with the Northern Territory University to form Charles Darwin University. He was less than enthusiastic this time around. Last year, he was full of praise for the amalgamation, suddenly, this year, whoa, I was a little bit too enthusiastic at the last Estimates.
Obviously, it shows that you have concerns, but are you addressing them? I have not heard a thing about it. Nowhere in this statement have you made a point about it, and that is wrong. There are huge concerns. The Centralian Advocate only last week said that students in Years 11 and 12 at Centralian are concerned about whether they have a future at the Centralian Campus of Charles Darwin University. The teachers want to know. They are all asking questions, and you are silent on it. They want to know whether their terms of employment will continue as they are now under the Department of Education, and you do not tell them. You say you are consulting. You have been consulting for three years and we still have not heard from you as to what is going on.
Yesterday, you spoke about rolling out laptops for teachers. Well and good. That is a great program, and I would have done it myself. In fact, I explored it with the schools that I have been visiting this year, prior to your announcement that you were going to do it. Make sure that LATIS is up, running and strong, and that the bandwidth is there. You have 2200 teachers with laptops all logging on to LATIS and the system is going to fall over. You do not have the bandwidth. The infrastructure is not there. There is no point giving somebody a you-beaut car with one wheel missing. It is not going to go anywhere.
I hope you are going to assure the teachers that the computers will be their property and that the government will insure them 24 hours a day for the length of time that the computers are in the possession of the teachers. There is no point saying: ‘Here is a computer. You can insure it. The repairs and maintenance are all yours’. You are, in fact, giving them a burden, not a tool to use. If you are going to give them a tool, make sure that the tool works. If it does not, forget it.
In my remaining few minutes, I draw the minister’s attention to an article in the Northern Territory Government Gazette of 25 August 2004. The Department of Employment, Education and Training has let a contract, a Darwin consultancy, design and layout of educational/promotional materials for a period of six months for some $50 000 to Sprout Creative (Northern Territory) Pty Ltd at Winnellie, Northern Territory. It is a coincidence maybe, or just my suspicion, that for the next six months, this department is going to start producing propaganda for the government - not for the department; for the government - in the lead-up to a Northern Territory election. That is a very cynical way of running a department when you use material such as that.
Minister, I am disappointed with your statement. There is a lot more that you could have said to Territorians, telling us where you are heading. You might have given yourself a tick on your report card, but your report card is flawed. The statement contains very little about your promises. You have made promises for three years. You still have not delivered much on them.
I recognise that our bush kids are not accessing secondary education. There are more issues to it than just because there is no open education or no secondary schools in the bush. You have to make sure that our bush kids at least have their primary school down pat. You have to ensure that our bush kids have good literacy and numeracy. You have to ensure that our kids have the basics of education before they go on to secondary education. Once you do that, I can cop any criticism about bush kids not having secondary education. It is indeed about secondary age school kids not accessing any education at all. I mentioned before the cultural barriers as to why they will not do that.
I remind the minister that LATIS is important. It was a very well received project within the education fraternity and was a forward thinking project. You have to ensure that the infrastructure is there to provide full access for students, schools and, now, for teachers with laptops. If you do that, you can progress with education.
This is a poor statement by a minister who is using this as a means of filibustering in parliament when there is very little government business, so they use this to pad out the day. It is an indictment of the government, and on the Deputy Chief Minister, to allow such a travesty of parliamentary process to occur.
Debate suspended.
VISITORS
Madam SPEAKER: We have some visitors in the Gallery. I can see some Year 8 St John’s College students from remote Northern Territory and Western Australian communities, accompanied by Clinton Block and Kieran Myers. On behalf of all honourable members, I extend a warm welcome to you.
Members: Hear, hear!
MINISTERIAL STATEMENT
Government Commitments to Education and Training – Progress Report
Government Commitments to Education and Training – Progress Report
Continued from earlier this day.
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Family and Community Services): Madam Speaker, I thank the Minister for Employment, Education and Training for updating the House on the Martin government’s stated commitment to Building Better Educational Outcomes for the Territory. I acknowledge that the minister has provided a snapshot of the overall approach of the Martin government to what is one of our key priorities: the training and education of all Territorians. I reflect on the fact that it was this minister who brought a significant statement on the way forward for indigenous education.
However, I wish to confine my remarks especially to the effects of our efforts as they apply to those Territorians living outside the two major metropolitan centres of Darwin and Alice Springs.
If the history of education over the last 25 years in the Territory outside of Alice Springs and Darwin is casually observed, it would be easy to call it a record of failure and despair. It would be easy to denigrate outcomes achieved as inadequate and damning of an educational system allowed to wither and die by the previous administration.
However, such a view would only tell part of the story. Despite the neglect of the system by previous education ministers, good work has continued to be done in schools throughout the regions of the Territory. How has this good work been achieved despite the crippling problems apparent to a parade of previous education ministers? How has this good work been achieved despite the fact that schools have been largely developed in remote regions of the Territory in the 1960s and 1970s, that very few Aboriginal people from remote communities have more than basic literacy and English, that most students in Aboriginal schools are learning English as a second or even foreign language, and that they are learning literacy in the context of families where literacy is rarely used, and in communities where literacy has few meaningful functions?
There have been achievements - all too few, admittedly, but achievements nevertheless. These are achievements against the odds that deserve our respect and gratitude. The line has been held against an education system becoming totally dysfunctional by certain key groups. The line has been held despite the uncaring efforts and this has been maintained by the good work of certain individuals.
Who has done this good work? Who has held the line? I will tell you who: a group of staunchly dedicated teachers, committed advisory staff, concerned and dedicated local education workers and never-say-die community members. All these individuals have given more than enough reason to doubt that their efforts mattered. Not only did they care about their work, but liked it. It has been hard to get and keep teachers in many of our remote Aboriginal communities, but many of teachers actually liked it and worked under extremely difficult circumstances in many of our communities.
In my electorate, there are people, in Maningrida, particularly, who have done some hard yards, Lyn Hollows and Helen Bond-Sharp, and in Gunbalanya, people like the indigenous principal, Esther Djayhgurrnga. All these individuals were given more than enough reason to doubt their efforts. They could have walked away and begun reciting the usual lines on education in the region, that it is all too hard, and let us forget about it and, after all, it is only Aboriginal students and therefore, they are unable to be educated. These key individuals have stuck to the job, no matter how difficult the challenges have been, no matter how uncaring the system has been because they acknowledge that children are our greatest resource, something the CLP did not acknowledge. In working with out schools, the government acknowledges that children are our greatest resource.
If we look to the future, children are our future leaders. In building a very strong education system, we have to work with communities. I am not saying that it is all the system’s problem, but there have been a number of problems in our communities. We constantly talk about the dysfunction in communities. I have often said when I talk to people in the various communities, and particularly my own mob, that we are never going to improve our children’s literacy and numeracy and there is no point having the teachers there and putting the infrastructure in place if our communities, our parents, do not get those kids into school. We need to work with families to get them to see the value of education. It has not been there in the past, and work needs to be done with parents so that they value education and get kids to schools.
I was pushed by both parents that I was never going to achieve anything in life unless I went to school. Education was a something about which I was strongly disciplined to ensure I and all of my brothers and sisters attended school. My father did not have access to a good education system, but it was something that he pushed all of us on, so we did get a good education. For that, I am eternally grateful. It is something about which I talk a lot, particularly to young girls at our communities who despair that they are not going to be able to achieve things so they can see that they can get on in life; making them see that if they stay in school and get the education, their prospects in life will be better.
All children’s education is an essential building block for powering the Territory forward, and for grasping the future in both hands and making sure every Territorian has an education. Sometimes when we have debates, they are centred in our urban regions. We also have to look at what happens outside our cities and towns. We need to know what needs to be put in place in our remote communities so that there is access and equity to education, no matter what your language or gender, and everyone has the opportunity to fully participate in life, society and the economy.
I am pleased to say that the Territory now has a minister for education who has recognised that the basic building blocks for providing education to all Territorians lies with the keys groups I mentioned previously: committed teachers who are employed to teach and are given the tools and conditions to do it; experienced advisory staff available to teachers in the field; Aboriginal Education Workers skilled and empowered to offer their considerable experience to their school communities; and community members who want to support their children’s educational endeavours.
The minister outlined how 16 new teachers have been appointed. I am delighted that six of the positions have been allocated to the group schools located in the Katherine region, Barkly, Alice Springs, east and west, and the Top End group schools. As well, the group schools benefit from five new assistant principal positions. The current group schools have shown the effectiveness of pooling their resources, funds, staff and equipment. The group schools’ registrars have been particularly effective, as has the process of applying and acquitting funds, bulk ordering of equipment and other resources, maintenance contracts and the like. More importantly, it frees teacher principals to teach, to provide education leadership in their communities, and provide day-to-day staff management of their schools. The group schools model also provides a better system of supervising the educational outcomes achieved in remote schools.
I acknowledge the importance of the minister’s initiative in allocating substantial funding this year and next to the provision of remote housing furniture for our outposted teachers. The provision of heaters in teacher housing in Central Australia is long overdue and is one of the little things that assist in keeping experienced teaching staff out in our communities, which have the greatest need.
Members of this House may be familiar with the famous, or some would say infamous, cartoons of the 1980s that featured Harry Scrawls, a teacher sent out to teach in an unnamed remote school in the Territory. Harry’s life was one of loneliness and professional isolation and regular cartoons showed him uttering desperate monologues bemoaning his fate, all conducted in a school that was, of course, a ‘silver bullet’, as was his accommodation. I am pleased to say that the Harry Scrawls’ days are gone and at last our remote teachers are getting the working and living conditions they deserve.
The addition of substantial numbers of staff to critically important advisory positions demonstrates the minister’s commitment to remote area education. This commitment stands in stark contrast to the approach of previous ministers who inherited a worthy Commonwealth advisory capacity, but allowed it to run down until advisors became somewhat like Tasmanian Tigers: often sighted but with no proof of existence ever forthcoming. I am delighted that the minister has seen fit to assist our hard working front line teachers by creating many new advisory positions, particularly in the areas of literacy, special education, physical education, alternative provision capacity, behaviour management and teaching resource development.
The success of the accelerated literacy trial has significant implications for our remote area students. The minister has outlined the fact that substantial numbers of teachers have had professional development training in the delivery of the accelerated literacy approach and that is being implemented across remote schools as we speak. The trial indicates significant progress in working with indigenous students and encourages us to believe that the differences in high school entry literacy rates between indigenous and non-indigenous students can be overcome.
As I said earlier, there are many heroes of education in the Territory, people who have stuck to the job and held the line to keep giving Territory kids the best possible opportunity to achieve their ambitions. I want to speak about one such group now: Aboriginal education workers.
In many of our remote schools, Aboriginal assistant teachers and home liaison officers are the one consistent factor in the education service delivered to their communities. When non-indigenous staff come and go, it is the indigenous education workers who stick by their community and their kids. Often their knowledge of those kids and the communities in which they live is second to none. In many cases, they are the bedrock of the community education process, providing essential liaison between community and non-indigenous staff, between students and their teachers. Of course, they are role models for communities in which unemployment is high and working role models for students are in very short supply.
It is true that these indigenous education workers have been working in schools for decades and it is not something new, but there needs to be recognition instead of constant ignorance. Recent developments on this minister’s watch indicate that they are at last being taken to another level of professional competence and performance as workers in their children’s education in their own right. The minister is right to support all our education workers because they are the major investment in our communities’ education, delivering stability for students, schools and communities.
I am delighted that some specific programs around the Territory are achieving real outcomes. I speak specifically of projects like the Central Anmatjere Picture Dictionary being used by students and teachers in the Anmatjere-speaking communities of Laramba, Yuelamu and Ti Tree. This program, so simple in concept, has brought Aboriginal education workers from the back of the classroom to the front, where they should be. Not only is children’s literacy improving, but local education workers feel that they have an important role to play in the education of their children. The local workers’ confidence is up, and they will not return to the back of the classroom easily.
In October, I am informed that a similar dictionary will be launched at Ambladawatj for Alyawarra speakers. I am sure that this dictionary will have a similar empowering impact in the east as the Central Anmatjere one has to the west.
Generally, any investment in the professional development of our teachers is money well spent, but now that all employees are receiving their fair share of professional development, our remote schools can only benefit.
I also wish to speak about the need for support to put the local community in the school; it is not just about putting the school in the community. The genius of the picture dictionary projects is that they do that very thing. These projects harness the linguistic ability and cultural knowledge of the community as a whole. These curriculum documents show that there is a place for Aboriginal knowledge and expertise in school curriculum. The books were developed by the community, are owned by the community and the community teaches from the books. Not only teachers get up in front of classes, but community members as well, demonstrating for all to see the value of community knowledge and expertise.
Once community members are valued as important informants and guides for the community education process, and once their knowledge and experience is recognised as important, it is only a comparatively small step to harness the enthusiasm of that involvement in the governance of the school. When parents and other community members are truly part of the education system of their school, not only will we have a thriving school, but a community development process that can spin off into all other aspects of contemporary community life.
However, in my travels around the Territory, I detect a new vibe in the education community. I see very good examples of close cooperative efforts emerging. I see larger schools assisting smaller ones in a mutually beneficial way, and the very nature of the group school clusters mean that they are often working well together with a central focus, as it should be: the educational wellbeing of the students. I see teachers at last getting the advisory assistance they have needed for so long, and recognition of the particular circumstances of teaching in some of the most remote regions of Australia. I see the professional development of our hard working teaching staff, indigenous and non-indigenous, being put up again so that they can do best what we require them to do, and that is to teach.
Finally, Aboriginal educators are receiving the recognition and respect they deserve. I see the community coming in and being a big part of the dynamic school community rather than being merely passive receivers of an educational system. Yes, there is much to be done, but I see key positives such as these. It is difficult not to feel positive about building better educational outcomes for Territory children and their families.
Madam Speaker, I commend the minister’s statement to the House.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, it is important to note the community’s current state of mind on education and, in particular, this government’s approach to education - in fact, this government’s approach to any such issue, with a couple of outstanding exceptions. We have, for example, the Alcohol Framework that goes on and on and on, where you consult the community until you have practically extracted the life from it, and the community reaches the point where it wonders whether this government has the capacity to actually make a decision.
The Secondary Education Report arrived with great fanfare, a bit like Burke and Wills, big fanfare, off they go down to South Australia and launch up into the Northern Territory with great expectations. We had massive celebrations of the announcement of the review into education, and then it disappeared. That consultancy group went out and spoke to folk who have a passion and an interest in education and spoke about this system in good faith. Then they waited, expecting a response, and the committee paused, there was silence, we discover that the recommendations have now been presented to Cabinet after almost 12 months at a cost, I would estimate, close to $1m at this point.
Then it sits with Cabinet for month after month after month, with all those community members with an interest, with a passion for education, wondering what happened to those dialogues, what happened with their contribution. This Cabinet sits and waits while children sit in their classes, while teachers teach, while school councils meet and wonder what will be the next move.
Then, after considerable deliberation, we have this government consider: ‘I know what our next move will be. We will ask the community what it thinks about these recommendations’. With that was a wave of disappointment that hit this community.
Those with a passion for education, those with an interest in it, thought that we would get to the stage where we would have a proposed course of action and a proposed outline for implementation. What decision has this government actually made? The decision was to go and ask the community again.
That process has let the community down. In this review, there are many fine ideas. We could talk about these ideas forever. It is the will of this government to talk about these things, to speculate and theorise about what innovative ideas there could be in education and what could possibly occur, and we could talk about it on an intellectual level. However, there are kids in classes, there are teachers struggling out there, there are school councils meeting and nothing is happening except discussion and talk and consideration.
They need action, minister. They need some direction. They need to know what decisions you have made. You have been elected to govern, and you have already consulted through this process. You have already gained the view of the community and how they feel about education. You had a review, well considered, many fine ideas there, waited for Cabinet to come up with a response to it, and their response was only to ask the community again.
It has been evident that the way you have conducted this is simply a time-buying exercise displaying that this is a government that has no real courage to make decisions. As I said earlier, there are a couple of notable exceptions, one being the decision to increase the number of poker machines in our community without community consultation. I cannot understand that, nor can I understand your decision to lower the age of consent for homosexual sex for 16-year-old lads. On those two, minimal consultation, but any other decision, you suck the life out of it. All the while, there are kids and teachers out there wondering and waiting for direction from this government.
Yes, middle schools are a fine concept, but the issue is: how do you implement them? That is what they want to hear about, how you are going to do it. What sort of strategies are you going to put in place to make sure that the teachers themselves are prepared to teach in that sort of system? There is plenty of research. There have been plenty of discussions. The consultation has occurred. The real issue is not ‘Is it a good idea or is it not?’ It is how you are going to do it. This is the clearest message. We in opposition are not opposed to innovation, but it is how you implement.
Let us talk about implementation. Let us talk about a government that is going to show some leadership.
In respect of middle schools, the key issue is: what sort of preparation do you provide for teachers? You have to build that basic structure first. What sort of programs will you put in place to train teachers to be able to carry that kind of structure? That is where the discussions should be. Be decisive, head in that direction and implement those kinds of structures. Instead, we have the life sapped out of the community and we do not have that kind of direction. The amount of money that has been spent could have employed any number of teachers.
We need to drill down and look at the real issues in education today and how a government should respond to them. One is school attendance. We need to get kids to go to school. That is a base line issue. We need to make sure they go. The issue here is we must make sure that parents take greater responsibility to have their children attend school. There are plenty of services out there to assist parents who are having difficulty, and it is time that we had a dialogue that said a parent is responsible to make sure their child goes to school, and if they do not send their child to school, there needs to be some kind of action.
Again, it seems to be the approach of this government to provide support after support after support, which is at a general and benign level, but there is no edge to it. There is no increasing the awareness and responsibility of a parent to send their child to school. We need to have that card dealt so that parents know that they have some responsibility otherwise they become completely dependent upon government, and we enlarge the expectation of the community on government and we have no result and an enlargement of the cost to government.
Parents are responsible for sending their children to school and I want policies to ensure that happens. For example, from time to time, parents should be fined for not sending their children to school. They should be held fully accountable, because there is more than enough support and agencies out there to assist a parent who is having some difficulty. If parents cannot find the time to go to agencies for assistance, we need to go to the next stage so that we send the message that parents ultimately have responsibility.
What about going to the next stage with struggling attendance within many of our schools? There should be some connection to the attendance at school and the reward that a parent receives in terms of welfare benefits. There needs to be consideration of ways of doing that so we create the cause and the effect because unless we start moving in that direction, we are not going to make any real progress.
I wish to raise the issue of bilingual education. This government, when in opposition, made great play about the virtues of bilingual education and, upon coming to government with the opportunity to do something about bilingual education, has done nothing about it. They have left it as it is. You have created an expectation that has been disappointed. We must put some focus back into bilingual education. Why? Because we need parents to take responsibility in education and if we start to allow parents to be involved in remote communities in their own language, that is the best way of providing English language tuition by way of the second language. I urge this government to rethink its position with regard to bilingual education because it is certainly on my books.
We must get students attending school; we must make sure that parents understand their degree of responsibility. Sure, government has responsibilities, but parents, ultimately, have responsibility to send their child to a school.
The next issue is: we must look at and respect our teaching service. The situation we currently have is consultation upon consultation. Minister, if you have been to Darwin High School as recently as I have you will know that the teachers are very concerned about the way this consultation upon consultation has occurred and is diminishing morale.
Our teachers need to be supported and shown clear leadership. Teachers need to be given reward for performance. There are many teachers out there who have grown weary, who want to support after school programs, but there seems to be little recognition. Less and less, teachers want to go that extra mile. However, there are many of them, fortunately, who still do. I am interested in finding ways of recognising those teachers and making sure that they are rewarded for the extra contribution they make to their school communities.
I am very interested in ensuring that those teachers who make time to service remote communities are recognised for that service, as in other states that have moved in that direction. To have a teacher work in a remote locality for one year and then another, and then another, is the most valuable thing that you can provide in terms of length of service within a remote community. When a teacher moves, the trusts and relationship are effectively lost as there has been a change from one teacher to the next. Ways can be found, and have been proposed previously by myself and others, for rewarding and recognising length of service within remote communities. That must be done so that teachers have recognition for length of service and communities have greater stability in education provision.
Parents need to understand what is going on in education. The phrase ‘plain English reporting’ is an important one. Most parents do not understand reports that come home; the language and information is in ‘edu-babble’. It conveys no clear indication to the parent of how their child is actually faring at school. We need to have reports that are very plain and clear so parents know whether their child is achieving against set and easily understood benchmarks, particularly in numeracy and literacy, so there is an understanding and clear information is conveyed.
Underneath this, there has to be an increase in the measurability of what is happening in the school and that links then to curriculum. Our curriculum needs to be different from the current one, which is a mile wide and an inch deep. There need to be core elements to the curriculum. Rather than having a framework, we need some meat on the bones, some substance to it so that teachers have a greater capacity to teach, not to write programs and fill in the gaps of a framework, but to actually teach and be able to report on clearly measurable aspects within the curriculum. Parents need that. They need to know whether their child is actually achieving in known subjects, numeracy and literacy primarily. They need to understand that. We need to focus on the curriculum.
We can discuss issues such as middle school and so on, and they are interesting, but it is how you effectively implement and create the capacity for those to be included within our current system. That is where debate needs to be. After dealing with getting kids to school, making sure we reward and recognise teachers for performance and length of service, particularly in remote communities, and, as I mentioned in a previous debate, for in-servicing. The Teachers Registration Board should have the capacity to recognise teachers who add value to their profession by upgrading their skills through in-servicing. There needs to be recognition and a way of rewarding teachers for that kind of dedication rather than having this one size fits all and it is jolly good that you have gone out and done an in-service in subject area X, Y or Z.
If a teacher has gone that step further and taken an extra responsibility upon themselves to learn and to strengthen their craft, they end up back at a school and are given extra duties but no real reward. Those teachers should be recognised and supported for that extra. There are mechanisms for doing it. If you have the will to do it, you can do it, and that is the sort of thing I would like to see, that teachers are recognised for going that extra mile in respect of after school programs and in-servicing.
Plain English reporting is important, as is the role parents play on school councils. The messages that are coming through in this community consultation are of concern to school councils. You have the goodwill of parents who are involved in school councils being eroded because there is this centralist message coming through that yes, you play the game at the school council level, you effectively give the impression that you are making really big decisions, but at the bottom line, you really do not have a lot of power. If you ask school councils what real decisions they actually make, they need to be supported and given recognition that they are critically important in the education that occurs at the local school level. Discussions through this consultation process are diminishing and sending messages that the local school council will be reduced in its authority and diminished in its effective role in the education of children at the local school level.
Finally, in this statement, we see reference to the VET sector. We need a VET sector that is more connected to industry, that is industry driven and industry can speak more effectively and directly on the training agenda and is far more responsive to the industry sector. At the moment, it appears that the voice of industry is neutered through the beaurocracy that surrounds the delivery of training. That must be improved. We must have clear emphasis given to the voice of industry in the training agenda. That must and will change.
We need to recognise programs that were not mentioned in the speech, such as the TCA’s Try A Trade program. It is an initiative of Word Skills Australia and is going to be run again this year. Those programs show us the way; industry becomes actively involved in showing how apprentiships after leaving school provide careers. It is a direct interface between industry and the school without necessarily going through an extensive bureaucracy. Minister, I trust you have seen these programs, particularly Try A Trade. That is the type of model we need to see more of. If we were able to increase the level of funding to TCA, we would find a stronger connection between industry and the training sector.
The final issue remains, irrespective of talk about recommendations in the review, standards in education. It comes down to that basic level of children going to school, what they are being taught and the standard of education they are receiving. That is where we need to focus our attention and be satisfied that children are receiving a standard and quality of education that is to be envied. This is why we have such a level of anxiety within the community because it has gone on for far too long. It is for that reason we need to inject some certainty to this debate.
Madam Speaker, I move that motion be amended to omit all words after ‘that’ and insert in their stead:
- That this Assembly calls on the Northern Territory government to note the calls from teachers, parents, students from across the Territory to:
(1) guarantee that the Northern Territory Open Education Centre will remain open and its services enhanced so that it can continue to serve Territorians as the Territory’s premier distance education facility;
(2) reject the recommendation to create learning precincts as it will reduce the authority of local school councils and principals.
Dr LIM: Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I move an extension of time such that my colleague may conclude his remarks.
Motion agreed to.
