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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 2 Hansard (4 March) . . Page.. 483 ..
MR SPEAKER: I am sure that you will manage to remain relevant.
MS TUCKER: I am sure I will. I think it is related, but I am happy to talk generally anyway and not cause a problem. The points Mr Pratt made about links with the family are very important. I want to take the opportunity in this debate to raise the whole question of the compact. I am trying to remember when the compact was signed. There is no date on it. My memory is that it was last year.
I remind members of the language in the commitment. It states:
In order to achieve equal educational outcomes for Indigenous and non-Indigenous school populations in the Australian Capital Territory, Indigenous communities in the ACT and Jervis Bay Territory and the ACT Department of Education, Youth and Family Services make the following commitments.
We, indigenous families of the ACT, acknowledge primary responsibility for school attendance by our children. We commit to:
participation in consultations with the ACT Department of Education, Youth and Family Services.
support for all mutually agreed programs and initiatives designed to improve educational outcomes for Indigenous students.
The preamble to the commitment states:
Indigenous communities in the ACT acknowledge the goodwill of the ACT Department of Education, Youth and Family Services and support its efforts to improve outcomes for Indigenous children and families.
I do not have a problem with any of that if it is broadly supported by Aboriginal people in the ACT. It is brave to say broadly that indigenous families of the ACT do anything. I think it is a great thing to say if you are comfortable and solid in saying it.
The concern I raise today-and I am asking the new minister to take an interest in this, and maybe pick it up-is that I think it is important that the government evaluate how well the compact is understood and supported. While a statement like that looks great, it is a slap in the face to Aboriginal families who have never heard of it, because it is such a broad and encompassing statement. When I read it, I made inquiries around the ACT and I followed them up. Of the key people and families I asked, only one was aware of that statement.
If you want to have this kind of agreement with the indigenous community in Canberra, then it is going to require very proactive time-consuming communication. I know that the compact came out of the Indigenous Education Consultative Body and was signed by Christopher Bourke. I am interested to know what work has been done to involve the community since the signing of that commitment and that compact.
The fourth report of February 2002 has a paragraph on the compact:
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