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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 6 Hansard (24 May) . . Page.. 1650 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

e not going to have the socio-economic standards to support their kids or the academic background to help their kids with homework.

"We are educating these kids for despair."

When those sorts of comments are made about our education system in relation to indigenous students we are being sent the message that we have deeply serious problems in our education system or that our education system is not reporting adequately the progress that is being made so as to convince the community that it is dealing with the issue. In the case of this parent at least, and I suspect many more, it is felt that the education system is not maintaining pace.

A committee of inquiry is currently looking into the number of young people in our education system whose education is at risk. There is no doubt that these matters will be the subject of recommendations by the committee of inquiry. I suspect that the committee of inquiry will go on for some time and I just do not think that we can wait for some sort of activity from the education department to try to convince the community that they are doing something in relation to these matters. On the other hand, if they are not doing anything, expose them to public criticism in order that we can give the minister and the department the necessary jolt to improve performance.

That is what social capital is about, not just a string of small budget initiatives. Social capital is about dealing with serious problems within our society. The education of indigenous students is a serious issue right across this country and I cannot, in good conscience, sit idly by and not do something to initiate action from the department to try to win back the confidence of the indigenous community in our education system.

I am a great supporter of the public education system. It has to be a leader in our community. It has to set the standards and it has to demonstrate that it is setting the standards. So far, it appears that the ACT has a poor report card in relation to indigenous education issues and is not setting the standards that we would require as a forward-looking society. This motion goes to the issue of giving the department and the minister a jolt in relation to the matter to ensure that we get proper reporting on a quarterly basis.

Some might say that that is a bit too frequent. This issue is so serious that my first draft of this motion said monthly, but people said that it was going a bit over the top to require a report monthly. I feel quite concerned about this matter. We really have to demonstrate that our education system is dealing with the issue. It may well be that the education system can report in a positive way and demonstrate to the indigenous community that it is worthy of their support. Certainly, the non-indigenous community out there would have some very serious questions to ask, given these reports which need to be addressed.

I want to repeat one thing that I said earlier. There is no doubt that the education committee which Ms Tucker chairs will have something to say about this issue in the future. There is no doubt at all that they will have something to say about it. But I am

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