Mr MILLS: Thank you, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker.
- (3) continue the policy to devolve powers to the local school community and put authority in the hands of parents rather than centralising governance through learning precincts;
(4) increase the support for local school councils; and
(5) reject the recommendation to transfer Year 10 to Casuarina Senior College.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I am now speaking to the amendment.
To provide clarity in direction for our school community, parents and all who have an interest in education, we must provide certainty. Certainty must be provided at the school council level. It must be provided at the chalk face. Teachers need to have some clarity and direction from this government.
Mr Henderson: You said you supported it.
Mr Stirling: Are we getting a copy of this amendment?
Mr MILLS: You were not listening to my previous comments, minister. The issue is clear focus, support for school communities, support for school councils and clear direction for schools. Put an end to this and guarantee that the debate about such things as innovative ideas can continue at an academic level, but put an end to speculation about the NT Open Education Centre. Say it will remain open and it services will be enhanced. Say that to them, then they can get on with their business, and we can increase the performance, output and service to education in the Northern Territory.
Say to school councils: ‘We support you and we will increase your authority and power and your decision-making processes at the local school level’. End the uncertainty, speak directly to them and say that to them. Make a commitment that you are going to devolve your powers and authority back to those school councils, because they know it is being removed. You can say all sorts of things, but they know that the tide is turning the other way. The conduct of this debate within the community is sending the clear and subliminal message that the power and authority of school councils is being diminished.
School precincts and the occupation of time in talking about such concepts is removing the focus from the real issue, and that is making sure kids get to school, that parents understand they have a responsibility to take their kids to school, teachers are properly supported and given clear direction, that we focus our attention on the development of curriculum that supports teachers, helps them to teach and sends a clear message to parents so parents understand exactly what is happening at school.
Increase the support to local school councils. Those well-intentioned parents who want to get in there and serve their school communities need greater support. They need assistance to help them run their school councils. You need to provide training programs, and I commit to making sure that school councils provide proper training programs so that they have professional support, so they can conduct their affairs at the local school level and provide real leadership within a school context, not just be the fund raising arm of the education department to provide support to the local school environment. They need real support, and they need clear direction from this government or any government because effectively, it is a parent who has ultimate responsibility. Government is there to support, and it is the child should benefit from all these activities.
Finally, create some certainty within Casuarina Senior College. Let them know, clearly, what you have in mind. Make a decision. I urge this government, to reject the recommendation to transfer Year 10 to Casuarina Senior College. Provide that level of certainty, and do as they did at Darwin High School. There are people right across the community, particularly connected with Darwin High School, who have grave concerns about the direction in which this consultation is heading. Their principal position was this: we are not opposed to innovation in education, but, if you choose to implement innovative ideas within education, it must be done in a very measured and careful way. At this moment, we have such an increase in uncertainty, which is detracting from the focus of teachers upon their students and it is diminishing the focus and the confidence of school councils.
I urge members to support the amendment.
Mr STIRLING (Employment, Education and Training): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I put on the record at the first opportunity the government’s opposition to the amendment circulated by the Leader of the Opposition.
This is the old CLP’s ugly arrogance reasserting itself. They do not want to listen to the views of the community notwithstanding that there has been a lengthy and comprehensive consultative process. I have not seen the views of all of the people who have responded in the different phases of the consultative process. That is a body of work to be completed and come back to us. However, that is of no interest to the Country Liberal Party. They say: ‘We know best’. It is the old CLP arrogance. One of the reasons for their demise at the 2001 election was the attitude that the CLP always knows best, and do not worry about consultation or whatever the community has to say.
The amendment calls for us to guarantee that the Northern Territory Open Education Centre will remain open. Notwithstanding that we have not heard or seen all of the feedback from the consultative process, I and the government are being asked to stamp our foot all over this recommendation and give a guarantee. Forget what the people have said. We are not interested in what you said, we do not want to see your views, that was all a farce, you are just being called on to say: ‘Yes, leave it open’. There will always be a facility for the purposes of distance education in the Northern Territory because of the make-up of the place and the need to provide an educational service to those small groups that are spread geographically across so many thousands of kilometres.
- … reject the recommendation to create learning precincts as it will reduce the authority of local school councils and principals;
Who says? Who says that you could not build a precinct structure and a model that would preserve or even strengthen the role of school councils and, indeed, school principals within that structure? Years ago, we had - and it was a mistake that they were taken away by the previous government - superintendents in the regions. No one suggested that they reduced the role, power or authority of school councils or reduced the effectiveness or power of principals. In fact, they were a strengthening and an underpinning at a local level because you had a senior educator able to advise and work with principals, school communities and schools on issues as they arose at the coal face instead of every issue having to come back to Darwin to be dealt with.
We have an assumption here that learning precincts will reduce the authority of local school councils and principals notwithstanding that we have not yet seen the feedback from the community about what they think about school precincts and whether some modification is required to ensure that these authorities and powers remain intact. Again, the advice is to ride roughshod over the public view. ‘We are not interested in your views, this is the way you have to do it and we call on the government to reject this recommendation’.
- … continue the policy to devolve powers to the local school community and put authority in the hands of parents rather than centralising governance through learning precincts;
That underpins the misplaced assumptions in the second point of the proposed amendment, so there are the same arguments. We are genuine about hearing the views of the community and we are not about to make decisions on it now.
- … increase the support for local school councils;
That does not give me, nor did the Leader of the Opposition’s comments in relation to this, too much idea of exactly what he was talking about. One of the things I have been keen on is to look at school councils’ roles, governance, responsibilities, strengthening, particularly in and around responsibility for accounting and financial accountability because we have seen some pretty ordinary things happen over recent years. I would be keen to look at that question. The Leader of the Opposition gives me no comfort as to exactly what he is talking about and not much detail or idea of the substance of his proposed amendment.
It would have been silly to say: ‘Let us have a review of school councils and governance structures’ in the same time frame, running parallel with what is a comprehensive review of secondary education. Once that was all through, I would still be keen to do that. If a new government was in place after the next election, it would remain a fairly high priority order for any government to look at. However, ‘increase support for local school councils’, what does that mean? What resources are being called for? I do not know, and I am not prepared to support point four of the proposed amendment.
- … reject the recommendation to transfer Year 10 to Casuarina Senior College.
The views of Casuarina Senior College, in the view of the Leader of the Opposition, must remain paramount. They are the voice of all educational authority and power in this argument; no one else is to be listened to. It is a bad idea, Year 10 to Casuarina. So what does Casuarina Senior College say about Nightcliff High or Darwin High? Do it there? Do they say that? All they do is say is: ‘Do not do it here’. What is the educational reasoning and background? Is it a good idea, is it a bad idea? Is it a good idea, but not in my back yard? These are responses that need to be drilled down. I have met with Casuarina teachers, I have met with students at different times, and I am under no illusion about what their views are. They are pretty consistent; they are opposed to it.
However, they are not the only voice in this debate and I will not be cowered, nor will government be cowered or bow down to the might of this view from Casuarina Senior College. It may be that if the recommendation was accepted in the long term, structures could be built around it and Casuarina Senior College rolled on as a Year 11 and 12 institution, but you build Years 10, 11 and 12 in other schools that were about to go that way. If it is a sound educational principle, if there are educational gains to be made in bringing these reforms forward, we would not be put off by Casuarina Senior College not being in the mix, initially at least. Where would you put them without building extra facilities and making it work logistically?
It is a measure of arrogance: the CLP knows best. It is the old days of the CLP. It shows they have not learnt from the years in opposition that they have to listen to the community. Wicking had it right very early on in their days of opposition with his cartoon about the CLP not knowing how to listen. We embarked on this comprehensive process of consultation to hear the voice not of just one body or one institution, but to hear the voices of school communities all around the Northern Territory
I have not had the opportunity to see that feedback yet; neither have my colleagues, neither has anyone else other than Sheila O’Sullivan and Rita Henry and the people who have been involved in each of these consultative forums. We will take the time to get those views rounded up, back to Cabinet and when we have all of that material stacked up in a logical and sensible way against the recommendations of the report, government will make decisions and go forward.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, the government will not be accepting any points of this proposed amendment from the opposition.
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, some of my remarks will overlap with the recommendations.
Education is a changing theme. It never stays still. What we have had for many years may not necessarily be the right thing for the future. We have to understand that. We are talking about learning precincts and there seems to be a lot of fear and trepidation, but you need to understand that what might suit Darwin may not suit the rest of the Territory.
In the 1980s, Alice Springs Year 7s went into junior high, so we have Years 7, 8, 9, and 10 in our junior highs in Alice Springs. I remember at the time there was a great controversy. It was not done for educational reasons; it was done purely because primary schools did not have enough room. That move was not done for the right educational reasons, but it worked. At that time, although there was a bit of discontent, the junior secondary schools said: ‘We have to rethink the way we are teaching our kids in Year 7.’ So instead of having the old model of children going to classes and moving, they put the Year 7s together and the teachers moved, not the students. That is the way it can happen. One size does not fit all. That is what I am saying. You must have some vision.
I understand the fear that the Leader of the Opposition expresses about losing autonomy for the pre- and primary sectors of our schools and the parent involvement. I can recall when I was Principal of Sadadeen Primary, we were the first school in the Territory to take on devolution and it was such a big responsibility. It was huge for us, but it worked. No way would I like to see this pyramid-type of administration introduced where people at the pre-school level are being told by people in the senior area what they should do and how they should spend their money.
However, it can work. OLSH, the Catholic school in Alice Springs, has three campuses: junior, middle and senior secondary. If you speak to the principal, he will say: ‘It works. What are you worried about? We would not have it any other way’.
A member interjecting.
Mrs BRAHAM: ‘Absolutely’, said someone over there. It can work. We must not be blinkered and think we have to have the same type of education precinct in every place.
The minister mentioned cluster groups, and they are working. What I like about these cluster groups is they are providing professional development for teachers in remote schools.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, you would know how hard it is to be a teacher in a remote school. You would know how isolated and frustrated they feel working in these conditions. Under cluster groups, principals from town schools now meet in a bush school; they do not always expect bush principals to come into town. It is a different model of giving support, professional development and sharing ideas. Some of those meetings have been highly successful.
I noticed the minister said he is currently developing a new indigenous education plan. I ask the education minister to think broadly again. I had the pleasure at the weekend of visiting Oenpelli for their open day. Whilst there, I met a teacher whom I have known, as he said, ‘for half a century’. I first met him at Papunya when he arrived in the Territory and he has taught at various schools. I said: ‘How are things going?’, which is the usual thing you say to teachers in the bush because we do not appreciate the hard yards they do, particularly in communities that do not have strong leadership. He said: ‘Oh, not as well as we would like. Even though we keep trying to teach English, it is hard. We have a lot of petrol sniffers, and a club that is open six days a week. It is really hard’. I could see how frustrated he was.
I told him about the case of a new head teacher who went to one of our schools in the Centre, and I will not mention where, but he was horrified to find kids in the community walking around sniffing. So he went to the local council and basically got so angry that they would turn a blind eye to all these students who should have been in school who were walking around sniffing petrol. He took out his anger on that council. What did they do? They reacted in the right manner. They then said: ‘We will address this problem’. They took these kids to an outstation to rehabilitate them.
He had a win, so he thought that was good. He then went into the shop and asked: ‘Why are you serving kids when it is school time? You should be telling them to go to school. If you go to Harts Range, you will not find a child on the road, in the shop, out in the playground, they are all in school’. What did the shop keeper say to him? He shrugged his shoulders. That was his answer, a shrug of the shoulders; he could not care less. Is it any wonder bush teachers give up when they are so frustrated with that sort of response from communities?
We have to engage communities more. We keep saying parents, but in remote communities, we are talking about the community as a whole. Think about Areyonga: no school, no pool. Simple. It works. Think of Ali Curung: no school, no after school recreational program, no afternoon tea, no entry into the hall, none of the activities. Look at Mt Allen: parents are contributing each week to a lunch provided by the Women’s Centre. Those kids love it. They line up each day for their lunch. It is the community pulling together. The breakfast program at Yipirinya has been widely lauded because it is getting those kids ready for the start of a day.
If we are going to try to enhance standards and outcomes, if we really expect our head teachers and teachers to do it, we have to ask where their priorities should lie. Should they be social workers, or should it be the community council getting behind them? I say to the minister perhaps he should be looking at community councils and saying to them: ‘Let us get an MOU together. Let us work out what you as a community can do for your school’. Let us see if this community can ensure that kids are fed every day, that kids go to school, that elders and parents go into that school so the students know that they consider school is important. Let us get town kids visiting bush schools, not always bush schools coming into the town schools. Let us start thinking of incentive programs that are already working in our communities. Why does a place like Laramba work? It is because it has a good community council which wants to send their kids to school and to learn.
Instead of pouring resources and thinking that is going to be the end-all to fix it, let us get a bit more creative. Minister, I suggest you start thinking about MOUs between your community and your school, looking at the ones that work, getting some of those good ideas and putting them into practice in other schools.
The statement also dealt with the secondary review. I can understand the frustration of the member for Greatorex and many other people. This has been going on for a long time. In Alice Springs, we have a particular issue. The bill to amalgamate Centralian secondary campus with the CDU slipped through without us realising the implications. I did not realise what this bill was all about and what the effect would be. At the moment, I believe there is an MOU being considered by CDU and DEET, but interestingly enough, parents tell me they do not know of it, they have never seen it, they do not know what it is about. It may be okay to say that parents of university students do not want to get involved with what happens at university, but you cannot say that about parents of secondary kids who want to get involved in their schooling.
The trouble is if you leave Centralian College under CDU, you are taking away any government-run school in Alice Springs. As taxpayers, many parents will say: ‘I do not want my child to go a private school; I want my child to go to a public school’. It is as simple as that. We may end up having not one senior secondary government-run school in Alice Springs. That is a big concern.
Some of the issues raised by parents are: ‘Are we suddenly going to get huge fees?’ Who knows. We do not know. That is the trouble; we do not know what is in this MOU. Parents are asking: ‘Will our students in Year 11 and 12 have the pastoral care they have had in the past?’ It certainly went out the window when they put an exhibition in the library in front of the computers that Years 11 and 12 were using. I found that exhibition a little bit too up-front for secondary students.
At this time of the year when Year 12 is so important, parents are asking: ‘Are our teachers concentrating on what they should be doing with our students, or are they distracted by what is going to happen with this MOU?’
In Alice Springs, we have three private secondary schools: Yirara, OLSH and St Philip’s. We did have Centralian College as our major Year 11 and 12 college. We could end up with four private schools and no general public school for the young people of Alice Springs. That is one of my major concerns.
The other concern that has been raised with me continually is the teachers. Teachers are now not sure where there career path will lead them. If they accept these contracts that are being offered by CDU, where do they go? Where are the career opportunities for a secondary teacher teaching maths in this system? Are they able to go back to DEET? Do they have to give up all their entitlements to go to CDU? What will be their terms and conditions if they transfer? It seems to me that for our professionals, there is no career path if they are locked into this one system with CDU. That is a very big concern for teachers in Alice Springs at the moment, and might I say, for the para-professionals as well. They may be locked into a system that has no career path for them. As well as that, who will provide them with the professional development that they may need? All those things are a mystery, and that is why it has been raised here in Question Time; there are great concerns out there.
For instance, I believe the buildings belong to CDU at the moment under the legislation. All the facilities were given to them. If the minister decides that he is going to retain Centralian College as a government-run secondary school, then he also has the additional problem of all the facilities that are now jointly shared by CDU and Centralian College. If he leaves Centralian College with CDU, who will manage the budget for the secondary students? Will it be swallowed up in the big CDU budget, or will the funding this government gives for secondary-age students be retained and spent on secondary-age students? We do not know, and that is what is causing the confusion. There is no guarantee on anything as regards funding, career paths, and facilities.
What about our other remote schools? What about the schools that share? Students from St Philip’s go to Centralian College for some subjects. Students from OLSH do, too. Are they going to be able to continue to do that?
The minister knows that there are concerns out there. He is taking too long to get on with this. He has to address it: decide what is going to happen to Centralian College one way or the other, and take away the uncertainty. It is the end of August and there are many teachers who have enough stress trying to get their kids through Year 12 exams without having to worry about where their future may be. If they decide not to stay and accept the contract from CDU, where do they go within the current system? What opportunities are there for professionals?
As far as I can see, the minister needs to answer a few questions. I know he keeps saying that he is waiting on the report. I was a little concerned at one of the public meetings that the convenor of the meeting seemed to be seeing very enthusiastic things when I was seeing the reverse. I was seeing concern, no understanding of what was going on, and issues raised whereas she was seeing it quite a different way.
I am pleased the minister is putting in heaps of resources into schools. That is fine. When we talk about building better schools, infrastructure, furniture and school equipment funding, I want to give a plug: the air-conditioning system at Braitling Primary School is over 25 years old. It is noisy and it is an open school. In fact, the level of the noise is higher than acceptable for young students in class rooms. I know it is going to take a lot of money to fix that airconditioning, but that is something I would like the minister to address.
Another issue is Braitling Pre-school. The airconditioning service there is just not adequate for the building. It may have been a fault when it was first built, who knows? It is not adequate, and we need to address it.
What am I saying? Fix the issue of Centralian College. Do not be too blinkered about learning precincts, but do not think one size fits all. When you are looking at the bush and remote schools, get the community behind the school. Take the pressure off those teachers who often feel extremely frustrated and very lonely if they do not have strong community and council support.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I look forward to the minister providing further updates on what is going to happen.
Mr ELFERINK (Macdonnell): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I can advise the member for Nightcliff that I will only be a couple minutes. I am speaking to the amendment.
The minister ran the argument that we have to consult. We have this review back and we have to go through this process of consultation to find out what people are thinking and it is very important that we consult with them very carefully. That is, for this government, becoming code for: ‘Oh, this review was not the answer we wanted, so what we are going to do is go into a review process, of which we are ultimately going to ignore the results anyhow, but what we are going to do is keep it on the back burner until after at least the next election’. The minister is putting time frames on this well into next year now.
We saw the same thing with the alcohol report yesterday. He knows that there is some contentious stuff in it. This government has a choice to govern or to hand over the reins to those who can govern. What is starting to occur, and it is a consistent pattern, is that they are trying too hard to duck and weave their way around difficult issues. They say they are going in to a review process.
After all these reviews and results of reviews, we now have reviews of reviews. The minister says: ‘It is the arrogance of the CLP to waltz in here and start making some decisions’. Well, if the CLP wants to start making some decisions and asking the government for some guarantees, is that such a sin?
During the review process, the whole department sits on hold waiting for the review process to finish. Then the review comes through and people are not happy with some of the recommendations. So the government’s response is to review the review. Everyone else is sitting waiting and twiddling their thumbs while a lot of people do not know what is going on inside the department or with strategic planning. Are we talking about centralisation while the review of the review is going on or are we just sitting on our hands hoping to God that all of this goes away? I think it is the latter.
What the Leader of the Opposition is doing is saying to the government: ‘Let’s make some decisions’. Simple as that; let’s get some guarantees. Let’s attach some basic bottom lines to this. The minister has already signalled that he intends not to make a decision and he is going to let this thing keep going and going and going. The problem is that the review process started when – 2001 or 2002? It is now late 2004 and it is still going. The department sits on hold waiting for a clear direction, budgets are chewed up on an annual basis without a clear sense of direction, and teachers on the coal face are stuck without a clear sense of direction as is management. They are all sitting there looking at the minister, saying: ‘Do something’. The minister looks down at his department and says: ‘What? What should I do? I, I, I will not make a decision’.
This is an invitation by the Leader of the Opposition, and a very good one, for the minister to make a decision. I invite the minister to step up to the batter’s plate and do exactly that: make a decision.
Mrs AAGAARD (Nightcliff): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I rise to speak to the original statement fulfilling our commitment to education three year’s on, however, I may make a few comments on the proposed amendment.
Education is something for which I have always had a passion. A good education together with a strong family are probably the two things that ensure a child has the best possible opportunities in their life. Over my life, I have seen a significant difference in outcomes for many people who have not had these opportunities, and I am pleased that our government is working to improve our education system so that our children can get the best possible start in life.
As the member for Nightcliff, I spend a considerable amount of my time working with schools in my area and it is one of the most valuable and enjoyable experiences as a local member. It has given me the opportunity to become further involved with the teachers, parents and students at the nine schools in my area: Nightcliff High School, Nightcliff Primary School, the Essington School, St Paul’s Catholic School, the Milkwood Steiner School, the Greek Orthodox School of the Northern Territory, the Northern Territory School of Music and the School of Languages.
I take this opportunity to thank the parents and teachers who work so hard for our children in our schools, especially the Principal of Nightcliff Primary School, Mr Steve Marshall, the Chair of the Nightcliff Primary School Council, Mr Byron Olstad, and Deputy Chair, Mr Murray Fuller; the Principal of Nightcliff High School, Mr Paul Atkinson, School Council Chair, Mrs Rosemary Campbell and Deputy Chair, Mr William Bean; Principal of the Essington School, Mr David Cannon and Chair of the Essington Board, Mr John McLaren and Vice Chair, Mr Phil Donohoe; Principal of St Paul’s, Mrs Mary Cutjar, Council Chairperson, Mr Graeme Shaw and Parents and Friends President, Mr Mark Bruton; the Chairperson of the Milkwood Steiner School, Mr Michael Wells; Principal of the Greek School, Mr John Skoufezis and the President of the Greek School, Mr Sam Hatzivalsamis.
This amazing variety of schools is representative of the options that parents want for their children: a solid, well resourced public system, a strong independent and Catholic system as well as specialist schools for ethnic communities and special subjects. There is no doubt that parents and students in Nightcliff are very fortunate that there are so many options for their children in the area.
I have three children in the Territory education system, with my daughter at Nightcliff Primary and my sons at Nightcliff High School. My eldest son is moving on to Casuarina Senior College next year. Over the years I have served on school councils, like many parents, in Nightcliff, and prior to that at my former home in Karama, and continue to serve as a parent member on both the Nightcliff Primary School Council and the Nightcliff High School Council. I also spent many years on the Kormilda College Board, so have a good practical knowledge of both the public and the independent education systems.
There can be no doubt that the commitment demonstrated by this government to education and training issues is bearing fruit and improvements to both student outcomes and the system as a whole. The government’s fulfilment of our pledge to introduce 100 additional teachers has allowed strong support for key programs. For example, the provision of 11 additional teachers to assist with behaviour management in schools brings teaching resources directly to schools, but does not impact on the staffing formula. In that case, the 11 teachers will work with hundreds of other teachers and students in projects designed to bring new skills and a new focus to this difficult and perennial issue. I was very pleased to note that one of these teachers is placed at Nightcliff High School.
Let me add to this point that Nightcliff High School is in a state of significant reform. Earlier this year, Nightcliff High School received very negative and totally unwarranted publicity regarding its Real Justice program. This is an outstanding program that has been used in many other places throughout the world with real success. Given that this received so much publicity, I felt it important to talk a little about this program because I know that it is something that will be looked at in other schools around the Territory.
Real Justice, of course, is used not just in schools but by police, courts, correctional services, colleges and universities. A Real Justice conference can be used in lieu of traditional disciplinary or justice processes or, where that is not appropriate, as a supplement to those processes. Conference facilitators stick to a simple script and keep the conference on focus, but are not active participants. A conference is far more productive and rewarding than the current means of responding to wrong doing.
In the conference, the facilitator asks the offenders to tell what they did and what they were thinking about when they did it. The facilitator then asks victims and their family members and friends to tell them about the incident from their perspective and how it affected them. The offender’s family and friends are asked to do the same. Finally, the victim is asked what he or she would like to be the outcome of the conference. Their response is discussed with the offender and everyone else at the conference and, when agreement is reached, a simple contract is written and signed.
This is a very complex system, one that is harder to put in place than the previous system of discipline that is still used in many schools. I congratulate Nightcliff High School for putting this in place. In particular, I place on the record my support for the Principal of Nightcliff High School, Mr Paul Atkinson who has been the Principal since last year and is working hard to improve outcomes for students as well as working on new and interesting ways of teaching, such as the Innov8 program, which started this year for Year 8 students at Nightcliff High School.
Negative comments made by the Leader of the Opposition earlier this year about Nightcliff High School and a very destructive letter sent to people in my electorate about the school were received very badly in the Nightcliff community. Parents, teachers and students were very upset by the negative way in which the opposition presented our community’s school. It is very disappointing that the opposition would use a community school in this way.
