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  • Indigenous boarding colleges - the gap remains open, 4 years on

    02/06/11

    Another Indigenous education initiative has fallen by the wayside, once again revealing the uncloseable gap between Labor’s rhetoric and reality, according to Senator Brett Mason, Shadow Minister for Universities and Research.

    “Prior to the 2007 federal election, Labor promised they will contribute funds towards the construction and operation of three new boarding colleges for Indigenous secondary school students in years 8 to 12 in the Northern Territory,” said Senator Mason.

    The 2008-09 Federal Budget provided $28.9 million over four years towards this project ($18.8 million to be spent in 2008-09 and $5.1 million, $2.5 million and $2.5 million over the following three financial years to 2011/12) with the Indigenous Land Corporation to contribute further $15 million towards construction costs.

    The 2008-09 Budget papers stated that this program “will assist Indigenous young people from remote communities to obtain a secondary school education. One 40 bed boarding facility will become operational during the 2009 school year, and 72 bed and 40 bed facilities will become operational during the 2010 school year.”

    “Sadly, this is not the case. While the boarding colleges were supposed to be built in 2009 and well and truly opened before first semester of 2010, the Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory are still waiting,” said Senator Mason.

    “As I’ve learned from the Education Department officials at today’s Budget Estimates hearings, the construction has so far only commenced at one site, at Wadeye. Even there, only the below ground work has been completed, with the actual above-ground construction yet to commence.

    “The sites have been finally selected for the other two locations – East Arnhem and the Walpiri Triangle – however, two years on, construction still has not even commenced at either.

    “At East Arnhem, before the construction can commence sometime later this year – if we’re lucky – survey work still needs to be done, a technically feasibility study needs to be conducted, and the lease secured.

    “At the Walpiri Triangle, the selected site has yet to be secured, so we might not know for another few months if the project will even go ahead at the Government’s preferred location.

    “This is an appalling performance – or lack thereof – from the Labor Government. The 2007 election promise has been badly neglected. So much for Labor's commitment to ‘closing the gap’.

    “The rates of school attendance for Indigenous children in the Northern Territory are so low, they are a national shame. These children deserve the same educational opportunities as all the other children around Australia. Boarding colleges provide precisely the right sort of learning environment that help to ensure better attendance, retention and academic outcomes, which in turn open the whole new world of life opportunities. It is a great pity that they have been given such low priority by the Gillard Government.”
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