Similarly, this afternoon, the Leader of the Opposition made references to reports. He said that parents seemed to have no knowledge of what reports mean. I was somewhat stunned by that. With children in two schools, I would have to say that teachers go to extraordinary lengths to make sure that reports tell parents what it is that children are experiencing at school. Certainly at Nightcliff Primary School, there has been a process in the last year whereby reports have been refined, and I know that parents have been very happy with the changes in those reports. I am also very pleased with the reports that come from Nightcliff High School as, indeed, I was with reports from Kormilda College when my son was at that school. It is very sad that the Leader of the Opposition would make comments that malign the good work of teachers in our schools.
I know that this is a very serious digression, but I was somewhat surprised by the comments about the age of consent by the Leader of the Opposition. Goodness knows this is a very controversial area, but I do not believe that really relates to the minister’s education statement. However, as a mother who has a son who has just turned 16, I think that 16-year-olds these days are so different from 16-year-olds when I was growing up. While I would like to say of my son that I hope he would not be wanting to consent to sexual activity, could he make that kind of decision? Would he have the capacity to do so? Absolutely! I would have to say the same applies to all of his friends.
This is something the government has done that shows we are in step with what our young people are doing and we are recognising their capacity and responsibilities as young people. I know it is controversial, I know it is difficult. I personally am quite a conservative person so I would be saying to my own son: ‘I hope that you are deciding no’, but I believe that young people today are able to make that kind of decision. The Leader of the Opposition needs to get out and talk to a few more teenagers and find out the kinds of things they are actually doing.
Over the last few years, I have been particularly impressed by the addition of resources to the teaching and availability of information technology in our schools. The 100 teacher program has provided four teachers for learning and technology projects in schools. In Nightcliff, both the primary school and the high school are lighthouse schools for technology. Teachers at these schools work intensively with students to innovatively teach and use technology in the schools.
In addition to funding important programs such as this, the government has boosted band width to the schools; $500 000 in additional money has been injected over the last few years to increase band width and the minister has raised the issue of extending band width at a national level with his federal counterpart.
Another significant contribution to the wellbeing of the schools has come from the determination of this minister and the government to improve the equipment available to schools. In February this year, the government announced a special, one-off $1m expenditure on school equipment and a further $1m expenditure in furniture for teacher housing. Both initiatives have been welcomed by teachers and school communities.
In my own schools of Nightcliff Primary and Nightcliff High, it meant $11 004 and $8431 respectively, and I know that this was very well received at those schools. This comes on top of a minor new works program that has been quite extensive. Nightcliff schools have benefited both from the repairs and maintenance program and minor new works. The basketball courts have shade coverage, funded this financial year, and the plant room has been converted into a teaching area at Nightcliff Primary.
I also provide my strong support to the minister’s focus on literacy and numeracy. Prior to this government coming to office it was not compulsory for remote schools to do the multilevel assessment program testing, or MAP testing. Why is a mystery to me, except that it is evidence that there was no commitment to outcomes in the bush. In my own electorate, I congratulate the students and their teachers at Nightcliff Primary School and the Essington School, whose results in MAP testing have been excellent.
This government requires all schools to have a literacy plan, and is spending a considerable amount of money providing resources to an Accelerated Literacy Program. The minister’s announcement this week of an additional 12 teaching positions focussed on the accelerated literacy program is an excellent move.
As both a member of parliament and a parent, I want literacy and numeracy to be the cornerstone of the outcomes of our schools. They are not the only outcomes, they are not the whole product of schools, but they are a very important part of providing each and every child with a decent opportunity in life, and that, to me, is real social justice.
Failure by the previous government to implement the Learning Lessons report was a significant lapse in judgment. Clearly, the report was widely welcomed and accepted, even by the then government, but no money was focussed on it and no resources allocated. I am not sure why.
Clearly, one of the fundamental educational problems facing our community is outcomes in bush communities. These have to be lifted. In addition, the issues of indigenous education now have a wider resonance. Indigenous students are almost 50% of the total government system across the board. In suburban communities, the proportion of indigenous kids at schools is between 50% and 60%. Tackling indigenous education issues is no longer a specialist niche; it is core business and mainstream. This government has recognised that, and I congratulate the minister on his work on this area.
There are other issues on which the minister touched about which I wish to speak briefly. I am strongly supportive of the attendance officers that have been put into place by the government. These eight people are performing a difficult job and doing it well. The work being done by the officer in Sanderson, combined with the schools involved, will make a big difference to the lives of many people. It is critical that we reconnect those young people with the education system. It will mean greater opportunity for them to participate fully in our community later in their lives.
I should add the government has put considerable resources into young people to assist them to a better life. In my area, there are youth programs for after school, with the Energy Cruise activities; in Darwin, we have the Youth Beat run by Mission Australia to help with homeless and youth at risk; and there are school breakfast programs for kids in remote areas. These school breakfast programs are not simply a matter of welfare. Parents pay to have the program put in place, and those of them who are on benefits from the federal government have a certain amount taken out each fortnight so that they are taking active part in the preparation of these breakfast programs. Many of the parents are also involved in the preparation of breakfasts. It is a wonderful program and I am hoping that, over the next few years, we will see some very significant changes in the number of children going to school in those remote areas, particularly in their health outcomes. All these services work to improve the lives of young people and encourage better educational and life outcomes.
Work is also being done on alternative provision of education. Clearly, for some young people the traditional class room approach is not going to work. Alternative means of engaging these students must be found if we are to prevent them from being on the outer of society later. I congratulate Nightcliff High School for leading the way with its new Innov8 program, which shows that there are other ways of teaching and requires students to take greater responsibility for themselves.
I was recently at a Year 8 parent forum at Nightcliff High School, and I was delighted by the challenges and skills being learnt and presented to our kids. Students are learning to use their time properly, to be organised and, generally, to make sure that they are for fulfilling the requirements of the course. This is a shift from teacher-directed schooling to student-directed schooling. This is the way forward for education in the Northern Territory.
The commitment of teaching positions from the 100 teachers across the Territory and $500 000 additional funding means these students will be given every opportunity to be engaged in learning.
I was very pleased to hear of the recent announcement of two new permanent teachers at the Northern Territory School of Music. This is a very valuable school delivering excellent tuition to students right across the Territory. I was concerned recently to hear that a $80 000 grant from the Commonwealth to this important school was not forthcoming, leaving the tuition for some students up in the air. I thank the minister for the providing this new funding for these positions that will allow continuation of this excellent work under the expert guidance of the Principal, Nora Lewis, and Deputy Principal, Graham Chadwick.
The minister referred to the Jobs Plan as being an important commitment fulfilled by the government. This commitment has the potential to provide a significant long-term change to the Northern Territory. Until this plan was put into place, there was a dearth of real labour market information and the lack of a focussed training strategy. No one really knew where to put the training dollar. The minister has concluded that this cannot be the way of the future, so he has taken several actions to remedy the situation.
First, he extended vocational education and training down to 14 year-olds in schools, recognising that we need to engage people younger in real training. Second, he created the division of Employment in the old education and training agency. This division is being staffed with significant resources to put these issues to a real test and the Assistant Secretary for Employment, Mr John Hassed has also been appointed.
Third, the minister, in his capacity as Minister for Public Employment, started driving key employment strategies through the public sector. For example, the government is committed to an indigenous employment strategy that should see the level of indigenous employment lift significantly in the coming years. His fourth action has been to pull together a comprehensive Jobs Plan that has real training strategies, links the government’s job effort to overall whole-of-government strategies and provides significant incentives for employers to hire more staff.
Finally, the minister committed the government to increasing the number of its trainees. These actions mean the government is placing a much more concerted effort in its goal for a skilled and trained work force. This will make a significant difference to our future.
There is much more in education and training on which I could comment. Suffice to say the core commitment from the government when in opposition was to place education and training up in lights as a priority issue for government.
I want to make some comments on the proposed amendments, which are disappointing. The minister has made it absolutely clear that there is a consultation process about to happen for two months, and the issues being canvassed in the proposed amendments are still to be discussed as part of the next part of the consultation. I am absolutely certain that the minister will present a further statement for us to properly debate at an appropriate time. However, at this stage, all of these things are the subject of consultation and the minister is waiting to hear back about those consultations. It would be premature to make any further comment.
Ms CARTER (Port Darwin): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I rise to speak in support of the opposition’s proposed amendment. The reason the opposition has put this proposed amendment is an effort to have the government let us all know what it plans to do. There is so much uncertainty in the school community, in particular, and across our community generally. I know, for example, at some schools in my electorate the current hiatus has put on hold their strategic planning. This is causing considerable cynical debate at school council meetings, which I attend regularly.
Specifically turning to the proposed amendment, the opposition is calling on the government to keep the Open Education Centre operating. My understanding from talking to some of the people working there is that they are very disappointed in the short period of time the reviewers spent with them and the very scant information that staff believe the reviewers used in order to make their recommendations.
Quite frankly, it is my impression from talking to staff that they feel gutted, as hard workers and high achievers, by the insult of this review’s recommendations in relation to the NTOEC. There have been a number of achievements from students living in remote areas based on the hard work of our Open Education Centre staff. To be advised by this review that instead of having a Territory-based service, we are going to have the services of a South Australia entity is something that has been very upsetting.
Last week when I was door knocking in my electorate, I met someone associated with the Open Education Centre. It is her understanding that quite recently, the department sent staff to South Australia to liaise with people in order to gain information to better prepare the department to make the decision to get rid of the Northern Territory Open Education Centre. That sort of information is causing a great deal of stress.
I noted with interest the minister’s comments about arrogance and the CLP and the way we have dealt with things in the past, apparently. I put on the record the arrogance of the Chief Minister in respect of the Open Education Centre. I am reliably informed that she was quizzed by a constituent over the closing of the Open Education Centre and this constituent said to the Chief Minister: ‘I have always voted Labor, but I work at the Open Education Centre and I am dismayed that you are now going to close it and because of this decision by your government I am not going to vote Labor at the next election’. Apparently the Chief Minister said to this woman, ‘Well, you are only one vote’.
If that is not the height of arrogance, I don’t know what is. That has been reliably reported to me. It is an appalling thing for the Chief Minister to say to a constituent. I hope it is wrong. I hope it is incorrect. I was astounded, but it has been reliably reported to me. It is a story doing the rounds because I picked it up on the street last Saturday afternoon.
With regards to the proposal to introduce learning precincts, along with the opposition, I reject this proposal. It will not only create logistic difficulties for schools, students and parents, but it aims to decrease the power of school councils.
The CLP has a proud history of devolving power from a centralised bureaucracy to schools over the last 10 years or so of our time in government. I remember the concerns that this caused at the school level when it happened. Since I have had the honour of being the member for Port Darwin, I have been invited into schools and regularly attend school council meetings in my electorate. It has been wonderful to see the way school councils grapple with very interesting issues, not just like it was when my parents went to school council meetings and the only issues were uniforms and the tuck shop. Nowadays, school councils deal with a whole range of issues, particularly financial issues, and it gives the councils a great deal of influence over the way the school is operating. It is my view, and that of CLP, that the introduction of learning precincts across the board is going to see a concentration of power back to the bureaucracy. If that does happen, it is going to be very interesting to hear the government’s explanation as to why such a retrograde move is necessary.
My question to the minister and the government is: could you provide us with information on where learning precincts are operating in the world and how they are achieving things? I am not aware of them being used anywhere and it would be very interesting to have that information.
I also reject the idea of transferring Year 10 to Casuarina Senior College. The reason I object is because I know that it is going to cause a retraction of the curriculum subjects available to students at Nightcliff, Sanderson and Dripstone High Schools. Everyone knows that what attracts students and parents to certain schools is the breadth of the curriculum.
That, for example, is why Darwin High School, which is the feeder high school for my electorate, is such a popular school and year after year has to turn students away. It is because of the broad curriculum and the high achievement of its students. My concern is that if we move Year 10 students from those northern suburb high schools to Casuarina Secondary College, we are going to see a contraction of the curriculum at those high schools and that will cause a trickle down effect to all year levels in those high schools and cause considerable distress. If you move Year 10 to Casuarina Senior College, it will change the nature of the school and I know the school would have concerns because the school is a senior college.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I urge all members to think carefully about the opposition’s proposed amendment and to support it.
Ms LAWRIE (Karama): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, it is interesting to see the level of contribution in this debate by the opposite side of the Chamber.
The opposition proposes an amendment that is pre-emptive of consideration of widespread public consultation throughout the Territory. They are narrow in their focus on the secondary review of education, but they are very narrow in their perspective on most issues that come before this Chamber. It is disappointing that they want to ignore the outcome of wide-ranging consultation and pre-empt that process.
I support our minister for saying that it is just another sign of CLP arrogance because that is what the proposed amendment is: a cheap political stunt to try and whip up more fear and loathing in our communities instead of being able to comprehensively assess the pros and cons contained within the review.
The secondary review is an important document. Most of us here have read it thoroughly. Most of us here have participated in wide-ranging discussions at our school community level, with school councils, teachers, parents and I have had secondary students discuss the pros and cons of it. At one of the public hearings I attended, a report back on some of the consultations to date said that, for example, in Katherine, already the school community was saying how excited they were by the idea of a learning precinct and they were really starting to hit the ground running on modelling what kind of learning precinct could occur.
Here, the CLP is saying: ‘Let us ignore the wishes of Katherine. We have already made up our minds up; we just want to ram through a negative’ - yet again. That is disappointing. I had hoped for a better sense of maturity from the opposition. Unfortunately, we are still seeing the arrogance that they so easily slip back into because that is the nature of the way they have approached issues in the past.
I am proud to be part of a very different government, one that is keen to engage in consultation and is keen to consider the outcomes of that consultation. I thank Sheila O’Sullivan and her team for going out to so many different sites in the Territory, and for listening to the range of opinions coming through. It is not going to be a Darwin-centric result. Obviously, as a member of an electorate in Darwin, I am very focussed on what I am hearing in my area, but I am also, as a Territorian, interested to hear the views of people, say, in Alice Springs, Katherine, Maningrida and throughout the Territory.
I look forward to the outcomes of those consultations and participating in considered discussion within government about the outcomes of the consultation. I, for one, am delighted that our government has not gone in with a closed view on what should occur. We have allowed a review process to be innovative, we have encouraged the innovation, we have not tried to meddle in it, we have not tried to distort it, and it really has been a broad-ranging and interesting outcome in terms of the review document, and even more interesting listening to the range of views and new ideas arising from the consultations.
I commend my school communities. Manunda Terrace wrote a very detailed response to the review document and that has been forwarded to the consultation team. Malak School Council also provided a very thorough response to the review document. I participated in a school council meeting at Sanderson High School where they discussed the review at some length, and they had really interesting things to say, some supportive of some aspects of it, some against other aspects. It was great to see that level of debate and interest.
It can only serve to enhance our understanding and our interest in the delivery of quality education in the Territory. In itself, it has been a rewarding process in which to participate. It is useful to have a look at how you do things; it is useful to consider how, perhaps, you could do things better. The example of improving support for professionalism in the sector has been widely regarded as a positive recommendation. There are aspects of this review that people have been welcoming. As in any review, there will be aspects that will be contentious. Fortunately, I am part of a government that has not gone in with a fixed view on the contentious aspects.
It is interesting that opposition members are jumping to talk on the proposed amendments but are steering clear of the substance of the minister’s statement. I wonder whether that is because there is such enormous progress occurring in the delivery of resources in education that they are somewhat shamed by the paucity of resources with which they left the education system and the amount of catch-up that this government has been doing by pumping resources into the sector.
Within year three of government, we are meeting that fantastic election promise of 100 additional teachers. I congratulate our minister on having worked with his department on the implementation of that crucial promise. As we heard in the statement, there are already some 60 positions that have been filled and an additional 40 teachers are currently being recruited.
I applaud, in particular, the 20 new special education positions that are part of this promise. Special education has been significantly under-staffed and under-resourced in our school system for some years. I do not say that in a political way, but in practical knowledge of the impact that has had on children requiring special education expertise, on parents who have been frustrated trying to get special education assistance for their children who have significant needs, and the frustration of teachers who need assistance from special education teachers I have witnessed in the school system and the principals who have had to put up the good fight on behalf of the school and the teachers, to try to draw on a the inadequate special education resource that existed in the Territory. It is wonderful to hear of the 20 new special education positions. I know that, as bad as things were in the urban centres, they were far worse in regional and remote areas. I note that the minister has been very even-handed in ensuring that these resources are spread throughout the Territory.
I congratulate the minister for the five teachers employed as assistant principals for group schools. I have heard from principals in my area over some years that these additional positions are necessary. They have a very important role to play in the education system and, so it is heartening to see the provision of the five teachers as assistant principals for group schools.
The five teachers for the Alternative Education Program have made significant inroads already to delivering education services for some 60 students on their books, students who, members would be aware from the minister’s statement, had previously been outside the education system. Alternative education is a very innovative program, and I believe it will have significant long-term benefits for the Territory. I encourage the department to continue and, if possible, fast-track efforts to find a site in Darwin’s northern suburbs from which to run the Alternative Education program. I have had the pleasure of meeting with some of these Alternative Education teachers. I am left in no doubt as to their fantastic skills, passion and ability in this area, and I am very confident of the outcomes of these Alternative Education Programs. If they could start to deliver literacy and numeracy skills to kids who have been outside the education system for most of their life, that is a fantastic outcome in itself. I know that once the kids have built up their skills, there is an improvement in access to VET programs, for example, that they could stream into because we are largely talking about teenagers in the Alternative Education pool of students.
I congratulate the minister on the 10 positions for English as a Second Language. ESL teachers are critical throughout the Territory because they work with our indigenous and multicultural students. We know we have significant populations of both in the Territory and ESL teachers make the difference between success and failure in terms of education outcomes for these students. The ESL teachers I have met working, for example, at Anula Primary School are fantastic professionals. I congratulate the minister and his department for creating 10 new positions in ESL and encourage them to increase ESL capacity in the Territory. We can only benefit as a community from additional ESL teachers. They do have specialist expertise, and they enhance other teachers in the system to be able to teach students who do not require ESL so there is a double benefit to increasing ESL teacher numbers.
It is great to see the four teachers for learning and technology in our schools. With the introduction of LATIS, technology has had an increasingly important role in our school system and, rather than load up the teachers that we have, it is really important to provide them with additional teachers for the information and technology area to provide that specialist knowledge. I have seen that working well in the system and I congratulate the minister for identifying the need for those information technology specialists.
I have already seen benefits flowing this financial year in respect of the 40 positions to be allocated. The 11 teachers for behaviour management in schools have already hit the ground. There are two teachers working in my electorate. They branch across two schools; they work part-time in those schools two days a week per school and one day a week back in the Student Services division of the department. Karama Primary is benefiting from two days a week and, separately, Malak Primary is benefiting from two days a week. They are called ‘wellbeing positions’. They are innovative in their approach; they are specific to the school’s needs. When I say ‘school’s needs’, they work with students, teachers and school council to identify innovative approaches, whether it is for individual students, a class room model, or a whole-of-school community model to improve the wellbeing of students and the school community. We heard the minister say that jurisdictions interstate are interested in this. It is very innovative and I find it very exciting. I have heard very positive feedback from teachers and school council parents about these positions. I congratulate the minister for the funding for this.
I am looking forward to seeing the 12 positions for literacy teachers to expand the government’s accelerated literacy program. Like most people, I have been encouraged by the reports we have heard about the success of accelerated literacy that has occurred in the pilot programs in other schools. I know that Manunda, Karama and Malak schools in my electorate would certainly benefit from accelerated literacy programs. I congratulate the minister for funding 12 additional positions to expand that program. It is really great to see pilots tested, work and then be expanded, and that is a sensible approach for the department and the minister to take.
In terms of attendance officers, I note that the member for Greatorex was very down about the role of attendance officers and quite sceptical about whether they were of any benefit. I can say through experience, because we have had an attendance officer at Sanderson High School since early in the school year, they are of great benefit. They are working with school counsellors, teachers and people in the community to ensure that we are improving the attendance of students at school. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to put the two together: if you have improved attendance, you have improved educational outcomes. It was disappointing to hear the constant harping from opposite, but it is an area they ignored so it might be an area that they want to continue to put down. It is a concern and it might be part of their policy to withdraw the attendance officers. I would be interested to hear of their commitment to their role.
I congratulate the minister for the behaviour management that is occurring in schools. As I said, the programs operating at Karma and Malak are really fantastic.
The statement sets out our government’s commitment to improve literacy and numeracy for Territory students; making every government school document a literacy and numeracy plan is extremely useful. They are tools that focus the school on the delivery of its literacy and numeracy and, as we all know, we have not had a fantastic record in the Territory with literacy and numeracy. I am really expecting to see, with the resources mentioned in the statement, an improvement in coming years. We know we have a long path to walk to improve literacy and numeracy, but it is great to see a lot of the funding heading into this area to improve it.
I congratulate the government for making considered progress on the implementation of the Learning Lessons report. We know the Collins report was a watershed in identifying indigenous education needs and issues throughout the Territory. We know that it sat on the shelf under the CLP government, and it is great to see core implementation of Learning Lessons. It will enhance the Territory as a whole. We need to improve education outcomes in the non-urban areas of the Territory and it is really heartening to see that occurring through the implementation of the Collins report, Learning Lessons.
We can debate the Secondary Education Report forever, but, as I said, it has been a very useful report to reassess where we are in the delivery of secondary education and where we need to head. If we can bed down the professionalism aspects within that report, then I say that was money well spent. It has been a pleasure to participate many discussions on that.
The focus that the minister has placed on jobs and training and having the ability to streamline from education to jobs and training has been a tremendous focus of this government. We are the first government to have a Jobs Plan. We are the first government to pump significant dollars into VET in schools. The figure of $980 000 in 2004 alone is a very impressive amount to put into VET in our schools.
Schools such as Sanderson High are brilliant places to be looking at delivering increased VET training and education while at school. I know that many students in my electorate will benefit from increased access to VET. I was born and educated in Darwin. I have watched many of my friends go through training in apprenticeships and they have made a lot of money in their trades. Indeed, many of them own blocks down at Dundee, own impressive boats and they are far wealthier than I, and I went into a profession. There is a lot of economic success to be had in entering trades. I congratulate the minister for providing increased opportunities for school-based apprenticeships and traineeships, up by some 180 this year alone.
It is good to see the specialised vocational education and training Taster Program being developed at CDU and Kormilda, focussing on some 45 to 50 indigenous students. If we can get more indigenous students reconnecting with school training and moving into trades in which we know we have skill shortages, there is going to be an enormous benefit to our community.
This is a very good statement from the minister. He is a minister who continues to update this House on the benefits of education, training and employment opportunities for young Territorians. It is innovative in many ways. It is trying to create a wellbeing in our education system that was previously lacking. I congratulate the minister for that.
I look forward to continuing to work with my local schools. We have a vibrant school community in the Karama electorate; wonderful schools of Manunda Terrace, Malak, Karama, and Sanderson High. We also benefit from some non-government schools as well. Our schools come together on occasion and celebrate the identity of the community, which, as we know, is highly multicultural and has a significant urban indigenous population. Having seven schools in the electorate does mean that I spend a lot of time on education issues, and I am hearing very different messages from school communities than the opposition. They are excited about education in the Territory. They are delighted with the education resources being pumped in by this government, and they are very grateful for the laptops that have just been delivered to our teachers.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Nelson, you may speak on the ministerial statement or on the proposed amendment.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I would like to start on a positive note, by saying that the schools in and around my area are really top schools. The morale of people in those schools, and that is not saying there aren’t some issues from time to time, the way teachers and staff work with the students, the way the schools are part of the community is a real credit to the schools.
I have two schools in my electorate, Howard Springs and Girraween Primary, but on the boundary in the seat of Goyder, I have Humpty Doo, Bees Creek, Litchfield Christian School, St Francis of Assisi and Taminmin High School, and of course, children from both electorates go to all those schools. From my time on some of the school councils or going to school assemblies or community days, you get a great feeling that these schools really do work in our community.
We are looking at changes in secondary education which also affect primary schools. I am not here to debate the proposed amendment, but I can say that on some issues, my mind is made up and on others, I have not yet decided.
However, I look at the schools I say: ‘These schools aren’t broke, so why change them?’ They seem to be doing well. Unless somebody in education can say that the standard of literacy and numeracy in these schools is well below the level, I would be asking: ‘Why change what we have?’ For sure, we might be looking at moving Year 7 into secondary school. I do not have a problem with that. From a recent meeting with one of the schools, they argued that, for the sake of sheer consistency in the Northern Territory, Year 7 should be in secondary schools.
We have great schools in our community. If there is no need to change them, I question: why bother? Do we need a major upheaval in these schools that might risk the way they operate today? I was at Taminmin High School last Saturday night for the Debutante Ball, and there are not too many debutante balls in this day and age. The students organised the Debutante Ball, and it was a great evening. Parents came to watch their children dressed up and dance the night away. Schools like Taminmin are special. There is no other school like Taminmin High School in the whole of the Northern Territory.
Mr Maley: Special graduates, too, mate.
Mr WOOD: Thank you. The member for Goyder has just told us that he passed Year 12 at Taminmin High School. The standards were fairly low then, Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, but they have lifted since the Principal, Mr Kim Rowe, took over there. They have certainly advanced.
Mr Stirling: Absolutely!
Mr WOOD: That is right. It is a great school and has an agricultural flavour to it. Something I have said time and again is that I hope any changes to the secondary school education process, especially through the upgrading of high school education in Palmerston, will not affect what has been achieved in the last few years by the principal and his staff in lifting the standard of education in Taminmin. It is a special school; it reflects the rural amenity of the area. It has a great VET course, and as I have mentioned before, they now have a great choir under the conductorship, if you can call it that, of Ms Tanya Ham. It is a school that I want to keep improving. I fear that if we are not careful and if some of the recommendations of the education report go ahead, some of those things might be at risk.
I would like to speak on a few other issues. The minister mentioned attendance officers, which are a great idea. Recently, as people might know, during the Anzac Day cricket at which where we celebrate the importance of the Army in the community and remember those who have fallen as well as raise money for Legacy, we had two people come out from Ohio. They were school teachers who are relations of Captain Al Strauss, the American pilot who was killed after whom the airstrip is named. They were Judi and Payden Green, the niece and grand-niece of Captain Strauss. They teach at a high school in the town of Marysville, Ohio. It is no different from any other school around the place.
When Judi Green came to speak at Taminmin High School, she spoke in front of the whole school assembly. The school, at that time, had just decided to adopt Strauss Airstrip. When she spoke, those kids listened to every word she had to say because she was able to relate to them and they are no different from the kids at Marysville High School. I thank the minister for granting permission for her to visit the Attendance Officer at Palmerston High School who is a young Aboriginal lady, whose name I have forgotten. Judi and Payden were impressed by the program in Palmerston.
Palmerston certainly has some problems with children attending school. The idea of attendance officers is great one. It is a difficult job and certainly needs the right type of person to do it because some of these things we might call jobs, I sometimes call - if you have the right person in them - a vocation in life. It is a bit like nursing; if you get the right person, they have a belief that they are doing some good in their community. The lady at Palmerston, and the gentleman whose name also I cannot recall, who was also helping with the program. I thank the minister for that, and I know the two American visitors were quite impressed.
Minister, you also mentioned the two music teachers. I welcome that you have approved the extra music teachers in the Darwin region. As I said before, music is a subject that should be compulsory. We should have music teachers as full-time teachers in our schools, not part of the formula, but separate music teachers.
I would like to know, even though those two music teachers will be employed in this financial year, what will happen to our students who, at present, do not have music lessons because the PTIs or part time instructors have not yet been re-employed. There are quite a few children in rural schools who are not playing drums or guitar any more. They were playing them in the first term and maybe in the second term, but they are not playing them now. That needs to be examined. Still, I thank the minister for adding two extra music teachers.
I asked a question recently about Special Education teachers in relation to a visually-impaired student. I still have a concern. I had a phone call from another lady in the rural area who was wondering what is happening. She was very concerned. I would like the minister to personally have a look at whether there are issues in that area. Have the jobs been advertised for the vacancies? How many people are working on the ground in the area? This lady contacted me on Tuesday of this week and was quite distraught about what she thought was lacking in the area. I ask that the minister double check that things are okay.
Apprenticeships: always a subject for which I have a lot of time. I am not a fan, believe it or not, of apprenticeships being run from Charles Darwin University. I believe very much in the old system of technical schools attached to a high school, but in the suburbs where kids live, work and play. That is where they should be.
I was speaking to one of our few manufacturing employers in the rural area. He works at the Humpty Doo industrial area and makes rainwater tanks. He makes polypipe, which is used for irrigation. He also designs moulds of rainwater tanks for South Australian companies. Here is a bloke not only developing industry in the Northern Territory, polypipe and rainwater tanks, he is selling moulds to South Australian companies for them to make rainwater tanks. He told me it is difficult to find apprentices who really love their job. The old way was you swept the floor for the first three months, but apprentices had a real liking for their job. That is fairly generalised, but I think what he meant is that they had a love for what they did and would go to the nth degree to ensure the job is as close to perfection as possible. He said it is a pity that some of that seems to have disappeared today. I do not know what you can do about it, or whether it is the way we now teach apprentices, whether those people do not have the same feeling for a trade as people in years gone by, but he felt that is one of the problems.
I am moving around a bit here, minister. I am interested in whether you have any information on the future of Batchelor Institute. I have heard a number of rumours. One is that it will possibly move to the Summer Institute of Linguistics land in Berrimah or it will move to the Charles Darwin University campus at Palmerston or it may stay where it is. Either way, it will be interesting to know what is being discussed for the future of Batchelor not only because it would be a major upheaval for the institute, but from a Batchelor economy point of view, it would be a major drain on the economy of a small town like that.
Had I more time, I would have tried to do the figures, but basically the Territory over the last few years has not increased in population. We may have some more children in schools but there has not been a substantial increase. I would be interested to know whether our education bureaucracy has increased so much that it is out of kilter with what it used to be. In other words, are we putting more money into the bureaucratic side of schools than the physical side of teaching and resources in the schools?
I will probably be murdered by the educationalists, but we spend an awful lot of money on the theory, then I hear results that our literacy figures are not up to national standards and I say: ‘What is the problem? If we had all these people thinking up all these bright ideas over the last umpteen years, how come nothing has improved?’ Maybe we need to be spending more money on the ground rather the academic side. That is not to say we do not need it, but I wonder whether we are buried in theory and do not have enough in practice.
I am also interested in the behavioural management programs, which are very good. I have heard about discussions at Humpty Doo Primary School. They have a program, as does Girraween, about respect. They try to invoke this idea that if you expect someone to respect you, you must respect the other person. At Humpty Doo, they call it the Tribes Program, which seems to be a very good one.
Many issues in the statement are important. We talk about numeracy and literacy. It would be good every six months to have a report that can tell us at what stage we are with numeracy and literacy, especially in Aboriginal schools. We need regular reporting because there are many statements made in this House that say we are doing this or that, we are spending this, we have this program. The only way you going prove whether anything has changed is to say: ‘We have lifted the level’. From a parliamentary point of view, we need to see those figures to say: ‘Okay, we believe at that what you’re doing is right’. However, if it is not happening, we should be questioning whether we are heading in the right direction.
You mentioned secondary education. The only thing I would like to raise on that is that, and I think the member for Braitling mentioned something about private and government schools - I don’t call them private schools; to me, private schools are Scotch College, Melbourne Grammar and Xavier College. I went to a Catholic school and, I can tell you, with 40 or 50 kids in the class, it was not exactly what you would call a Scotch College or Melbourne Grammar. I call them ‘independent schools’. My parents paid for my education and we basically paid for the school. It took many years of chook raffles to pay for it. It may not be done that way now because there is more government funding towards it …
Members interjecting.
Mr WOOD: Some of them are? Did I hear bats in the belfry? I certainly heard something.
There are people out there who want to make a choice. The good thing about having various types of education is it gives us variety. I know there people who do not think that a non-government schools will get a razoo. They say: ‘That is your choice and too bad’, but that is the value of education in Australia. We do have variety of education and that is important.
Many people who send their kids to independent schools have trouble doing it because they have to pay the fees. I know there is a lot of talk about government schools receiving the same money as independent schools. I asked the question in Estimates Committee last year: ‘How much per child does each school receive?’ I think the answer was something like $12 per child in a government school and about $8 per child in a non-government school. Parents have to find the gap.
Sometimes, there is a lot of rhetoric. I support public schools. I just quoted six out of eight schools that are great schools in my area. At the same time, I support non-government schools because they do a great job, too. They all have their roles in our community. The sad thing is we are now going down the old path of state versus religious schools, and that is sad. We should be working together. Schools in my area work together. We should be working towards the goal of educating our children. Schools have different goals; they strive for different values and that is part of the mix that is important education.
Minister, I mention this every year: I wonder when there will ever be any infrastructure funding for a possible Catholic high school near the corner of Lambrick and the Stuart Highway near Palmerston. It has been around for about four to five years. Nothing seems to happen. I am interested to know whether there are any moves by government to provide some funding for that school. Do they have land that they can say is definitely theirs for that purpose? I am approached by people from time to time saying: ‘Is there another secondary school going to be located in the rural area?’ I tell them the same thing you told me, minister: Taminmin High School is supposed to have a larger population. I suppose these people are looking for a choice and they want to know who whether there is going to be another high school on the edge of the rural area just inside the Palmerston boundary.
The statement is a good one. There is no doubt there are problems the government has to handle, like having enough teachers. That will always be a problem, especially in a large area like the Northern Territory. Remote schools will never be easy to manage. I used to work on Bathurst Island, and teachers used to last one year. Ten years later, they would say: ‘Do you remember me? I used to work on Bathurst Island’ and I would say: ‘Who are you?’ and they would say: ‘I taught at the school’. In the time I was on Bathurst Island, I saw many teachers go through the system. It is hard to keep teachers. You have to keep trying and you have to make sure facilities are good for them.
Minister, with all that in mind, it is a good statement, but I hope you look at the issues I have raised.
Mr BONSON (Millner): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, the Minister for Employment, Education and Training has outlined the government’s fulfilment of the election promises made in 2001. He has spoken about the 100 additional teachers, the employment of eight attendance officers, the implementation of the Collins Report, the commitment to renewing secondary education, jobs and training.
The minister amply demonstrated both his determination to implement the government’s education and training agenda and his success to date in doing so. He and the government are to be congratulated for the effort and focus that has gone into education.
I wish to comment on a few areas of importance to both my constituents in Millner and to the broader community. In my electorate, I have Millner and Ludmilla Primary Schools, Nemarluk School and Millner Pre-School. Like the member for Nightcliff, bot St Paul’s School and Essington School have an impact in my electorate. Nightcliff and Darwin Schools and Casuarina Senior College all take kids whose educational life began in the electorate of Millner.
I am also very fortunate to have schools that are capably run by experienced people. The Principal of Millner Primary, Mr Ron Argoon, the Principal of the pre-school, Mrs Jan Cook, the Principal of Ludmilla Primary School, Helen Southam, and the Principal of Nemarluk School, Pam Young. All are capable educational people and community leaders who are persistent in their determination to improve outcomes for their children.
I agree with the member for Nightcliff who praised the government for its recent announcements on equipment and furniture and its distribution of an additional $1m in February. This meant that in addition to the usual annual funding, schools in my electorate received a substantial bonus for purchasing much needed equipment: Millner Primary School received $7235; Ludmilla Primary School received $5893; and Nemarluk School received $4151. What that means for those schools is that they have the capacity this year to purchase those little things they need to keep the place ticking over. Schools have not had this opportunity. The pleasing thing is that the minister has ensured that it is not a one-off event. In this year’s budget, an additional allocation of $500 000 was made to all schools.
On top of this, the minister has made an announcement of which I am very supportive, and that is the $300 000 Small Grants Program. Grants are available to a value of $5000. The assessment of recipients will be based on the criteria of need. This will provide an opportunity to schools such as Millner and Ludmilla to put a case for additional small grants to support programs throughout the year.
The schools in Millner electorate have also benefited from a robust minor new works program. In the last budget, schools in my electorate received funding for a range of projects: Nemarluk playground equipment - $30 000; Nemarluk safe Time Out area - $4800; Millner Primary School open computer lab and next class room - $5500; Millner Primary School built an ablution block for the caretaker - $38 000; Millner Primary School construction of Stage 2 sheltered covered area in Early Childhood area - $58 000; and Millner Primary School upgrade to maintenance officer’s room - $13 850. I know that the schools are pleased to be able to implement plans for some extensive work on school projects.
The government has also been responsible for programs that will have a long-term, system-wide impact on the Territory. Members have spoken about the literacy issues. I cannot stress this enough. A good grounding in literacy is a critical part of a child’s future and determines how well they are going to do in the employment stakes in later life.
The minister speaks frequently about the accelerated literacy program and the results this is having on young people who have not performed well. I am pleased that this is working, and I am hopeful that, through the additional money on which the minister and government have focussed, we can make some real gains across the Territory.
It is disgraceful that until this government came to power, it was not compulsory for Territory students in government schools to undertake multilevel assessment program, MAPs. I find that outrageous, but that was the circumstance. How would anyone ever be able to have an accurate idea of performance levels of students if the tests were not compulsory? How can you plan for the future unless you know, accurately, the performance levels of students?
I am also strongly committed to an improved secondary education system. I am awaiting with keen interest the outcomes of the extensive community consultation process that has occurred on the Secondary Education Report. I am assured by the minister that this feedback will strongly influence the subsequent decisions of government. I have passed on comments, both favourable and unfavourable, in relation to ideas in the report from members of my electorate. Whatever the outcome, one thing is certain: provision of secondary education to the bush will roll out.
Until this government came to power, no serious effort had been made to establish secondary education on site in bush communities. This is critical. Everyone will tell you that the best way to learn is through face-to-face teaching. This opportunity was denied to secondary students in remote communities prior to this government taking office. Well, that will occur no more.
In addition to secondary education expansion, the implementation of the Learning Lessons report has been an achievement of great pride to me, and great credit to the government. This report should have been acted upon immediately. Instead, it sat idle in the hands of the then government from 1999 until we were elected in 2001. Much has now been put into place, and some of these recommendations are now coming on line. There remain some to be further tested or implemented.
This government is having a go at addressing a chronic failing in indigenous education as well. There is only one place in Australia where the population of 15- to 19-year-olds will increase over the next 15 years, and that is in the Territory. The vast majority of these young people will be indigenous. It is critical now that the government gets the issue of indigenous education and business training right. If we do not get it right today, there will be a serious social outcome in 20 years time.
It makes common sense as well as serves as an important social justice imperative to get education to all Territorians right now. I often talk in this Chamber about the investment that we need to make in the young people of the Northern Territory, and the return that we will get from that investment. We need to invest in young people, both in urban or remote areas, to ensure that the Territory has a brighter future.
If we do not get it right, what we are forever relying on is importing a skilled work force and commitment to the Territory long-term will diminish as a people will be highly mobile across the country.
The one group of people that is here, and here to stay, are indigenous people, especially those living on remote communities. To ensure that they can contribute properly and equally to the future of the Territory, we must now get the education and training system right. I strongly support the government’s efforts to put into place a more effective education and training system. It is a difficult road to travel, but the Territory will benefit from these decisions for years to come.
I support the efforts of the minister and this government. I am sorry that we have heard nothing but negative whingeing and whining from the opposition. This is a positive statement. We are doing positive things. We have invested in the largest education budget ever seen in the Northern Territory. I look forward to improved educational outcomes for all Territorians.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, by point of order. Just as a …
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Macdonnell, excuse me. You have spoken before. Are you speaking now to the proposed amendment or the statement?
Mr ELFERINK: Yes, this is what I was about to seek a point of order or clarification. I wish to speak to the statement. I have spoken to the proposed amendment.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: I will check with the Clerk to see what you spoke on previously.
Mr ELFERINK: I made it pretty clear I spoke on the proposed amendment.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Amendment?
Mr ELFERINK: Yes, so I just want to get a point of clarification ...
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Excuse me. I will clarify that with the Clerk.
The Deputy Clerk has informed me that since you have spoken to the proposed amendment, at that stage you were supposed to speak to the statement and the proposed amendment …
Mr ELFERINK: No, not correct, Madam Acting Deputy Speaker.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: I will seek further clarification.
Mr ELFERINK: I carefully made my position clear.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: I have had further clarification. Please go on, member for Macdonnell.
Mr ELFERINK: No, Madam Acting Deputy Speaker. A point of order is why I am on my feet. I want to ensure that when we vote on the proposed amendment, that matter is dealt with and then I have the opportunity to speak to the statement. That is the point on which I am seeking clarification.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: That is correct.
Mr ELFERINK: I am waiting for the amendment to be put, and then I wish to speak to the statement.
Mr Stirling: If you want to speak to the statement, speak now because once I have spoken in reply closing debate, that is it.
Mr ELFERINK: That is my point. That is why I am on my feet. I am not trying to be …
Mr Stirling: You blokes want to have a right of reply closing debate when it is simply a device that does not exist for the opposition. Speak now!
Mr ELFERINK: Rubbish! Madam Acing Deputy Speaker, this is an issue that I raised yesterday when the government did exactly the same thing and debate was allowed to proceed in this organic fashion against the rules of debate.
I am seeking a clarification, stating that I have spoken on the amendment only, the amendment should have been discussed and put, and then we return to the statement or the amended statement. They are the rules I am applying. I do not want to be deprived, by an abuse of the rules of debate, of my opportunity to speak to the statement.
Mr Stirling: Well, speak now.
Mr ELFERINK: No.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: My understanding, member for Macdonnell …
Mr Stirling: Now is your opportunity.
Mr ELFERINK: The amendment is still on the Table. It has not been dealt with.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Are there any other speakers to the amendment?
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Yes. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: To the amendment? You have spoken to the statement.
Dr LIM: Precisely, yes. Thank you. Speaking to the amendment, Madam Speaker.
I support the proposed amendment to the motion. The minister spoke about it and said he has not had enough time to get the responses from the community. I do not know how much time he wants. He would have received a letter from Darwin High School telling him what they though of his review. I will paraphrase some of the points that Darwin High School made.
The letter says of the stages of school that Darwin High School opts to remain a comprehensive high school. That is quite specific. On learning precincts, Darwin High School rejects the imposition of the precinct mode. It opposes changes to the decision making powers of the school council and the principal. Furthermore, Darwin High School is opposed to changes to staffing from DEET central responsibility to the head of precinct and board. The fourth point is that the school opposes the closure of the NT Open Education Centre and outsourcing of distance education to the South Australian Department of Education. Further, it says that it opposes subsuming the Teacher Registration Board and the Board of Studies into the proposed Quality Services Agency. So he has had direct input from Darwin High School.
I know he received a letter from Kormilda College because I have a letter here addressed to the Honourable Syd Stirling MLA, Minister for Employment, Education and Training. In the letter are quite specific points made by the principal of Kormilda College. Did you not see, minister, this Casuarina Senior College submission to the Secondary Education Report? To hone into the recommendations contained therein, it says:
- 1. that the status quo be maintained at Casuarina Senior College and should be limited to students who are at Year 11 (Stage 1 or above.);
2. that Year 11 (Stage 1) courses be taught only in senior school;
3. that Year 10 be the final year of middle school. ; and
The minister has had direct input from these organisations to tell them where to put the Secondary Education Report. The minister said: ‘No, no, no, that’s not true. I have not had much input. I am waiting for SOCOM to write its report’. Had you followed, as I have done, consultations across the Territory, you would have heard in no uncertain terms how the community feels about it.
As regards the Northern Territory Open Education Centre, you know full well that the Northern Territory Open Education Centre has had a lot to contend with in respect of the way you have been running the organisation. It had to defend itself against the review. Information from the review had been somehow gathered out of the ether, with very little scientific backing to the information that it purports to have in the report. You know full well, minister, and you stood corrected when I raised the issue at Estimates last June, that in fact the Northern Territory Open Education Centre services a large cohort of students, some 937, 39% of whom are indigenous and 61% are non-indigenous students.
The Open Education Centre has produced several of our top NTCE students each year, with four students in the top 20 last year. Both indigenous and non-indigenous students were, on average, high achievers when compared across the Northern Territory. In 2003, the NTOEC had 12 students who achieved perfect scores of 20/20 for stage one courses. Indigenous students at NTOEC have gone from a low rate of 16% success in the year 2000 to 70% successful progress in 2003. Because of the course of the teaching, 17 students achieved perfect scores, that is 20/20, for junior courses.
To say that the NTOEC is not performing and has to be closed is bunkum. The NTOEC has gone from a deficit of $0.25m in 2000 to a small surplus last year, so there is no rationale for closing the NTOEC. That is why the CLP is so adamant that it wants the Northern Territory government to guarantee that the Northern Territory Open Education Centre remain open with its services enhanced so it can continue to serve as the Territory’s premier distance education facility.
They want to outsource distance education to South Australia. South Australia, for goodness sake, gave us away in 1911. They do not care about the Territory. It is too far from Adelaide. Teachers at the NTOEC will be able to service students better; they will be able to have face-to-face contact with them and that is what we all want. We want to achieve as much face to face contact as we possibly can because we all know that contact will achieve the best student outcomes. Retaining the NTOEC in the Northern Territory is absolutely important. Then if you enhance its services through IDL, any facility you like, it will make it much better.
The minister needs to understand that learning precincts will create huge turmoil in our education community. It is well and good to say that we have clusters now and that it is easy enough to extend the cluster into learning precincts, but it is not. The cluster concept is about schools working cooperatively, sharing resources where they can. A learning precinct is about a single bureaucratic head with a single bureaucratic board, and that board will control the operations of all the schools within the precinct. That is how it was described in the report, and there is no other model from which to work.
The member for Port Darwin asked that the government demonstrate where there is a working learning precinct anywhere in Australia or the world. Do you know what? The report contains a couple of examples in South Australia. When you ring those organisations and say: ‘We hear that you have a learning precinct. Can you describe what you have?’ they tell you: ‘No we don’t. We do not have a learning precinct’.
The minister says they still have to consult. You have been sitting on it for the last eight months since you received the report, and you are still to make a decision. When are you going to make a decision? Show some leadership. It is not about the CLP jumping the gun. The CLP has been out there listening.
As I said to the minister, I have been to Darwin, Palmerston and Alice Springs. I followed the consultation around the community. The minister supported my request that we have an information night in Alice Springs, and I thank him for that. There were almost 100 people in the room that night, and the session provided them with information from priority learning, but also from organisations such as the AEUNT, COGSO, independent schools and the Catholic education system speaking about their perspective. That was what was needed, some unbiased information provided to the community so that they could go away, think about what they want and make up their minds. Make up their minds they have. They have said in no uncertain terms they do not want to do that.
The CLP, while in government, had devolved powers to school councils. We had school council legislation especially enacted to ensure that school councils have powers. The powers were so strong that school councils had quite a level of autonomy. I suggest to the minister that it is the department wanting to claw back this power. They have been trying to do it since the legislation was passed. When I was chair of the Alice Springs College of TAFE, in the amalgamation process with Sadadeen Senior College to form Centralian College, we wanted to have legislation for Centralian College very much in line with the school councils. Guess what happened? The department fought very hard against it. I was the chair, trying to lobby the government of the day to give us strong legislation, and we could not get legislation for Centralian College as strong as for school councils. Here we are, under the pretence of learning precincts, bringing about a full-scale rewrite of the Education Act, hence using that act to try to rob school councils of their powers.
The CLP would continue this policy of devolution of powers to local school communities and put authority back into the hands of parents. They can work cooperatively with the school principal, the professional in this process of governance, rather than centralising governance, as Labor would do through learning precincts, into the hands of bureaucrats. That is where I see the government falling down. The minister said: ‘Look I am still consulting’. You have had plenty of time. You had 12 months of the review under Gregor Ramsey. For five months you sat on it while you contemplated what to do with it. Then you released it for three months of consultation. That was supposed to end on 31 July. Yet, you allowed two weeks extension for people to get their submissions in because the school holidays intervened. You still do not have a response for anyone. Territorians deserve better than that.
If I were you, minister, I would put support into the local community, give the school councils more powers and help them to achieve what they really desire. They are the parents; they want good education outcomes for their children. That is why they are involved in school governance. This is why they are involved in supporting the school. If you give them the power, they will make sure that they achieve the right outcomes.
I have already read to you what Casuarina Secondary Senior College said in its submission. Minister, you need to listen to them closely and make sure you tell the Territory education community that you have heard them and you are going to support them rather than going off on your merry way and causing more angst than ever. Think of the resources you will have to spend implementing only some of the recommendations of the Secondary Education Report. That money would be better spent enhancing teacher employment conditions, enhancing student support, providing supernumerary student counsellors and providing industry-based career counsellors in the system that are supernumerary to teaching numbers. That way, you will have specialists providing students with the services that they need. That way, you will ensure that school kids will turn out at least industry-focussed or, if not, be certain that when they go to university, they are going to achieve an outcome.
You know full well that of all the cohort of Year 12 students in the Territory in any one year, only 30% of them aspire to go to university. Of that 30%, only 50% will graduate. What I am saying is that 85% of Year 12 kids, after they leave school, do not get a university degree. That is 85% of the cohort. A small proportion go through university and the rest need to be looked after. The best way they can get training is if the school council, the whole community and industry are involved. You can do that through good career counselling, and I am sure that the other 85% will be better cared for.
The opposition’s proposed amendment is nothing very stark; it just tells you that you need to concentrate on the bad policies, get rid of them, and support the education organisations that we listed in the proposed amendment, and you will have a strong footing with education in the Territory.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the amendment be agreed to.
Motion negatived.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Members, we now return to the substantive motion, which is that the ministerial statement be noted.
Mr ELFERINK (Macdonnell): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I shall not be on my feet long. There is one issue that we need to discuss. If you believe the members of the ALP in this House, that the CLP had neglected the education system of the Northern Territory for 27 years so badly that not so much as a literate person was produced in the whole period of CLP governance, then I have to ask the question: how on earth did half the members get into this place?
I keep hearing people like the member for Millner telling me about indigenous education and how poor it is. I wonder if the member for Millner has a degree. Oh, yes, he does; he has a Bachelor of Laws. The member for Arnhem also has a degree. If he does not have a degree, he has been educated in the Northern Territory and sat in charge of major organisations such as a land council. He is currently a minister of the Crown. He went to school in the Northern Territory. I went to school in the Northern Territory. I went to Jingili Primary School and the motto of the school in those days was: ‘Aim High’. I was one of the first Year 1 students at Jingili Primary School. The education system did not fail me.
The Minister for Family and Community Services received her education here. What about the member for Barkly, where was he educated? If indigenous education was such a rort and such a stuff up under CLP, how these people find their positions in here today? How did the member for Daly manage it? How did the member for Goyder manage to get his law degree?
What we are talking about is what happens in the remote places in the Northern Territory. Bear in mind that not one new school has been built under this government, not one new school. All the schools that stand today were built under the abhorrent administration of the CLP, according to members opposite. How many schools stand in the bush? Many. Many schools stand in the bush. Are there schools producing students who go on the secondary school? Yes they are. If you go to St John’s College, St Philip’s College, Yirara College, or Kormilda College, you will find any number of Aboriginal students who have come out of the bush and who are advancing.
Is the problem solved? No, Madam Acting Deputy Speaker. If the problem was easily solved, the member for Stuart, who was a teacher in Yuendumu, would have solved the problem in Yuendumu, but the member for Stuart knows that it is not an easy thing to do in some of these remote places because there are cultural differences and attitudes to school that do not sit comfortably with the western education system. The member for Stuart used to bleat long and hard about the shortcomings of education in the bush. Why haven’t they been fixed? This lot have been in government now for three years. They said everything was going to be fixed. They are still reviewing the reviews of what they are doing. I am quite convinced that they are running into exactly the same problem that the former government ran into. What problems did the former government run into? The same problems that are continuing to plague education.
The process of educating people is never easy, especially in remote communities. I travel regularly in the communities and I often see students who should be in school not in school. I continue to advocate, and I know it can be done if the political will is there, for things like the tying and binding of family payments to school attendance. This is something that Mr Collins spoke about or investigated during his writing of the Learning Lessons report. He spoke to me in private one day when he was here in the gallery. I mentioned this and Mr Collins said: ‘Yes, but it is too difficult to get through places like Canberra because that is where the decision has to be made’. It would make a vast difference to education in the Northern Territory if you introduced that simple change alone.
I wish to place on the record a comment about how debates on ministerial statements proceed. Yesterday, we had a ministerial statement and the Leader of Government Business tried to move an amendment to the motion that the Assembly take note of the statement. We ended up having a circus in terms of the rules of debate and how that progressed. It became almost organic. The same thing seems to be appearing today, when who is speaking to the amendment and who is speaking to the original motion is obviously not clear. It has to be sorted out. There can only be one motion before the Chair at a time. You cannot debate two motions simultaneously. So if there is a motion and someone moves and amendment, you speak to the amendment, then that amendment is dealt with, and you speak to the motion. If, as was the case yesterday, there was an amendment to an amendment, then you speak to the amendment to the amendment, then you deal with the amendment, then you deal with the original motion.
Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, the rules of debate exist for a reason: it saves confusion and the little fight I just had to have on a point of order, which should have been a fairly straight forward exercise.
I also want to run this past the minister and get his comments when he closes on record: at Redsand Hill camp, there is a little bit of a scuttlebutt in my neck of the woods that the Education department is planning to shut the school down. I would like to the minister’s reassurance that that is not going to be the case.
Mr BURKE (Brennan): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I want to make a couple of points in this debate. It was comments by the member for Macdonnell that prompted me to stand up.
I wanted to say, for what it is worth, a few words to our Aboriginal MLAs because we have heard over the last number of days statements, particularly the member for Arafura, who, proudly so, and I join her in that, has achieved the position of a minister in the Northern Territory government, first female Aboriginal minister in Australia, and clearly sees the opportunities in that position to promote issues among Aboriginal people that will be listened to Australia-wide because of the experience she brings to that position, an experience that few people who are Aboriginal have, and that gives rise to influence at the national and Territory level. What is also clear is that she is fairly capable in that position of promoting herself and her own capability.
What I find particularly disappointing from the member for Arafura with the statement today, her statement on child protection and, frankly, nearly every time she rises to speak in the Assembly is the tirade of - maybe abuse is too strong a word, but this feeling that somehow, you have to blame the CLP for almost anything and everything that has happened with Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory
I wanted to mention that with regard to the debate today because she could not help herself and said that the CLP has taken no interest in these things, which is very offensive. It is very offensive. There seems to be some idea within the Labor government and the Labor Party that if you are Aboriginal, you can make the most offensive statements to people on the conservative side of politics and we are supposed to sit here and cop it sweet.
These are the same people who talk about reconciliation and we are all Territorians together. I find some of things the member for Arafura says most offensive and, frankly, I wonder why she carries such a chip on her shoulder of what is clearly a dislike bordering on hatred of anyone who is not on the Labor side of politics or has any association with the CLP over the years. In terms of balance in the debate, I made mention the other day to the member Millner, and he strayed back into the old form today, unfortunately, that he and others have potent arguments because of their own experience and their own background etcetera, but you diminish your own argument if you fall into that sort of name calling about the CLP, which is particularly sad.
I can tell you that when I was health minister and Chief Minister, I was asked questions on issues Aboriginal. Of course, my experience is nothing like yours, I can only be a person in the Northern Territory charged with responsibility of trying to understand and react and do things to try to fix the problem, and I am on the record on many occasions as saying: ‘The answer to Aboriginal issues is education, education, education’ because the importance of education in allowing people, particularly tribal Aboriginal people from remote communities, to take their place in mainstream society is so critically important.
For what it is worth, one day I went to one community and after visiting that community, I sat down and I had a bit of a think to myself. I thought: ‘It is very easy to talk about what Aboriginal people have not done for themselves, but if an average white family in Australia, struggling to bring up two or three kids in a three-bedroom house and get those kids educated properly, if you ask that white family is it a difficult business being a family and parent and getting your kids properly educated, properly clothed, giving them the right instructions, etcetera, to make their place in society, any Australian parent would tell you that it is extremely hard work. It is the hardest work that anyone can do’. Then, when you sit back and say to yourself: ‘Imagine you had two or three other families in that same house, then imagine you also had chronic alcoholism in some instances in that house, then put on top of that domestic violence, and then say, how would you cope? Could you possibly get your kids to school?’ If you go through that simple exercise, as I did, you say to yourself: ‘They are flat out getting sleep, some of these mums; they are getting a few hours sleep’.
It is a chronic national problem evidenced more than any other part of Australia in the Northern Territory, although we know that the situation exists right around Australia. It is a national problem, and it has to be fixed nationally. We all have a role to play constructively to try to achieve it. I forget the gentleman’s name, the previous Director of the Menzies Institute of Health Research …
Dr Lim: Professor John Mathews.
Mr BURKE: John Mathews, yes. He once said to me: ‘The problems confronting Aboriginal people today are no different from the problems that confronted slum-dwelling Australians in the 1920s, and they were poor housing, poor sanitation, poor education’. Australia, as a nation, reacted and fixed those things over time to be the modern society that we are today. If you take that example, the problem is abundantly fixable, but it is only fixable in a national way and everyone has to play their part.
Everyone, including me, has to recognise that there are limits to what you can say and do, based on your own experience, but be careful of what you say and how you say it. Now, if I have learnt that lesson too late, I am sorry, but I have learnt it. Do not ever misunderstand that just because you are on the conservative side of politics you do not have a great depth of feeling and sadness and a desire to do better for Aboriginal people.
When I was Chief Minister, I read a book called, Why Warriors Lie Down and Die by Richard Trudgen, which was written in Arnhem Land. I hope members of the Labor government have read that book. I know that some Aboriginal tribal elders do not subscribe to it, which is unfortunate because if it is a bit sensitive and incorrect in some cultural aspects, it is a particularly valuable book for mainstream Australian leaders to read, understand and use for guidance. I sent that book, as Chief Minister, to every federal member of parliament, as I recall, the Prime Minister and all his ministers. I received responses from a number of them that they had read the book and they enjoyed it. In fact, I was at a dinner last evening ..
Mr Stirling: It was written to be enjoyed.
Mr BURKE: If you are going to quibble over the word enjoyed, they enjoyed learning from the book.
I was pleased last night that I was at a dinner with the Chief of the Army, General Peter Leahy, probably one of the most precise intellectual minds in the Australian Defence Force at the moment, an enormously capable person. I said to him, and I hope I am not upsetting him by saying this in the House: ‘When you finally finished in the Defence Force, General, what would you like to do?’ He said: ‘I would like to involve myself in Aboriginal issues because I really feel I have something that I can contribute to that’. I thought that was really interesting. He said: ‘Have you ever read a book called Why Warriors Lie Down and Die, and I said, ‘I bet I was the one who sent it not to you, but probably to the Chief of the Defence Force at the time’. So in a small way, I felt particularly pleased about that.
I say to the member for Arafura that you diminish your status by engaging in a tirade of, essentially, abuse about Aboriginal people. I will give you a message and a warning, for what it is worth: we can throw it back, too, if you want. I will give you an example of that. A guy named Edmond Bourke, a famous politician, no relation to mine, said in 1796:
- Example is the school of mankind and they will learn at no other.
So when you talk about what we should do or have not done, you are in a position of example and you should set the example. If you want to know what sort of example you are setting, look around your own home first because I reckon you have a gall to lecture us on where the CLP as a government might have failed when you know that you have failed personally in your own way in some areas. If you want to play that game, I will raise to it on every occasion. I hope this is the last time I have to raise it because it is unfair, and we should not engage in it anymore.
On the education review, all of the arguments have been put. I understand the issues, but one thing I would like to mention is that, whatever comes out of it, the strong message that I have from a number of areas is: whatever you do at the end of the day, for God’s sake, do not change the curriculum because the new curriculum that is being embedded in the primary schools in particular is a curriculum that has been warmly embraced. One of the fears coming through the education review is that if there are changes from Year 7 going to secondary, or whatever, this will affect the curriculum they are using. That is one area of emphasis, whatever the result of the review: how will it affect the current curriculum?
I am sure the government is improving this area because I note that there are more and more meetings being held and publicised, but of the meetings that I have attended on the secondary review, the message is not properly reaching parents. Maybe that is an impossibility in some respects. I went to a meeting at one school in my electorate to discuss the findings of the secondary review. First, no one turned up, even though it was broadcast by the school council. It is easy to blame the school, but they had difficulty getting the message out. They put it in school newsletters, but no one turned up. That is not an indication that no one is interested or that everyone is happy, it is just an indication that we live in a busy society and people need to be really engaged at a personal level as to how it will affect them. They are certainly not engaged in that capacity yet. They are depending more and more on their leaders and the peak bodies that represent them to make the right decisions.
However, at that meeting to which no one turned up, I was amazed that the briefing was given by the Chairman of the School Council. He is a great bloke and I like him a lot, but he is certainly no expert on education. He is a concerned and interested parent and he was, essentially, going to brief other parents based on the briefing he had received, which was clearly an unsatisfactory arrangement. As I said, I accept the fact that there have been more briefings by expert panels since then, and I hope that the message is getting out more and more.
Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, with those few words, I note the statement.
Mr STIRLING (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I was very disappointed to hear the comments from the member for Brennan, coming in here, over-sensitive, wearing his heart on his sleeve, in relation to criticism by the members for Millner and Arafura over the CLP performance over many years.
I remind the member for Brennan he has been in the Territory since 1994 and he has occupied fairly privileged positions in the community since he came here, and has limited experience of indigenous living conditions out in these communities. I can tell him, and this would be a surprise to him, that there is residual anger in my electorate today, August 2004, over a decision that the Country Liberal Party government took in August 1980. Twenty-four years ago, in the second term, with 36 hours notice, they closed Dhupuma College, a residential boarding college for indigenous students from around north-east Arnhem Land.
Twenty-four years later, students who went to that college are the town clerks, the council presidents, heads of CDEP organisations, heads of the health clinics right through all of the communities of north-east Arnhem Land because that was their only exposure, their only access to secondary education. These turkeys sent a crew out from the Department of Education of the time, Thursday lunch time they arrived in Nhulunbuy, by 3 o’clock those people were told: ‘Your college is closed’, sending those communities into absolute disarray and uproar because their kids were coming home and not going back to Dhupuma College.
Now, he thinks that the CLP should be immune from criticism from people like the members for Arafura and Millner. Let me tell him, Madam Speaker, if he wanted to walk around some of the communities of north-east Arnhem Land, if he wanted to talk to some of the parents of those kids, and the kids themselves who are now in their thirties and forties occupying senior positions in these communities on the back of the outcomes that Dhupuma College was able to achieve over the years that it was open.
It was too much for the Country Liberal Party because it was indigenous education. He said: ‘Do not point the finger at us; it was not our fault’. How come, in 27 years, they never looked at themselves and asked themselves: ‘Why are we only getting Year 2 year and Year 3 literacy and numeracy outcomes out of our primary schools for indigenous kids?’ How come we are paying teachers and we are opening and running these schools?’ We have never opened a school, said the member for Macdonnell. Well, there are a few you might have closed if you had looked at the outcomes you had been achieving over the 27 years, you goose! You never asked a question …
Members interjecting.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STIRLING: … you then commissioned one Bob Collins to have a look at this question of indigenous education, and what did you do with it? You shelved the report. You never implemented one recommendation, not one recommendation!
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker.
Mr STIRLING: So the member for Brennan can well stand here with his heart on his sleeve, but he ought to be listening …
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Minister, there is a point of order.
Mr ELFERINK: Perhaps the minister would like to consider taking one of those little blue pills he is so fond of talking about.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Macdonnell, withdraw that comment.
Mr ELFERINK: Okay, I withdraw it.
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Minister, please continue.
Mr ELFERINK: He should withdraw his bad …
Madam ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Macdonnell, excuse me! Cease interjecting, please. Minister, please continue.
Mr STIRLING: I get offended, Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, when my colleagues come under attack. The member for Brennan would do well to visit some of these communities and feel for himself the palpable anger that is directed to this day and held against the Country Liberal Party. If he thinks the comments from the members for Arafura and Millner are over the top, he should come and talk to some of the people in my electorate and hear for himself direct the words of the parents and students and see the difference for himself between these students of 30 and 40 years in positions of leadership and their mastery of the English language, their competence and capability to walk both sides of the cultural fence compared with the outcomes that their own children have experienced since that college was closed. It is a tragedy. It was a tragedy then and it is a tragedy that we have to make up for it where we can.
I want to go onto more positive matters. In reverse order, the member for Nelson talked in very positive and glowing terms about Taminmin High and they are sentiments I share about the school. I enjoy going to Taminmin High.
Mr Wood: See you on Wednesday.
Mr STIRLING: Yes. It has a great reputation in the rural area, and it has real strengths on the vocational training side of it, particularly agriculture and mechanics. I took the Corvette down there a few months ago and the kids were just great. Those who had a licence drove it around the school yard while I was there and when I met with members of school council.
There is a little bit of concern around Taminmin and that is in relation to the Palmerston High School development. I understand that; they do not want to see there Year 12s gravitate to a newer, better, smarter, bigger sort of venture. There is a lot of consultation and discussion going on with Taminmin and with Palmerston High School, which has some of the concerns, too. Let me assure the member for Nelson that Taminmin High rates very highly in the minister’s view as an educational institution. It is one that we hold dear to our hearts and I love going down there and visiting.
I thank him for his commendation of the music school and two new teachers. I was told by the Assistant Principal of the music school that this will go a long way to working toward those programs that have been lost. I do not know exactly the detail on that. I am happy for my office to inquire and get a fix on whether these two new teachers will recover the programs that have been lost. I am keen to know for myself and I will advise you accordingly.
In relation to Batchelor, it is an interesting question, one that has not come by me at all, of relocation to Palmerston or Summer Institute of Linguistics. The only thing I do know is that Dr Brendan Nelson, the federal minister, funded a study for and on behalf of Batchelor Institute Council to look at a number of issues. I do not know what the terms of reference were; it is not my report. Clearly, it belongs to Dr Nelson, who funded it, and Batchelor Council. It is their report. Maybe they will give the minister’s office a copy in time. Relocation is absolute news to me, but I will make inquiries and if there is anything we can learn from that, I will advise accordingly.
The member for Nelson also raised the question of bureaucracy versus schools. It is an interesting question of what do numbers on paper mean? We can be misled sometimes by the size of the staff and say: ‘This is too big. The administration is getting too top heavy. It is costing us schools’. We have come across real difficulties with the department’s ability to unroll its capital works and minor new works programs over the couple of years we have been in government. One of the reasons was a lot of its capacity to do the preliminary design work, flesh out the concepts and get proper design and project briefs across to DIPE so that these projects could be tendered, contracted and started.
That capacity was knocked over in the Planning for Growth exercise conducted by the previous government. It looked good on paper, saved jobs, saved salaries, but actually ate in to the capacity of the department to roll out its infrastructure program over many years and we have had to backfill across agencies because we were being frustrated by putting money into capital works and saying: ‘Yes, we are going to do this school, remote area’, or whatever and then have this difficulty between DIPE and DEET, each department claiming that they had not been given the information.
You have to be careful of that apparent size of the bureaucracy. You have to know what it does and the part it plays in the overall system before you go willy-nilly knocking off jobs, which is what happened with Planning for Growth. I am pretty comfortable with the size of the bureaucracy. It has grown as a result of some of the initiatives. The 100 extra teachers, for example, are going to come into the department, but they are qualified teachers and doing work for teachers on the ground; behavioural management, ESL, a whole range of specialists like that who will come up on paper as departmental bureaucrats, so to speak, but they are teachers working on the ground with other teachers.
We do not see an issue with the question of government versus non-government schools. I have had this discussion with a number of non-government principals, most recently with Stephen Kinsella. We talked along the lines of the system in the Northern Territory being small enough to see it as one and to see the all part – independent, non-government schools, call them what you like, private schools - and the government sector being complementary, working for the same goal and end. That is the way this government sees it. We do not see one as robbing the other or having to pay one or the other. We want to work on a cooperative basis with them.
The Catholic high school: there has been no recent discussion, but I will get an update on the matter and get the answer back to you. From memory, and I do not want to mislead the House or yourself, the Catholics themselves have dropped off the question a bit, I think, but I will get back to you on that.
The member for Macdonnell raised the question of the closure of Redsand Hill School. That is a homeland of Hermannsburg and school closure is absolute news to me. We are a government that is keen on building capacity within the education system and building the numbers of students at school. To close a school, no matter where it is, would, particularly in a remote area, mean that those children do not go to school. I only have to go back to August 1980 and the example of Dhupuma College, and I think I have covered that.
If I become a little emotional, Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, it is because I am representing the anger from those people who, for 24 years, have no longer had access to secondary schooling. To hear from the member for Brennan, who was not in the Territory for another 14 years after that decision was made, become a little sensitive and upset, he ought to look at himself and some of the decisions, particularly that one, that the Country Liberal Party made.
I was pretty disappointed with remarks from the member for Greatorex over Teach for a Term. This is a great new initiative, a departmental teacher recruitment and retention strategy from the People and Learning division, and this comes in the face of national and international teacher shortages and high turnover of teachers in the Northern Territory, particularly in remote areas. It also comes on the back of the successful internship project whereby interns came for a term and many have stayed. We are in the third year of that program. Teachers’ return airfares are paid if they complete the full term of teaching.
The average recruitment cost for a teacher is $20 000 with no guarantee that they will even stay for a term. We have had experiences of recruits from down south who have not stayed. There is one notable example where the teacher recruit would not get off the plane, simply would not get off the plane in the community. So there go a fair few dollars down the drain. This is designed to give these people 10 weeks’ experience in the Territory. If they like it, they can then be recruited. It has the benefit of helping to serve short-term staffing shortages and emergencies that may arise through sickness.
We have had low staffing shortages this year compared with past years, partly as a result of this. There are nine vacancies at the moment. One is a German teacher and the other eight are all English as a Second Language, and they are part of the extra hundred teachers, so they have only recently been advertised.
What I did resent was the member for Greatorex saying that these teachers are coming for a break. If he thinks teaching is a holiday, I suggest he get out in the classroom, any classroom, I do not care, primary or secondary, for a day. Spend a day with these teachers and then come back and tell me if he thinks these teachers are having a holiday or if they are on a break because that is absolutely demeaning to the profession and it is an insult to teachers to suggest that they are on a break or they are having a holiday.
The laptops were commended also by speakers, but I go the member for Greatorex again. He said it was a good idea but we have to be careful that this does not erode capacity within the system and the bandwidth particularly. I suggest he was referring to infrastructure capacity. When we took office, the bandwidth capacity for our schools stood at 0.5 megabytes. I advise the member for Greatorex that it currently stands at 8.5 megabytes and we have provided 2 megabytes for Interactive Distance Learning students. That is a 1600% increase. The cost per megabyte under the contract is about $190 000, so this is not a cheap exercise. The total cost now, including IDL, is $1.995m and growing. So do not tell us that we have to be careful about capacity …
Members interjecting.
Mr STIRLING: You had a system that they could barely turn on! It has gone from 0.5 up to 8.5 megabytes at a cost of $190 000 per megabyte.
I pick up on a couple of points the member for Blain made, and I think it was touched on by the member for Braitling as well. This was a question of attendance at schools. The member for Blain’s approach is all about a big stick: you have to take the welfare payments from them, you have to fine them from time to time, get them in court, whack them with big fines, that will work. It is all about the big stick approach. He commended the attendance officers as well, and a few speakers did, and I welcome that because I believe they are a good idea, too, but they are only part of the equation.
The serious questions about attendance at school come down to the role and the engagement of the school within the community and, too often, our schools are communities are too far removed and little happens by way of engagement in between. This idea of community engagement with the school is not new. It has been done in the past very effectively, but has not been sustained and that has been the problem.
More recently, it has been picked up by Jackie Costanzo’s people in Alice Springs. She is a great advocate for this approach by which the school engages with senior leaders in the community and talks to the community, in their terms, about where they see the community in five, 10, 15 years time. What would they see as the sorts of employment opportunities arising in the community? What would the eight-year-old student of the school, in 10 years time, be doing? What sort of skills mix might they need in order to be carrying out the position they might want that person to undertake?
At the end of that process you, hopefully, you have a pretty clear idea, and that is something you have to continue to work on. The process itself is the important part; it is much more important than the outcome, the continual process of reaffirming and working away at this so that you have an agreed outcome between the school and the community as to what the community is going to look like and what skill sets and educational needs they will want their students to have in five and 10 years time. If you can get agreement of that, have that ticked off, the next step is to back-map the curriculum to reflect the needs that the community themselves have stated that they want to see realised, their aspirations and their dreams. It becomes quite a simple matter. If the 17-year-old woman is going to be required to do this, this, this and this, okay, we back-map that through the curriculum and say: ‘By Year 3, they will have to be able to do this, by Year 4, they should have another set of experiences and competencies’.
If we are able to engage meaningfully with the communities around these issues, I see it as a new role, perhaps, for the Indigenous Education Division within the Department of Employment, Education and Training in conjunction with the Department of Community Development with those groups working together at this engagement process. It is proactive, it is not big stick, and it goes to the heart of that question of passive resistance because that is what we are up against. It is a style of passive resistance to education in our communities because half the time, they do not know what is happening in school. If they are not getting the outcomes, it makes no difference to the student’s chances in the wider world outside of school, anyway. If we can get into these processes of community engagement school by school, community by community, it is a much better way to go.
Just to touch on the Palmerston secondary education facility, there were questions about it being on the budget; and that is true. However, feedback on the proposals has been sought and consultative sessions held with the Australian Education Union and the Northern Territory Board of Studies, Palmerston City Council, the school council, Taminmin and Palmerston High Schools, and the Education Advisory Council. Community consultation sessions were held in both Palmerston and rural areas for parents, teachers, local business and non-government organisation and other interested people. Copies of the concept paper were provided to those who attended these sessions, and a web site was launched that provided more information about the proposal and the opportunity for online feedback. That consultation has concluded. Favourable comments have been received, and the issues of concern, and I raise these in relation to remarks from the member for Nelson, are the futures of both Palmerston and Taminmin …
Mr HENDERSON: Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I move an extension of time of 10 minutes to allow my colleague to continue his remarks.
Motion agreed to.
Mr STIRLING: Thank you, Madam Acting Deputy Speaker. I want to finish on this point.
Obviously, Palmerston and Taminmin High Schools have concerns about a flash new senior high school placed not very far away from them, and how that might affect their ability to offer a wide range of subjects and, possibly losing Year 11 and 12 students. These are issues that have to be worked through.
There is the issue of co-locating Year 10 students and whether they are going to be Years 10, 11 and 12 or Years 11 and 12 is one final question that needs to be answered. Of course, all of those issues of pedagogy, behaviour management and that how we organise the governance arrangements between the new college and the university would have to be worked out, but there has been a very favourable response and positive feedback. The department will be seeking my approval to endorse the proposal and to build this new senior secondary college to be co-located within the Palmerston campus of Charles Darwin University.
I am now advised that the $10m ain’t going to buy a senior college and the final figure, I am not about to drop here, but it is at least double that. How we progress will be challenging for us all, including Treasury who must find the money. However, find the money we will. We will move forward because too many students in and around the Palmerston area travel to Darwin, some by choice I suppose, but if we have a state-of-the-art brand new facility down there, we will encourage more students to stay and attend school in Palmerston.
I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the remarks from the member from Brennan. I caution him about his warning to the member for Arafura. This Chamber is not a place to issue threats. This Chamber is not a place to issue challenges and threats that ‘If you say this, I will say this about you’. The member for Arafura conducted herself with utmost grace and dignity at the time when a member of her family had disappointed her, broken her heart, you might say, in relation to a particular drug offence. I was on the phone as quickly as I could to the member for Arafura to commend her for her courage and dignity in taking this on the chin as she did.
For the member for Brennan to threaten the member for Arafura that if she dares criticise the Country Liberal Party’s 27 years of unforgivable history in some instances, particularly on indigenous matters, he ought to have a good close look at his conscience. He ought to have a good close look at his own experience in the Northern Territory, which stems, as I said, from 1994, during which time he occupied very privileged positions in the Northern Territory community and simply never came to grips with the history of the Country Liberal Party prior to 1994 and has never come to grips with the many challenging issues on indigenous communities.
Motion agreed to; statement noted.
SPECIAL ADJOURNMENT
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly at its rising adjourn until Tuesday, 5 October 2004 at 10 am or such other time and/or date as may be set by Madam Speaker pursuant to Sessional Order.
Motion agreed to.
ADJOURNMENT
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
I recently had the pleasure of opening the 2004 Royal Darwin Show, and what a great show it was this year. It was a perfect Dry Season day, the main arena was in wonderful condition and Territorians were present in all their rich diversity. The show is a very important event on the annual calendar because it brings our community together. It is a place where Territorians from the city and the bush can meet and appreciate each others’ lifestyles, and it is a place where all the people who make up the Territory’s rich cultural fabric come together.
The show’s Chief Executive Officer, Cherry Court, said that although they have not yet finalised the numbers, it looks as though there were close to 50 000 visitors through the gates over the three days. Cherry also said that the upgrading of the show’s infrastructure had been great and the reliability of the electricity and water supplies had improved out of sight.
Members may recall that my government provided $600 000 for the upgrade, the first major upgrade in 25 years. When you looked around the showground, you could see everything from upgraded car parks to improved toilet facilities and know that the power outages and blackouts are a thing of the past. In my speech opening the show, I also noted the $5000 we provided to convene the first meeting of the new Northern Territory Show Council, as well as $10 000 to engage a business consultant to develop a strategic plan for the council to use for all Territory shows.
Presiding over the official opening was, as ever, Percy Ellis OAM, President of the Royal Agricultural Society of the Northern Territory, accompanied by his wife, Judy. Also participating in the official opening was his Honour the Administrator Ted Egan AO and Nerys Evans. One of the things I really enjoy about the show is the way it recognises and acknowledges the involvement of people, particularly in the rural community, as participants in the competitions and as volunteers.
The Administrator announced the Rural Ambassador for 2004 Royal Darwin Show, and presented the sash to Beckie Kernich. He also presented the Administrator’s Medal to the Junior Steward of the Year, Millicent Crowe. Let me talk about Millicent. She is only 14 years old and has been making a significant contribution to the show for the past four years. As well as stewarding in the pet section and the animal nursery, Millicent assists with their setting up and packing up before and after each show. She also overnights at the show to care for the animals, getting up at the crack of dawn to feed them. Apart from the general care of animals, Millicent educates very young children about the basics of caring for animals. She is also willing to assist in other sections; run errands, assist the general public and encourage her friends to participate by helping out and stewarding. Millicent is a wonderful ambassador for the Royal Darwin Show and truly deserving of this award. Congratulations, Millicent.
I was also delighted to present the Chief Minister’s trophy for the Senior Steward of the Year at the Darwin Show to Ann Shaw. Ann was first involved with the show as a St John Ambulance volunteer in 1975. In 1980, she commenced as a steward in the needlework section and this year notched up 25 years of association with the section, the last few as the Chief Steward.
In the early years, Ann was ably supported by her husband, Graham, a former show councillor himself, with the small livestock section. She told how she would iron six shirts, pack a hamper with food for six days and they would move from their home at Humpty Doo to camp at the showgrounds for the duration. For a number of years, Ann also assisted with the horticulture section. She is a highly accomplished needleworker and has won numerous prizes including Best in Show several times over the years. Ann’s talents have also won prizes in the cooking section. Ann recently retired from her position with the Northern Territory Treasury, and she and Graham are moving to Queensland to be closer to family. Each year, however, they intend to return to Darwin for the show.
Following the official opening, we moved to the members’ enclosure to watch the Grand Parade before joining the President for refreshments. Also enjoying the parade were several of my colleagues from the federal parliament as well as this parliament. I have to say that I love the Grand Parade; it provides a snapshot of the show’s events as the exhibitors, the prize winning livestock and small animals and vehicles pass by. I particularly enjoyed the harness horses; their turnouts were superb with most drivers in period dress.
The winners of the stallholder awards were:
Commercial and Industrial: first Waterfall World; second Country Sounds, third Red Centre Farm.
I must say I am surprised at those awards because Community Development was inundated by people wanting little hammers through which you could also blow bubbles, and they were a wild success so I am surprised that they did not do better.
The Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Trophy for the Outstanding Exhibitor at this year’s show was won by Charles Darwin University Rural College at Katherine. Congratulations to all the winners and placegetters. I commend all the exhibitors at this year’s show. My congratulations also to Noel Padgham and to Rink van der Velde who received awards for 20 years service as councillors.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I want to pay tribute to a modest but very important person. Percy Ellis has been involved with the Royal Darwin Show for 30 years. In this time, he has become intimately involved with every aspect of organising and running this complex community activity. He started in 1974 helping as a gate keeper for his first few shows. The next year, he became a show councillor, working as a jack of all trades using his carpentry skills and background to enhance the show itself. Percy built the newest horse stables, extended the agricultural hall and each year makes trophies that are presented to exhibitors as the President’s Encouragement Awards for Poultry, Horticulture, Craft and Aviculture.
Following eight years as Senior Vice President, Percy undertook the challenging task of President of the Show Council, a role he undertook with great enthusiasm, patience and goodwill for the past nine years. This year, due to a change in the constitution of the committee, Percy is stepping down from this beloved role with the Show. Percy’s love for the show is seen in his active participation as an entrant in many of the cooking and craft competitions. Everyone knows that Percy’s fruit cake is without peer, his sultana cake and damper are blue ribbon, and he has won first prize three years in a row for his alcoholic ginger beer.
As President of the Society, Percy has worked hard to keep the show focussed on being an event for the whole family. He and his wife, Judy, have made significant contributions to the show. Judy is very supportive of all the time and effort that Percy puts in, and she is equally as active a participant in the workings of the show each year. Although she will not compete against Percy in cake baking, Judy’s excellence is in the field of craft and decoupage.
Percy Ellis received the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2001 for his contributions to the Agricultural Show and to umpiring. A Life Member of the Umpires Association, Percy has been a volunteer umpire in the Territory since 1974, and has made major contributions to the sport and the discipline.
Percy and Judith will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in November this year. I wish them all the best and congratulate them on the years that they have given their time, effort and support to our community and to the show.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I take this opportunity to thank the many staff and volunteers of the Australian Red Cross in the Territory. This is a milestone year for the many hundreds who have participated in Red Cross programs, and who give their time and effort regularly to assist those in need in our community. Australian Red Cross was initially formed as the Australian Branch of the British Red Cross on 13 August 1914. Red Cross in Australia reached a landmark 90 years of operation this month.
The inaugural meeting of the Northern Territory Division was held at Government House, Darwin, on 19 May 1915. It was initially chaired by the wives of Northern Territory Administrators, Mrs Gilruth and later Mrs Hilda Abbott. The support of the Administrator, and particularly the wife of the Administrator, has always been very strong, and this year, as patron of the Australian Red Cross, Nerys Evans has been working with volunteers at the hospital, selling raffle tickets and visiting all of the programs that Red Cross run.
The work of the Red Cross was focussed initially on assisting our soldiers during war time. Given our small population at the time, we can be proud that funds raised by the Northern Territory Division during the First World War was over 13 000, and extrapolated to today’s dollars, this is a very significant amount.
Over the years, Red Cross in the Territory continued this amazing effort of fundraising for our boys overseas. Women in Pine Creek, Brocks Creek, Tennant Creek, Katherine and Alice Springs knitted socks for soldiers, sewed clothing for children and pyjamas for hospital patients. Fund raising in pastoral properties, townships and small communities allowed garments, tobacco and food essentials to be sent as overseas relief Equipment was purchased for local hospitals and military bases, evacuees were assisted, victims of the bombing of Darwin were comforted and cared for.
Over the past 90 years, the work of the Australian Red Cross has changed in nature. Now the staff and volunteers of this organisation provide important services for youth and in aged care. Home care and hospital care still exists in the forms of Meals on Wheels and library services.
When we think of the Australian Red Cross, the first aid training and the Blood Bank service come immediately to mind. The first Blood Transfusion Committee was established in 1946.
As an aside, and as an important historical fact, in 1996, Greta Quong took over the running of the Blood Transfusion Service. Greta and Eddie have been constant supporters of the Red Cross over the years, and can still be seen in the Mall or at Casuarina encouraging people to buy raffle tickets.
Another well known and long time supporter and worker for the Red Cross is Rosemary Burkitt. Rosemary took over management of the Home Help Service in 1976 and, almost 30 years later, still occupies that position.
The Northern Territory Division of the Red Cross played a prominent role in the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy in December 1974 in what was to become the largest relief operation in the Australian history. Among other things, Red Cross organised emergency food distribution, the disbursement of cyclone relief funds and the movement of people to and from evacuation centres. Social worker services were provided; more than 2000 mattresses, 6000 sets of sheets, thousands of pillows and pillow slips and numerous blankets were given out.
The Meals on Wheels service was quickly restored, using relatively primitive cooking facilities in the early days after the cyclone.
The tracing service was very active and tonnes of clothing was also distributed.
The Blood Bank was re-established as soon as possible, operating out of temporary facilities at the pharmacy of Darwin Hospital.
The work of the Red Cross in humanitarian crises is well recognised. The Darwin Red Cross has been very active in this endeavour, both through their ongoing commitments to humanitarian law and participation in times of need.
In the most recent the example, the Northern Territory Division volunteers assisted during the time of the East Timorese conflict by registering for tracing purposes more than 300 refugees from Timor in 48 hours. Food and clothing assistance was provided to family and friends of victims evacuated to Darwin. Several days later, the Executive Director and another manager were deployed to Bali to participate in the Australian Red Cross delegation sent to assist the families of Australian victims, support the Pelang Merah Indonesia, which is Red Cross Indonesia, and identify the optimum use in Bali of funds raised through the Bali appeal being run by Australian Red Cross.
There are around 150 people on the staff of Red Cross in the Territory in addition to the wonderful team who operate the blood service in Alice Springs and Darwin. Ian Watts is the very capable Executive Director who leads a hard-working team. Moya Perry heads the very busy and growing Youth and Community Services area, which runs the Tiwi Island holiday program, the SHAK, the Energy Cruz after-school program, Breakfast Clubs and many other activities.
The disaster response area is headed by Leo Price, who was awarded an OAM for his efforts immediately after the tragic bombings in Bali. He also oversees the opportunity shops throughout the Territory.
In Alice Springs, the Regional Manager is Leony Bowey. Leony is a bundle of energy who recently took the lead in establishing a great breakfast program at Yipirinya Primary School.
Red Cross operates the Territory’s longest-running aged care facility. Located in Katherine, the facility is overseen by committed Regional Manager, Susanne Brown. The large finance and administration activity for Red Cross is managed by Kathy Sadler. Kathy has a very strong commitment to Red Cross and recently returned from a three-month deployment to China, where she was involved in the very important Red Cross HIV-AIDS program.
The raising of funds is very important to the operation of Red Cross, and relative newcomer to the management team, Margaret Richards, has wasted no time in getting on with the task. Well known local, Andrea Lee, plays a great role in coordinating the many volunteers who are the lifeblood of Red Cross.
This team, working under Ian Watts, is supplemented by many extraordinary staff members, each doing their best to keep the many arms of Red Cross working efficiently in service provision to our community.
The Divisional Council of the Australian Red Cross is chaired by John Reeves QC. The Northern Territory is also well represented at the national level with two of our prominent Territorians and NT Divisional Council members holding the important positions of Vice President of the National Council. Dr Bill Wilson is Chairman of the National Disaster Response Committee, and John Pinney is Chairman of the National Committee for Tracing, Refugees and Asylum Seekers. Their election to the positions of Vice President indicates the high esteem in which they are held both locally and nationally.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I note the shortness of time. The balance of my speech is non-controversial and completes the history of the Red Cross in the Territory. I seek leave to have the remainder of my remarks incorporated into the Parliamentary Record.
Leave granted.
- Importantly, every day throughout the Northern Territory around 90 volunteers don their Red Cross badges and do something for others in the community. Their roles include:
providing support to staff in the various offices; and
Throughout the years, there have been hundreds of dedicated Territorians who have given their voluntary support to the Red Cross, volunteers from all backgrounds and ages.
Mr Wilf Gilbert-Purssey joined the Red Cross in the 1930s and has continued to be a very active member of the Divisional Council. Wilf’s experience and history has added much to the workings of the Red Cross over the years.
More recently, with the opening of the very successful SHAK, a committee of volunteers aged 12–18 have formed an advisory committee to ensure that the program is valuable and meaningful for our youth.
I offer my thanks and congratulations to all of these people. Although there are too many to mention by name tonight, these hundreds of volunteers have made a difference by their efforts.
I also wish to encourage others to consider giving up a little of their time and energy to assist associations like Red Cross who provide such a valuable service to our Community.
I thoroughly enjoy visiting this learning unit, which is located in R Block. In December last year, I decided I would visit them for their Christmas function. I was invited along and the students had prepared Christmas lunch for me. They had gone to a great deal of trouble, decorated the table and room to make it very special.
As a result of that, I have been there several times for a meal, and I promised to host the students for lunch early this year. Unfortunately, I had not got around to doing that in the first term of school, but I made a promise that I would do it, and I was very fortunate and honoured to be able to fulfil that promise today by hosting a lunch on the Speaker’s Green. Student Teacher David Arnold does a fantastic job with these students, and he arrived today with his helpers, Bev Arnold, Colleen Hodgson, Teresa Festing and Toni Stevens.
The students they brought to Darwin for two nights and three days of some good fun and relaxation were Anthony Smith, William Mudge, Bradley Stevens, Conrad Barnes and Tasha Paddy. Those students have been eagerly awaiting this trip to Darwin. They have been counting the days, especially Anthony Smith, who has been so excited about this trip to Darwin. It was a joy to have them in Parliament House today. I would especially like to thank Toots and her staff at Speaker’s Corner for setting up the table for us outside in this magnificent weather and with the fabulous view of Darwin Harbour, which was a real treat for the students. Of course, she prepared plenty of delicious food that was enjoyed by the group. I also want to give special thanks to the security staff who assisted David Arnold with the parking of the bus, which he had a little difficulty doing, so it was very much appreciated.
Following the lunch, the students went ten pin bowling and were pretty excited about it. I am absolutely delighted to have had the opportunity to host them at Parliament House and I will welcome them back whenever they would like to come. I look forward to visiting them at Katherine High School again very shortly.
Another issue that I would like to talk about tonight is the restructuring of Tourism Associations in the Territory. Earlier this year, we had the restructuring of the Tennant Creek Tourism Association. There are now two separate entities for marketing and for visitor information in two different locations. At this point in time, discussions are also happening in Katherine with almost, by the look of the paper yesterday, a foregone conclusion that the same situation will eventuate in Katherine where we will have a marketing position and a visitor information service. I do not say it is all bad, but what concerns me is that it seems that the demise of existing visitor information centres has been an underlying ambition and plan of the government.
About five years ago when I was Chairman of the Katherine Region Tourism Association and Sharyn Innes was General Manager, this proposal was put to us and we were dead against it because we could see the breaking down of the supply of information and the marketing of the region. This is an area that concerned us greatly. At that time, the discussion was a marketing position for Top End and Central Australia. There was no mention of one for Tennant Creek or in Katherine. So we fought for that, we fought hard to retain marketing in those two regions. In Tennant Creek, it was Joan Small, in Katherine it was Sharyn Innes and our respective Chairmen fought very hard to retain marketing in those areas.
Mr McAdam: You are talking about 10 years ago, member for Katherine.
Mrs MILLER: No, it is not. I have been involved with the tourism industry and have been the Chairman for nine years in Katherine. What we have now is a marketing position in Tennant Creek and obviously they have decided to retain a marketing position in those outer regions, which I am very happy about.
What concerns me is that there seems to be an underlying plan for the demise of the way they are set up at the moment. Katherine had a public meeting this week for comment on the restructuring of the Katherine Region Tourism Association. Comments from people who attended the meeting on Monday night was that they were railroaded. They said the meeting it was a foregone conclusion and their opinions did not count. So what I would like to know is: is it planned to go down the same road with Tourism Top End and with Central Australian Tourism Industry Association? They share some genuine concerns about the direction that they may be heading.
I do not say that it is a bad idea, but I would like to know if there is an underlying reason for the demise of tourism associations as they are structured at the moment.
Mr McAdam: There is no demise in Tennant Creek.
Mrs MILLER: Pardon?
Mr McAdam: There is no demise of tourism …
Mrs MILLER: No, it is restructuring of the way it works.
Mr McAdam: No, absolutely not.
Mrs MILLER: Yes, it is.
Mr McAdam: No.
Mrs MILLER: I have a briefing tomorrow with the Tourist Commission, and it is a restructuring of the way it works. The same in Katherine; there is going to be a restructure. What I want to determine is whether the same restructure going to happen with Tourism Top End and CATIA. I will hopefully have those answers tomorrow.
I was not going to say anything tonight, but I believe everyone in this Assembly is here to do the best they can for the Northern Territory. I respect that, and I respect everyone here because we all come into the House with the best intentions to represent the people of the NT to the best of their ability.
I don’t often sit in my office listening to proceedings because I like to be in the Chamber if I can, but I urge members to ensure, when they are making comments and utterances, that they close their microphones because it has been so disappointing for me over the past few days when I haven’t been well and have been lying in my office listening to hear some of the things that are said. It makes it hard for me to retain respect. It applies to both sides of the House. I urge everyone to ensure that they close their mike before making detrimental remarks or derogatory comments.
I will conclude with a quote that I heard in a film when I was very young: ‘People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones’.
Mr STIRLING (Nhulunbuy): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I rise to acknowledge Andrew Smith’s contribution to the Northern Territory. Andrew will leave his position with the Northern Territory public sector next week to return to his home state of Queensland. I want to place on record the government’s appreciation to Mr Smith for his effort and dedication over the last eight years.
Andrew’s first involvement with the Territory was as a consultant to Treasury, developing the Territory’s Tax Equivalents regime. On completion of this project in 1996, Andrew accepted a position with Treasury and commenced as Director of Revenue Development in August of that year. By April 2003, Andrew had been promoted to Deputy Under Treasurer, Revenue and Licensing.
In recent years, Andrew has been responsible for two major portfolios within Treasury: the Revenue Division and the Racing, Gaming and Licensing Division. Andrew has also held the statutory responsibility of being Commissioner of Taxes since 1998. In his role as Commissioner of Taxes, Andrew presided over significant changes to the Territory’s revenue office and tax system by introducing contemporary governance and management. This included significant legislative and organisational reform to the NT’s taxation regime by reforming the pay-roll tax rate and threshold - the then Treasurer acknowledged Andrew’s assistance with these measures on the Parliamentary Record by referring to him as being ‘as sharp as a box of razor blades’ – as well as improving the availability and readability of taxpayer information, increasing the business community’s awareness of the role of Territory revenue management, and improving the way in which tax payers return tax to the Territory.
Andrew also played an important role in looking after the Territory’s interests as part of national tax reform and the impact of the High Court’s 1997 decision questioning the constitutional standing of the states and territories business franchise fees drawn from tobacco, fuel and liquor.
Andrew placed a high priority on reducing compliance tax costs for tax payers, but held a firm stance for championing the integrity of the tax system, ensuring compliance with the Territory’s tax laws and ensuring the correct penalties were payable in instances of non-compliance.
Andrew developed a close rapport and was well respected by Treasury staff, ministers and the other state and territory Commissioners of Taxation. Andrew could always be relied on for offering a well reasoned approach for resolving problems.
Andrew has been the senior Treasury manager in the Racing, Gaming and Licensing Division, working in conjunction with the Northern Territory Licensing Commission and Northern Territory Racing Commission to oversee the policy development of compliance and enforcement activities of the division.
Andrew presided over the review and re-establishment of the Community Benefit Fund and was appointed Chairman of the Community Benefit Committee, the formation of the Responsible Gambling Code of Practice Working Party and its transition to the Responsible Gambling Reference Group, the formation of the Northern Territory Principal Racing Authority and establishing of the Thoroughbred Funding Agreement, the establishment of the Greyhound Funding Agreement, the acquisition of MGM Grand Casino by SKYCITY Australia Pty Ltd, the National Competition Policy Review of the Territory’s gambling and liquor legislation, and the establishment of the Alcohol Framework project.
Andrew strongly represented the interests of the Territory’s in national forums and working parties, especially in relation to bet exchange issues and cross-border betting negotiations.
Andrew’s work with the Northern Territory Licensing Commission is another example of the positive working relationships he built in his time in the Territory. The current Chairman of the Commission, John Withnall, has asked that I place on the record his appreciation of Andrew’s professional approach in working with both the Licensing and Racing Commission, and the commission wishes him well in his future endeavours.
As Treasurer and Minister for Racing, Gaming and Licensing, I have valued Andrew’s advice and support. I am sure that he will continue to make a significant contribution in whatever he chooses to do. We wish Andrew well for the future. I want to acknowledge in this House the value of his contribution to the Territory. All the best, Andrew.
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Arafura): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I rise to inform the House of Arafura constituents’ involvement in this year’s Darwin Festival.
The Arafura electorate has a long tradition of involvement by its artists, performers and musicians in the Northern Territory’s premier community arts festival, and I am pleased to say that this year is no exception.
At the Black Music, Bright Future concert, Warruwi was represented by the talented vocal acoustic duo, Rupert and Renfred Manmarulu, and the rock band Northern Gentlemen. Paul Djolpa McKenzie from Maningrida is a potential superstar, so prodigious is his talent and capacity to play across all musical styles that he could be the next Prince. Djolpa and his band Wildwater have been wowing Territory audiences for years and played several times and this year’s festival. He is a very worthy nominee in the Best Indigenous Male Artist category of the inaugural Northern Territory Indigenous Music Awards, another worthy Martin government arts initiative.
Nabarlek from Manmoyi Outstation near Gunbalanya are also nominees in the Best Indigenous Act category at the awards and will be playing on the bill at the awards presentation this Saturday, the 28th, at the Botanic Gardens.
The Injalak Dancers from Gunbalanya had five night seasons as part of the traditional indigenous dance component of this year’s festival. Injalak dance the story of the yam and how the Kunwinjku came to use it for the first time.
I congratulate the Festival Director, Malcolm Blaylock for this new dance initiative. I have had very positive feedback from locals and tourists alike about the world-class dance experience afforded to festival goers this year.
Whilst in town, the Injalak Dancers were able to attend a lunch in their honour hosted by His Honour the Administrator at Government House. The Government House Foundation, chaired by well known Darwin businessman Kerry Ambrose Pearce, has commissioned six large paintings by very significant - indeed, famous - artist from Gunbalanya and outstations to reflect the six seasons recognised by the Kunwinjku people of the region.
The artists represented in the collection are Danny Djorlom, Bardayal ‘Lofty’ Nadjamerrek AO, Thomson Yulidjirri, Isaiah Nagurrgurrba, Gabriel Maralngurra and Bruce Nabegeyo. Members should ensure they view these magnificent paintings next time they visit Government House. They are beautifully displayed in the dining room.
For members’ edification, this time of the year in the Kunwinjku view of the world is wurrkeng, the time when the hunting fires are many, when mankung or honey becomes plentiful as the plants begin to flower and native bees become active.
Gunbalanya held its famous open day last weekend, and I was delighted to, once again, for the third year, to open it together with the senior traditional owner, Jacob Nayinggul. Again, visitors came from near and far, including Madam Speaker and members of her family. They enjoyed the day with a number of visitors, both national and international, who once again descended upon Gunbalanya for this great open day. Everyone enjoyed a great weekend of cultural and sporting attractions.
Highlights included visits to the world famous Injalak Arts and Craft Centre, where visitors were able to purchase works of art directly from the artist and observe paintings and fibre works being created on site.
Rock art tours to the impressive Injalak Hills Rock Gallery proved to be the hottest ticket in town, with all tours sold out early.
Demed Outstation Resource Centre provided popular tractor tours over the flood plain and Demed Rangers conducted quad bike tours.
Other highlights for visitors included the availability of bush tucker all weekend, and the impressive yam dancing of the Injalak Dancers at the opening ceremony.
Football and basketball carnivals were held with a wide representation from Top End communities. Of course, in the football, St John’s College, once again, proved too good, winning the football competition for the second year in a row.
Shellie Morris performed during the afternoon and the Nabarlek Band rocked the night away with their unique style of reggae, rock and soul music. As usual, the night was completed by a spectacular fireworks display. To see the Arnhem Land sky lit up this way is quite a unique experience, and one not easily forgotten by those lucky enough to be there.
Most festivities occur at school, which graciously allow its facilities to be used for the day. It was great to see several classes displaying their work and selling cards and paintings to raise money for extracurricular activities like excursions.
I am delighted to inform members that they sold out. Congratulations to those little kids because they spent many weeks leading up to the open day creating these paintings and hoping that people would buy them. All the visitors took great delight in them.
This open day is largely put together by the community itself. In fact, this year is the first year that they have received funding for development of the festival. I congratulate the Gunbalanya community on their efforts with this year’s festival, and, in particular, organiser Adam Blake. It demonstrates loud and clear what can be achieved when everyone works together: Gunbalanya Council, Demed Association, Gunbalanya Community Education Centre, Injalak Arts and Craft, Gunbalanya Meatworks, Gunbalanya Store and Gunbalanya Air Charter.
In a ministerial report to this House recently, I outlined the success of the Community Cabinet recently held in my electorate Gunbalanya and Jabiru. I would like to add a few comments about individuals who were particularly helpful with our visit. I know my Cabinet colleagues were particularly impressed, as I was, with the very comprehensive and professional presentation made to them by Matthew Fagin on the Kakadu Sustainable Development Project.
I would like to add my personal thanks on behalf of Cabinet staff and departmental officials to Geoff Naumann, Lare Stanton and staff of the Gagudju Crocodile Hotel for the superb way they looked after us whilst there. The Gagudju Crocodile Hotel is an outstanding Territory business, one that enriches any Kakadu experience.
Another thriving Territory business in my electorate is the Maningrida Arts and Culture Centre. This world-famous arts organisation recently opened, in the front of the Crowne Plaza, a new retail outlet in Mitchell Street, Darwin, where a full range of Maningrida paintings, fibre work and sculpture is available for sale. The shop is managed by Matt Ward, and early sales indicate a bright future for this progressive organisation’s retail capacity. Maningrida Arts and Craft deserve every success in the future, and I wish them well.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I want to comment on two issues tonight.
The first is recent media coverage about FreightLink and its difficulties, and what implications there might be for us in Central Australia, in Alice Springs, and also in Darwin, without a doubt.
You will recall that construction of the railway line when it was ahead of schedule and the Chief Minister was so happy about it, literally delirious with joy that things were coming together so well. She was interviewed on ABC by Barbara McCarthy on 7 February 2003. She was asked about the railway line and what she thought about how it was going to help Darwin. The Chief Minister was happy to talk about Timor Sea gas and what it could do for the Territory. She went on to talk about the railway line. I quote a little from 7 February 2003:
- A new trade route for Australia, the significance of the rail is a new trade route for Australia, and it is $1.3bn investment. The challenge for this government is working with FreightLink to make sure that we do see the benefits in the Darwin economy and into the Northern Territory economy.
I know the Chief Minister has said on other occasions that this railway line will bring freight into the Territory and our cost of living will defiantly decrease. Later that year, she was interviewed by Daryl Manzie on TOP-FM on 12 May. Daryl Manzie said:
- Yes, indeed, and the work on the freight contracts of future freight, is that proceeding pretty satisfactory as far as your concerned?.
Martin:
- That is what FreightLink is all about. FreightLink is the operating arm of the consortium building the rail and that is their task. Because it is such an important task, we are working very closely with them, not surprisingly, and, again, that is happening through the Office of Territory Development.
Early this year, we are told that freight charges on the railway line were going to increase. The amount they are going to charge per tonne per kilometre was going to be greater than what it had been to bring the same tonnage into Alice Springs on the old rail.
The truckies and trucking companies were really concerned, voiced their objections, and I remember some media at that time, and we were told that our freight prices were going to go up by 20% plus.
I recall also when the Deputy Chief Minister and I were on the Territory Food Price Review and we found that food prices in Alice Springs were consistently between 2% to 5% lower than Darwin. With this increase in freight prices, we are concerned that food prices in Alices Springs would also increase, but what I found out later from FreightLink is that per tonne per kilometre of freight coming to Alice Springs is going to cost more than the per tonne per kilometre of freight coming to Darwin.
That tells me that the Alice Springs community will have to subsidise the Darwin community; a population of 25 000 to 30 000 subsidising a population of 100 000. How idiotic is that? Surely, freight in the Territory should always retain its differential. After all, Alice Springs is closer to the manufacturing base than Darwin.
Recently, we heard in the media that FreightLink is going to increase its charges by anything between 18% to 20% more than it is charging already. What is going to happen to our cost of living? It is going to increase. If the government had been intimately involved with FreightLink right from the beginning, making sure it has input into it and if the Chief Minister is the minister in charge of the railway, she should have been there, talking to them from the beginning making sure that our contribution to building the railway brings some benefits to the Territory.
At the moment in Alice Springs, we see a loss of some 150 direct jobs in the trucking industry plus an estimated 400 to 500 indirect jobs. We see food prices increasing even though the recent Territory Food Price Review showed that Alice Springs food prices remain the lowest in the Territory, though only marginally.
The railway line was to bring benefits to the Territory and all it has done so far is cause the Alice Springs community more grief than anything else. I blame it on the government for not keeping its eye on the ball, for not being involved with the railway line from the beginning. If we do not do that, we are going to get ourselves into trouble. The Chief Minister must not walk away from it and say: ‘That is private enterprise. I cannot be seen to be interfering with it’. Of course you are not going to interfere with private enterprise, but as the government representing the Territory, a place that contributed $200m to the railway line, we have every right to expect some benefits. As the government, you have to make sure that Territorians are heard so that FreightLink does not impose unreasonable prices on Territorians. If you do not do that, prices will keep going up and we will lose out.
One of the things we know can help the railway line is to see how many containers move up and down the track. Surely, if we can increase activity at the Darwin Port, it will increase freight moving up the railway line. I do not know what the port is doing at the moment. I understand it is probably about one-third of what a shipping company in Darwin is putting out through its own port. If that is the case, we have to have cooperation between the port and the shipping company so we can maximise output from the port. By doing that, we will create a critical mass or at least a sense of a critical mass so that others will be encouraged to use the port. The more it is used, the greater the freight volume and, hopefully, FreightLink will have a profitable business running the freight train to Adelaide and all of us, from Alice Springs to Darwin, will benefit from the railway.
The other issue I want to raise is a matter that has been burning in Alice Springs for some time. As late as November last year, the issue was publicised in the Alice Springs News, and to date we have heard nothing about a resolution of this matter.
I raised this issue with the Commissioner of Public Employment at a briefing that I had with him recently. Understandably, he did not want me to raise this issue too widely because it is particularly sensitive, but he was not able to give me a briefing, either. One way or another, I believe a briefing is essential. Because the minister had not been briefed at that time, he couldn’t brief me, either, and I accept that.
The issue relates to the mistreatment of several teachers in Central Australia. It has been going for quite a few years. A principal who had saved a bush school from collapse and went on to achieve recognition for the school at Territory and national levels for innovation, resilience and education reform, had been forced out by the education system in the Territory and denied due process at every turn. I quote from the Alice Springs News of 12 November 2003:
- The circumstances of her removal threw up yet unanswered questions about the department’s support for its staff, its school councils and for innovation in remote schools, as well as questions about the influence that powerful figures in the community as opposed to the school council and staff can have over the running of a government school.
I will not go into the names of the individuals. That would not be proper. Obviously, this person encountered difficulty within the department. It reached the stage where the school council and some parents, some 27 people all up, wrote to the CEO of the department saying that this person is:
- …a good principal. She respects us and our culture and, with her help, our vision for our children’s learning has happened. We want her to be able to keep working with us.
Despite all the pleadings from the community, the department continued to work against this person and, finally, she left. Letters to the CEO haven’t been able to get her anywhere. I quote the paper again:
- In August, she made an impassioned plea to Mr Stirling for his intervention, writing to him…
Only after she had finally accepted her redundancy did Mr Stirling respond, saying that the matter was now closed.
After that report, other teachers then started coming to the media to tell their stories. There was another case of a bush principal who was also pulled out at short notice, in the middle of a flood, forced to risk driving through creeks where the water came over the bonnet of her car, carrying three small children.
After two years of battling the department, they finally settled out of court, causing the teacher more stress and anxiety. Anyway, the teacher has now left the Territory. I have had communication from this teacher and her husband. I know that they have contacted the Chief Minister and have not had a single response from her. It is a real pity that these people who have a grievance and have tried, through due process, to get somewhere and they have got absolutely nowhere. This government, through personal approaches by the victims, has not seen fit that they should respond to their pleadings.
There was a third teacher who was a specialist teacher who waited more than 16 months for an apology from the department over the administrative errors that caused that teacher to lose her position and to suffer chronic depression and anxiety, and now having to undergo psychiatric treatment. Over and over again, she pleaded with the department. In fact, the psychiatrist said her situation had been aggravated by the lack of response from the department. So, finally, she had to leave the town.
These three cases, plus several others that I find in the papers, are all waiting for justice, for some resolution to their situation. They need to have answers. The minister, rightly, decided to call for an enquiry, which he did late last year. Immediately, it was followed by an investigation. I know that the Commissioner for Public Employment was involved, as was a private company from Western Australia which undertook the investigation. Well and good. I also know that the report has been done for quite some time. It is probably collecting dust, just like every other report that has gone to this minister. We have been waiting for the minister to let us know what is going on.
I say to the minister: it is time it is you released the report. Let these people have their day in the sun so that they can get on with their lives. They want to have justice and closure on this part of their life that they have found most unpleasant. I hope the minister will do this soon so that we can get on with it. I hope I can then say to the people who contacted me: ‘Yes, the minister has done this and here is the report,’ and do what you need to do with it to move on with your lives.
Mrs AAGAARD (Nightcliff): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I rise tonight to congratulate and thank the Indian Cultural Society of the Northern Territory for bringing the very special dance troupe of Purna Das Baul to Darwin. This was the first visit to the Territory of this very special troupe, and I would like to note that these people were in the gallery today and it was good to see them again.
It was my pleasure to attend the concert at the Sound Shell at the Botanic Gardens on Saturday, 14 August as part of the Festival of Darwin. Baul is a folk tradition that believes in love for humanity, irrespective of caste, faith and religion, colour and custom. It conveys a universal message of self respect, inner enlightenment and peace using the Bangla language.
The Bauls have taken elements from devotional Hinduism, Buddhism, Christian and Sufi Islam. Purna Das Baul has been vital in maintaining and reviving the Baul tradition. This unique tradition is based on song, dance and music, and meditation which focusses on moner manush, the inner self. By honouring the inner self, one can honour others, and therefore Bhagavan or God. Baul songs express one’s attitude towards nature, love, the human body and society.
Members of the troupe are Purna Das Baul, who is the lead vocalist and strings player. He is an internationally acclaimed performer, having performed with legends such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. He was accompanied by his son, Dibyendu Das Baul, on vocals and strings; Sukumar Das on flute; Rabi Bhattacharya on percussion; and local residents Jayasri Chakravarti on harmonium, Priya Chakravarti, who was the Master of Ceremonies, and Sumati Chakravarti, who is a dancer.
It was a real pleasure to sit and enjoy this special presentation and particularly a delight to watch the 10 local children dancing in the Baul style with the troupe. My congratulations to the Indian Cultural Society of the Northern Territory for bringing this troupe to Darwin. It was pleasing that the Territory government was able to support this troupe with a $20 000 grant under the Cultural Linguistic Awards.
Tonight, I want to put on record my thanks to Liz McFarlane, who is leaving the Substance Abuse Committee as its researcher and taking up a permanent position with the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee. As Chair of the committee, I wish her well and thank her for her considerable contribution to the committee over the past three years. I am sure that all members of the committee wish her well in her new position.
I also thank His Excellency the Consul of the Republic of Indonesia, Mr Zacharias Manongga and Mrs Murni Manongga for their generous hospitality on the occasion of the celebration of the 59th Indonesian Independence Day on 20 August. The reception was a great success, with local entertainers, singers, dancer and musicians. I also congratulate Darwin historian, Mr Peter Spillet, who received a special award for his involvement in matters relating to Indonesia over a very long period. His acceptance speech moved many of us when he referred to Australia as his father and Indonesia as his mother. Peter is a great Territorian, and I congratulate him on his award and his continuing work for Territorians.
I also wish to recognise the Essington School this evening. I have had several occasions to speak on the successes of the Essington School in this House. It is my pleasure to do that once again, and to mark the occasion of the opening of its new music centre and fete on 21 August. This is the 15th year of the Essington School’s operation and, during those 15 years, the school has moved ahead in leaps and bounds. At the beginning of this year, the school required five new school rooms. At the beginning of 2005, the school will require a further five rooms, certainly evidence of what a success the school is.
The new music centre was officially opened by the Chief Minister, with the Principal, Mr David Cannon and School Council Chairman, Mr John McLaren. One of the highlights of the opening was the beautiful singing of the national anthem by Grace Ness, a student at the school and a new Australian citizen. Grace, congratulations on becoming an Australian and also on your very beautiful singing voice. I imagine we will hear more from you over the years.
The new music centre had many supporters, both from within the school and from the corporate world. The Northern Territory government was also very pleased to provide the land for the centre. I extend my thanks from the Nightcliff community to Mr Duncan Begg from ADrail who assisted in project management, Mr Tony Smith from NT Link who built the buildings, the Alexopolous family who assisted with the concrete and pathway, Cridlands for providing the curtain material for the music centre, Christina Spargo for making the curtains, and Top End Sounds who have always been generous supporters of the Essington School music program.
I also recognise Mrs Jill Kuhn, the Essington School Music Coordinator, and her excellent team, who have created the demand for such and outstanding music offering and program.
Mr ELFERINK (Macdonnell): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, tonight I raise an issue with the minister for police because I have some concerns about a series of facts that occurred around the time that Mr Anderson was being harangued by the Northern Territory government. It deals with the traffic apprehension in the Daly Street area, if memory serves me correctly, when Mr Anderson was pulled up at gun-point by the police.
I want to go through the facts as they occurred, which led to that traffic apprehension. When the police pulled him over, they must have been acting on a complaint because, as I understand it, he was committing no traffic offence at the time. The fact is that, even had he been committing a traffic offence, it is not the custom of police officers to deal with traffic offenders at gun-point. Therefore, the police must have been in receipt of some information that made them do what they did.
I now go to when Mr Anderson got off the aeroplane and picked up his firearm, which was securely fastened in a firearms case and was entirely lawfully transported. It is not unusual for aircraft to carry firearms when the bolt is removed and they are secured in the hold. Everything that Mr Anderson did whilst transporting that weapon was entirely appropriate.
How I know this is that when Mr Anderson got off the aeroplane, he obtained his firearm and took it to the car park where he picked up his hire car. He was escorted, as I understand it, by either Australian Protective Services or Australian Federal Police. In either instance, the federal authorities had no problem with the way Mr Anderson was conducting himself and transporting the weapon.
Mr Anderson made his way through a media scrum, got his hire car and started to drive into town. On that journey, the police must have been in receipt of some information. I am guessing that the information was this: they had received a telephone call and were acting on complaint that a person was armed with a firearm, driving into the city centre. I believe that to be the case because that is the only reason police would engage in a hostile vehicle apprehension in the way that they did.
The radio call must have gone something like this to the police officers in the car: there is a car that we are looking for with such and such a number plate, of such and such of a description, and in that vehicle there is a firearm, approach with caution or something like that. That is the only reason the police would engage in a hostile vehicle apprehension. So that call goes out. The direction of the vehicle is known or police were simply lucky in finding the car. So they pull over Mr Anderson and, at gun-point, get Mr Anderson out of his car and everything is determined to be fine and, ultimately, Mr Anderson is allowed to go on his way.
The question is: if the police were acting innocently, and I absolutely believe that they were and they were acting on information they received, who made the call? Who told police that this vehicle was of such a threat to the community that the police thought it was necessary to do what they did at gun-point?
It would be very easy for the minister to simply state in this House that they know who made the phone call because when someone rings the police, one of the first questions you are asked is: what is your name and address? Calls are recorded. I want to know from the minister tonight who made the telephone call. I would also like to know why that person has not been charge with making a false report to police.
It is a criminal offence to make a false report to police when that report requires some sort of action or investigation. Clearly, from the film footage that we have seen, there was action taken by police in such circumstances that it appears, on the face of it, to have been a false report to police that instigated the series of events that next occurred.
If the minister is not prepared to tell this House that someone has been charged with an offence or not prepared to investigate the matter any further, we have to make a few summations. We know what the government’s attitude is in relation to its media officers on the fifth floor because we heard an answer from the Minister for Community Development the other day saying he has no problem with his media officer under any circumstances talking to the media, despite the fact that environment was being used to hound Mr Anderson.
If the minister is not prepared to either tell this House that an investigation has been completed and appropriate action has been taken, or if the minister is not prepared to hold some sort of inquiry, I will try to find out what happened in that sequence of events to fill in the blanks, and woe betide this government if it had anything to do with it at all.
Mr AH KIT (Arnhem): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I rise this evening to pay tribute to an employee of the Northern Territory Public Service who recently announced his retirement, a man who gave 25 years of excellent service to the Northern Territory, Mr Neil Prosser.
For any new government, being elected creates some uncertainties and trepidation for new ministers like me. There is a lingering feeling about how you will go about your job and how well you will be received by the public and, perhaps even more scary, by that vast bureaucracy of public servants you need on side to help with policy, legislative developments and advice.
After over 27 years of a single government, you had to consider what reception you would have. It is a great credit, however, to say that our long-standing public servants were more than up to the task and took a change of government in its stride and with ease. From the first days, it was apparent that I was not going to be eaten alive, and that the information and advice I sought was timely and forthcoming.
Whilst there are some who would argue that the long-standing Westminster system in this country has been corrupted and politicised, after three years on the job as minister, I can safely say that this is a myth. It is one of my greatest pleasures in this job to know that support and professional advice is provided by our public service without fear or favour. Many of these public servants remain in the background and carry out their work largely unsung. In particular, our long-serving officers continue to provide role models for new recruits and are there to lead the way in maintaining the high traditions of the public service.
Neil Thomas Prosser retired from the Department of Community Development, Sport and Cultural Affairs on 6 August this year. Neil joined the Department of Lands in March 1979 and spent his first six months with the Planning Branch before moving to the Pastoral Branch where he undertook research into the Territory’s pastoral leases, including their currency, existing covenants and lease terms.
In 1981, Neil moved to the Land Development Branch and busied himself with land sales under David Beale. During this time, the branch was involved in a major review of the Territory, particularly Darwin, to identify all available blocks and getting title to all Housing Commission properties. This period saw some phenomenal prices achieved at auction and was a very exciting time in the Territory’s development.
In 1989, Neil moved to Capital Works, which provided head works for the new suburbs of Karama, Leanyer and the commencement of Palmerston before the Palmerston Development Authority was established.
In 1991, Neil made a career move into the Legislation area of the Department of Lands with the legendary Joe Sarif. During this period, he was associated with the development of the Cullen Bay Marina Act and the Pastoral Land Act.
In probably his best known role in the public service, Neil moved into the Secretariat of the Department of Lands, Housing and Local Government in 1994 where he continued his career from Ministerial Liaison Officer through to Acting Director, Secretariat, in that department. Neil noted at his retirement function that in six years, he had served under five different ministers, which created quite a challenge.
In May 2002, Neil moved from Director, Secretariat to the Acting Director’s position in Legislation, his final position within the department. It was, of course, during this period that I had the pleasure of working closely with Neil as we pursued our legislative agenda. Over the past three years, Neil was instrumental in seeing through the amendments to the Local Government Act, the new Swimming Pool Fencing Act as well as major work on the Animal Welfare Act and the Places of Public Entertainment Act.
Amendments to the Local Government Act had taken over six years to get to the Assembly, and it was my first experience in taking legislation through all stages. Leading up to the second reading and committee stages of the bill, Neil spent considerable time with me to make sure I was comfortable with the bill, and his patience and explanations were greatly appreciated. This process was repeated a number of times and, in particular, during the introduction of the Swimming Pool Fencing Act.
Neil’s qualities as a long standing public servant are well known to many. It would be difficult to find a more loyal, committed and honest public servant who has never been afraid to put his point of view, but always politely and courteously. Neil’s commitment to achieving our policy objectives is a great example of our long standing public servants who work quietly and conscientiously in the background, often unheralded.
Neil has had a distinguished career, and has served under a number of chief executives in that time, including Ross Fountain, Don Darben, Col Fuller, Paul Tyrrell, Bob Beadman, Graham Symonds and, finally, with Mike Dillon. In such distinguished company, however, Neil singles out Don Darben as the best administrator the Territory had as Secretary for Lands, followed by Bob Beadman, with whom Neil worked closely for over six years.
Neil said that the most memorable and exciting times in his career were the booming years of land development and major headworks in the mid- to late 1980s, followed by the demanding but highly rewarding work in Legislation and Secretariat.
Neil was joined by his wife, Elaine, and his two daughters at his farewell from the department, among his many friends and colleagues, and it was a pity that I could not be there on the day. However, I am assured that he was sent off in appropriate style.
Neil has bought a new caravan and, after an appropriate time around the house, intends, with Elaine, of course, to join the grey nomads in travelling around the country.
I take this opportunity to say thank you to Neil Prosser for his assistance and dedication to our policy development and implementation, which has made my task as minister all the easier. I wish him and his wife, Elaine, a long and happy retirement.
Members: Hear, hear!
Mr AH KIT: Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I would also like to raise the issue of hockey, and how hockey is progressing in the Northern Territory. As most members of this House would agree, hockey in the Territory has gone from strength to strength over the past few years.
The Northern Territory Hockey Association has both men’s and women’s teams represented in the Australian Hockey League. The Territory Stingers men’s team has been participating in the league for the past seven years, and the Territory Pearls for the past five years. Competing in the Australian Hockey League provides an important platform for aspiring Australian representatives, and acts as a stepping stone for hockey’s future international stars.
Both the Territory Stingers and the Territory Pearls have had their most successful results ever this year, with the Pearls finishing in fifth place, and the Stingers in sixth position, with both teams being highly competitive against the larger states.
I am particularly happy to announce today that I have, for the first time, this year approved the creation of a National League Incentive Fund. This fund will provide sporting codes such as hockey with a financial reward to assist towards the extremely high cost of fielding teams in national competitions on a weekly basis. Indeed, I hope that this fund provides incentive to other local sporting codes to consider building their sports to such a level that enables our local athletes to participate in national competition on a regular basis. I will be writing to those sports, such as hockey, that currently have national teams, to provide details to them on how they can apply for this funding.
In the life of the Martin Labor government, we have replaced synthetic pitches at Traeger Park to the tune of $800 000, and the Vodafone Hockey Centre at Marrara. I announced only a week ago that, at a cost of $300 000, we would be replacing the number two pitch at the Vodafone Hockey Centre. This will finalise a complete upgrade for the Territory over the last three years. The importance of these pitches to hockey cannot be underestimated. It allows players from a junior level onwards to play on world class surfaces. The proof of that pudding can be seen in Hockey NT’s national and international success.
In the current Olympics, two Hockey NT stalwarts are contributing as officials: Pip March and Jen Cook. Both the Hockeyroos and Kookaburras trained in Darwin before Athens. While the Hockeyroos could not repeat previous games success, all of us hope the Kookaburras will get up in the final.
The Northern Territory presently boasts 12 athletes in Australian squads, with the pinnacle of this being Mark Hickman, competing in hockey for Australia in Athens at the Olympic Games.
Australia bolted into its fourth Olympic men’s hockey final with an emphatic 6-3 victory over Spain in their semi-final in Athens last night. The Kookaburras will playing in the Olympic final for the first time since Barcelona in 1992 when they meet the Netherlands in Friday’s final after the reigning Olympic champions dismissed Germany 3-2 in an earlier semi-final. The Kookaburras have never won Olympic gold despite making the semi-finals in the last six Olympic campaigns. On behalf of all Territorians, we wish Mark every success if he makes the cut in tomorrow’s final and we hope the Kookaburras get up for an historic first win.
Hockey is unique in Territory team sports, as our elite athletes can reach the top of their sport whilst still representing the Northern Territory and playing in the Northern Territory.
A final point: Hockey NT has got to where it is not just through government support, past and present. They have done it through hard work and good governance. Congratulations to hockey President Peter Stoner and the other officials on your committee who serve your sport well, and Executive Officer, Carol Williams.
Ms LAWRIE (Karama): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I add my congratulations to the Northern Territory Hockey Association to those of the minister. I have played hockey here since 1971 and am very passionate about hockey in the Territory. It took me throughout Australia as a Territory representative, and I have seen how much it builds a great social fabric and network among the hockey players.
There have been some fantastic stalwarts in hockey, from Keith Kemp right through the good work done by Peter Stoner now, who is a constituent of mine. I thank the minister for using his valuable time here tonight to identify just how successful we are as a code in the Territory and how well governed hockey is.
Tonight, I wish to Manunda Terrace Primary School in my electorate. They held their annual auction on Saturday, 21 August, and it was a fantastic event. I do not have the final figures, but they tend to raise in the vicinity of $20 000 at the school auction, which, by any standard, is a phenomenal fundraising effort by a local primary school. The majority of hard work that goes into the auction, the collection of auction donations and the organising of the auction, is done by the School Council Chair, Mr Barry Brown, who is the auction coordinator, and his lovely wife, Deanna Brown.
Barry and Deanna are an absolute credit to the school community. They are committed to the school and to organising a successful auction. Barry takes annual leave from work for a couple of weeks each year leading up to the auction to organise everything. Deanna goes around for months leading up to the auction securing donations. Deanna was on the stall all day, cooking food and serving people. She had a babe in her arms, and they have young kids at the school. They pick up their young children and work hard. I have the utmost admiration for Barry and Deanna Brown. They are wonderful hard-working members of the Manunda Terrace School community.
It really was a lovely auction. I probably spent too much of my hard earned dollars there. It is very tempting. We have a great auctioneer. Jim Henderson conducts the auction for the school and he really does make it a fun and entertaining afternoon for all of us.
I congratulate the school principal, Dr Terry Quong. He puts a lot of effort into the auction and he was very busy all afternoon, filling in serving at the bar and doing a range of activities. We had a beautiful performance again from the Manunda Terrace Rope Ragers and I congratulate Jan Marie Cooper who puts a huge amount of effort into teaching those young girls at the school the finer art of Jump Rope. They are off again in a few weeks time to compete at the nationals in Sydney where they came overall second last year. I wish them all the very best for that competition.
It was my pleasure, during a break in the auction, to present the school with a cheque for $120 000 for shade on the basketball courts that the government committed to in this budget.
The school is absolutely delighted. I was overwhelmed by the applause that erupted at the auction to the presentation of that cheque. In a really lovely touch, the school presented me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and I thank them for that. That did not need to do that, but they are such a delightful school community and they are very grateful for any work that you can put in to assist them. They have an International Day coming up and I am looking forward to that. I have been along there for successive years and all the kids get out and cook different food from all over the world. It is just a fantastic day.
I want to particularly single out someone in the school community who ensures the auction is a financial success, and that is Nica La Pira. Nica La Pira is Patron of the school and each year, she donates significant indigenous art work for auction. Nica excelled again this year. The art work that they were able to auction was absolutely first rate, each piece going for several hundred dollars. There were several pieces donated by Mrs La Pira. I know that the school community is eternally grateful for her generosity and her magnificent support of Manunda Terrace Primary School.
Nica is a woman whom I greatly admire. She is a woman of strong opinions, not necessarily the same political ideology as my own. I know she has been a great supporter of the CLP over many years. What I do know about Nica is that she is a great supporter of the community and she has a very good ethic in terms of philanthropy in the community. She loves assisting, in particular, children in need and she has identified a very positive role for her philanthropy at Manunda Terrace Primary. I promised the school I would acknowledge her and I am tonight, and I will be writing to thank her as well because she is a fantastic Patron for the school.
There is a whole range of businesses which donated, far too many for me to single out and acknowledge. I am sure the school will be writing to each of them to thank them. It is great to see how so many different small business throughout our community step up and assist schools with their fund raisers. I know each of the schools in my community of Karama and Malak are able to get really nice donations from local businesses. I congratulate the small business community of the Territory for putting their hands in their pockets and helping out local schools in their fundraising efforts.
As we know, by the end of September, any school fundraising will be matched dollar for dollar by the NT government and that really provides for essential equipment to go back into the schools. I know Malak Primary School has recently been upgrading playground equipment through its fund raising and its dollar-for-dollar from the school council budget.
So congratulations to the wonderful community of Manunda Terrace Primary School. I thank Jim Henderson from Raine & Horne for his role as auctioneer. I thank the school community. It was so refreshing to see the principal, front office staff, teachers and parents working side by side on the food stalls, drink stalls, on the art and craft and the knick knack stall. My children fleeced me of money to buy everything out of the junk stall for which I thank the school!
I look forward to being back at the Manunda Terrace auction next year and supporting the school in any way I can because it is a fantastic school community in the electorate of Karama.
Mr KIELY (Sanderson): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, at Parliament House on 18 March this year at a function to celebrate National Harmony Day, the Minister for Ethnic Affairs, the Honourable Kon Vatskalis, launched the inaugural Multicultural Awards.
Four awards across three different categories were announced, after nominations closed in mid-April. A total of 30 nominations were received. The minister, in his wisdom, appointed a panel of six prominent Territorians to assess the awards. They were John Anictomatis AO, Raymond Chin AO, OAM, Mohammad Nurul Huq OAM, Jenny Medwell OAM, Joan Mullins and Maria Scaturchio. The panel considered awards in four categories: young person aged under 25; a person aged over 25; an organisation category; and the initiative and project category.
Nominations were of a high calibre, which is not surprising given the value that this community places on multiculturalism. In the individual under 25, the nominees were Emanuel Siriotis, Michael Siriotis, Thomas Siriotis, Melissa Siriotis, Deng Mador Koch and Atigoni Charalambous. The Siriotises are part of the Mediterranean Dance Group that get around to a lot of functions. I saw Emanuel the other day. He has a broken arm resulting from basketball, of all things. He was with his dance troupe at Anula School doing a presentation for the annual Literacy Olympics. It was a great function. Emanuel was leading it all and interacting with the students. I am not surprised that they were nominated, but, unfortunately, they didn’t get up. Another worthy nominee, Deng Mador Koch, was the winner of the Under 25 award.
If we look at the Individual over 25 years, I am proud to say that I know most of them on a personal basis. The nominees were: Mr John Rivas; Ms Fele Mann; Ms Paula Simeone; Ms Gloribeth Mondragon; Ms Emma Tantengco; Ms Lea Mussak, a wonderful woman with whom I used to work in the NT public sector; Ms Marguerite Baptise-Rooke; Ms Fredericka Gaskall; Mrs Suzanne Beynon; and the indomitable Ms Judith Ventic. What a great person she is and what a great worker for the Filipino and all communities. She will get in and MC anything at the drop of a hat. She is a great person.
I appreciate that it was for the panel to select an individual who stood out in that group. It was just as well we had a panel of such prominent Territorians who could separate these people because it would have been very tough. The winner, though, was Ms Marguerite Baptise-Rooke.
In the organisations, and this comes as no shock, the nominees were the Filipino-Australian Association that have the Barrio Festiva this Saturday night. I will be there, as will the members for Karama and Johnston, the Minister for Infrastructure, Planning and Environment, Dr Chris Burns, will most certainly be there.
Ms Lawrie: He never misses it.
Mr KIELY: No, and I won’t be surprised if we see many other government members come by because we value the Fipilino community. We value all our multicultural communities and what they do to enrich our society. I am pleased to say that we will all make time to get to the Barrio Festiva, which is a fabulous event, with Mr Rivas guiding it along.
Another nominee was the Melaleuca Refugee Centre. What great work they do. The Multicultural Council of the Northern Territory, whose work is just fabulous. The Greek Orthodox School, of course, we know well, and the interaction that our wonderful Greek community has with the broader community of the Northern Territory. We saw the fabulous effort on the soccer night. It is a shame that people from the CLP, particularly the member for Drysdale, slammed the event and continues to do it, saying we should not do too much for people from the multicultural sector. We do not subscribe to that view. I hope that they get over that before too long because it will come back to haunt them.
Great news! Anula Primary School was nominated, as was the Mediterranean Greek Cultural Dance Group and the Gray Primary School. It was fabulous that the Anula School was nominated. Once again, it was hard to split, but it was the Multicultural Council of the NT that picked up the award.
In the project initiatives, we had the Cultural Exchange to Japan by Katherine School, the Adult Greek Language Program at the Greek School, the Harmony Day Citizenship Ceremony at Anula Primary School, and I was there for that. It was fabulous. The nominator for that was Ms Sue Hyde, the Assistant Principal. The school got behind it, it was fabulous. There was a citizenship ceremony. It was great. A really great person and a great hard worker to the community, you see him at the Parap and Nightcliff markets, Mr Bobby Wibisono, was naturalised. It was a fabulous day.
Also nominated was Harmony Day at Alawa Primary School and Friday Morning Friends of Wagaman Primary School, nominated by Linda Neve. What a fabulous job they do over there. Harmony Day Celebrations at Sanderson High School, was another nominee. I attended that, too, and it was simply fabulous.
Once again, it would have been hard to split, but the committee had a good hard look at this. There can only be one winner, and that was Sanderson High School, and well done to them.
It was my pleasure, on Thursday 12 August 2004, to represent the Minister for Ethnic Affairs to present the school with the inaugural Multicultural Award in this the initiative/project category.
Sanderson High School’s project revolved around the 2004 Harmony Day Celebrations and gave students the opportunity to participate in activities to promote cultural understanding, respect, goodwill, appreciation of multiculturalism and work towards the elimination of racial discrimination. Preparations began in term four of 2003, with the launch of the Pastoral Care Group Poster Competition. The posters identified which ethnic groups are represented among the group and what Harmony Day means to them.
It was actually down to the visual arts group led, I believe, by Carol Rollason, a tireless hard worker for the school and a great artist. The arts staff and students enthusiastically supported the school’s big Harmony Day celebrations on 18 March. They initiated the idea of collecting the flags of all the countries and cultures represented at Sanderson High by students, staff, parents and guardians.
Twenty-six of the 46 flags were donated for display in the GBA. I had the pleasure of donating four flags: the Australian flag; the Territory flag, of which we are all so proud, but which we do not have to wear on our sleeve like some badge and wrap ourselves up in it; the Aboriginal flag; and the Torres Strait Islands flag. The flags were presented to the school in a colourful and moving ceremony at the commencement of the Harmony Day assembly. A procession of flag bearers entered the GBA to the strains of We Are One, sung beautifully by the Harmony Day Choir.
Mr Ron Strachan of World Flags, who sometimes pops in here, I see him up having a look around the place; is a tireless worker in Rotary. He is a great bloke and it was good to see he was behind that. Ron Strachan painted a little of the history and symbolism of each flag as it entered the GBA. Fabulous ceremony!
There are still 26 country flags to be collected. They are Angola, Bangladesh, Denmark, Ethiopia, Fiji, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Laos, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Korea, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Portugal, Samoa, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sudan and the United Kingdom. You can see the diverse multiculturalism in the community of Sanderson. What a fabulous thing that these teachers do to work with all these peoples of the world. This is just not a high school; this is a high school of the world; it is fabulous what goes on out there. This is an ongoing project, and while we still have 20-odd flags to acquire, and the ask is on for families with connections with community groups to seek a donation of $40 and then the flag can be purchased from Ron.
Part of the award was a $500 cheque, and I am informed by the Principal, Ms Denise Wilkowski, that the $500 will go towards purchasing flags. That is about 12 flags, so they are well on the way to having everyone represented.
As I said, 18 March was the chosen day for the culmination of Harmony Day activities, and the first activity of the day involved the preparation of the banners, and they promoted the You + Me = Us theme. Students were then involved in activities to increase their awareness of, and appreciation of, other cultures.
There was another activity that brought students together for an assembly featuring the recognition of the traditional owners. I have mentioned the parade of national flags. There was Shellie Morris, the Harmony Day Choir and a performance by the Darwin Greek School dancers. The Indonesian and Sudanese dancers were just fabulous. The choir sung Peace, O! which students had written and put to music with the assistance of Shellie Morris at workshops leading up to Harmony Day.
Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I seek your indulgence to table the lyrics of Peace, O! It is a great little song and it should be there for posterity, written by the students and Shellie Morris.
Leave granted.
Mr KIELY: The third activity featured the Inter-School Theatre Sports Challenge conducted by Corrugated Iron Youth Arts. Their theme was Moments Like These. It was a theatre sports-type challenge. This challenge will be an annual event involving students from Sanderson, Dripstone and St John’s competing in theatre sports and challenges highlight working and living in harmony.
This could not have happened without the great work of Tom McCall, the Harmony Day coordinator and the organising committee who did a fabulous job. They were Ms Hill, Ms Sara, Mrs Bartlett, Mrs Easterbrook and Mrs Rollason. As I said, Carol was right in there with tireless efforts leading up to the day and beyond.
The panel was impressed with the preparation required and the level of student and community involvement apparent in Sanderson High School’s Harmony Day celebrations. I put it to you: who could not have been? From this initiative, the school has instilled in its students respect and appreciation for cultural diversity and sense of community harmony. I congratulate all involved in this fantastic project. It sets a great example for other schools and elevates the profile of Sanderson High School.
We must not forget that Sanderson High is committed to moving all students towards a sense of harmony and reconciliation. This commitment is producing young adults with the sense of social justice, which is built into the fabric of the school.
These events could not happen, of course, unless they had an active high school committee and student representative council. Sophia Hoving was at the youth concert and the Youth Parliament contributing, particularly, on the issue of youth suicide and what could be done helping prevent it. She is very active in the school community. Brock Hall, Shane Boots, Ceah David, Ashlee McInnes and Daniel Pukeroa are the senior school members of the SRC and are doing a great job.
The school council is ably co-chaired Greg Gibbs and Sharon Clark, Co-Treasurers Denise Thomas and Gayle De La Cruz, and Secretary Tom McCall. They all do a fabulous job at Sanderson, led by the Principal Denise Wilkowski, and the Assistant Principals, Jan Moore and Marie Boland. I am thankful for the work they are doing with the kids there.
Council members are Fran Davies; Doreen Walsh; Anne-Marie Tully who, I understand, is heading off around about September - maybe a little later - to Canberra - I wish her all the luck; Gerry De La Cruz, and Bronwyn Clee. It is a wonderful team that they have at Sanderson who do it all.
I was a bit surprised and annoyed when the member for Greatorex, in his role as the opposition spokesmen on Education, Employment and Training, mentioned the consultation in respect of the Secondary Education Report. He said that I had not been to any community consultations, and that he had been to Sanderson.
I am sure that the people of Sanderson remember me sitting in the front row. There was the member for Greatorex, the CLP candidate for Sanderson - and I certainly hope that he is a bit more accurate with the truth than the opposition education spokesman - and the member for Karama. I was affronted by his claim that I had not attended community consultation. I am sure that the people of Sanderson would be affronted by it, too. I am an active participant in our school community. I am proud to get in there and help out the community, particularly our schools.
They are great schools. They deserve all the support and assistance that the government and opposition can give them. This government will support them. I, as the local member, will always be there fighting the hard fight so that Sanderson gets its fair share of the education pie.
Mr HENDERSON (Wanguri): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I would like to talk tonight about recent activities and profiling the Northern Territory as a business and skilled migration destination in the Philippines.
Increasing international awareness of business and skilled migration opportunities in the Northern Territory is a key initiative of the government and aligns with our economic development strategy, our Asian engagement focus, our international trade strategy, and our priority of population growth.
Between 5 and 13 August, an officer of my Department of Business, Industry and Resource Development worked closely with the Northern Territory government’s representative in the Philippines, Mrs Violy Searby, and conducted a series of seminars to highlight business and skilled migration to the Northern Territory.
The seminars focussed on rasing awareness in the business community about business opportunities, and the visa and migration options available to business people for establishing businesses or investing in the Northern Territory. The seminars also profiled opportunities for skilled migration to the Territory. This reflects recent Commonwealth changes to the requirements for skilled visas and an increasing demand in Territory business for skilled metal trades people to service the needs of our oil and gas projects.
Filipinos, especially those who have worked in the oil and gas industry in Singapore and the Middle East, have the international certification that is required by our Territory businesses.
Around 100 people participated in the four seminars conducted in Manila, Baguio, and Cebu. Two of these seminars were invitation only and drew from within business networks of Filipino entrepreneurs in the Northern Territory.
At this point, I acknowledge the contribution of Emilio and Nanetta Suntay of Suntay Aquaculture to this promotional activity. The Suntays are the business people who are developing a world-class aquaculture project here. They have long standing and influential business connections in the Philippines and they have been generous in providing access to their networks. Through their experience in doing business in the Territory, they were able to provide first hand testimony to doing business in the Territory and to the support they have received from Northern Territory government agencies.
Individual meetings followed the seminars. These catalysed interest in pursuing a number of potential business opportunities.
I am advised that several business people identified business and investment opportunities of interest and that arrangements are now been made for a business delegation from the Philippines to Darwin in September or October this year. During the visit, meetings were arranged with Australian Embassy Officers including a representative of the Department of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs. In this meeting, processing difficulties that have been experienced and visa applications through the embassy were canvassed and potential solutions and approaches to the problems discussed.
Whilst I recognise that there is a need for vigilance with the security issues that are part of the international environment today, I am also keen to ensure that we minimise potential barriers to genuine business people seeking to invest or do business in the Territory.
Given the increasing interest by Territory employers in recruiting skilled workers from overseas, meetings were also arranged with other senior representatives from Philippines agencies responsible for Filipinos and Filipino workers overseas. These meetings including Mr Jose Molano, Executive Director and Commissioner of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas and Director Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz who is the Administrator of the Philippines Overseas Employment Administration.
The meetings provided an opportunity to profile the Territory and skilled worker and migration opportunities to raise the awareness of these officials of the developments that have taken place in the Territory and of the presence of the Territory’s representative in Manila. A verbal invitation was issued to representatives of the Philippines Overseas Employment Administration to visit the Territory and to gauge their interest in visiting in the future.
In concluding, I must acknowledge the work of the Northern Territory government’s representative in the Philippines, Mrs Violy Searby, in putting together the comprehensive promotional itinerary and for work for the Northern Territory business people
Mrs Searby’s networks facilitate valuable access to potential business and trading partners in the Philippines for Territory business. I also recognise the officers in my department who do a great job in promoting the Northern Territory. In addition, I acknowledge the Philippines-Australia Business Council and their assistance with meetings in Cebu and Manila.
Finally, I believe it is also important to recognise the work of the Northern Territory’s Filipino community. Members of the Filipino community actively contribute to community activities, particularly in assisting new migrants and visitors from their country of birth to settle in the Territory. This work is vitally important in building our population through the attraction and retention of new migrants.
The Territory needs to increase its population and its skills base for future economic development. This recent work in the Philippines is testimony to the government’s commitment to these priorities.
Tonight, I wish to place on the record my thanks as member for Wanguri and minister for police, and the thanks, appreciation and recognition of this government to the great career in the Northern Territory Police Service of Sergeant Rod Strong who retired just a few weeks ago after 25 years.
Members: Hear, hear!
Mr HENDERSON: Every member of this House would know Rod personally. He is someone who has made a difference in the Northern Territory and has had a great career with the police.
Rod Strong joined the NT police in February 1979 and, over the next 15 years, served in remote communities in Central Australia, Darwin and on Groote Eylandt before being promoted to Sergeant in 1985.
In 1995, Rod began the role that would make him so well known to many Territorians, taking up a role in the Crime Prevention Unit as Neighbourhood Watch Coordinator. In the last nine years, Rod has become the police face of Neighbourhood Watch in the Top End and, as a certified Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design instructor, has helped many Territorians improve the safety of their homes and businesses.
Rod was always available to assist in any crime prevention forum that was being held in my electorate. When there were issues of businesses having problems with security, Rod and the team would be there to conduct security audits and talk to business people about improving their security, they would attend all Neighbourhood Watch functions. Rod is a person who is passionate about community policing and had a great relationship with everyone in the community.
He really is a people person, a pretty old-fashioned cop inasmuch he recognised that if the police have good relationships with the community, as they do in the NT, it makes for a stronger community and a much better policing environment for police in the difficult work that they do.
So, Rod, from everyone here in the parliament, from myself as a local member and minister for police, we recognise a great career. Thank you for your commitment to Neighbourhood Watch in the Top End and in the NT. You are well regarded and respected by many thousands of people across the Territory. We wish you well in your retirement. I am sure that all your colleagues in Neighbourhood Watch and the NT Police Service wish you well in your retirement as well.
I am pleased to hear that you are staying in the Northern Territory and are going to continue on the Neighbourhood Watch Board. So, Rod Strong, 25 years commitment to the NT Police Service, best wishes on your retirement.
Members: Hear, hear!
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
Last updated: 04 Aug 2016