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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 12 Hansard (20 November) . . Page.. 4394 ..

MS DUNDAS (continuing):

In term 4 in primary schools 5.8 % of non-indigenous students and 20.4 % of indigenous students were absent from school more than one day a week. In high schools the figures were 18 % and 51.9 % respectively.

Over 50 per cent of indigenous students having high levels of absenteeism is quite concerning; it shows that we cannot look at the children in isolation from their families. We must look at how what is going on in indigenous families impacts on the young people's lives and how they need to take time out from school to cope with other issues that are going on.

Universities have been working to cope with this, and these statistics show we could be doing more work on how to support young people in their return to schools. Once you have a couple of days absent, the issue just snowballs: you start missing out on classes and you start missing information. When you come back you feel you are not keeping up, so what is the point of going? It needs to be caught early on, and more assistance needs to be given to make sure it does not progress to dropping out altogether in years 9 and 10.

Another issue I would like to look at and congratulate the department on is the work that has been going on at Quamby. Young indigenous people make up a greater percentage of the population in our detention centres and at Quamby than they do of the population generally. So I think the work that has been going on with the Hindmarsh School needs to be congratulated. It is good to see that indigenous detainees are participating in vocational learning programs. When they have served their time, they can come back into the community with some qualifications and a greater understanding of how work happens, so that they can participate in the community to a greater degree and, hopefully, have some positive experiences so that they do not end up in a cycle of detention.

Another issue that needs to be looked at, which applies to the entire student cohort but has a greater impact on indigenous families, is the cost of our education system. We know that education in primary school and high school years is, in essence, free. But the cost of extracurricular activities, such as excursions and participating in some curriculum programs, puts an extra burden on families. If they cannot afford to pay for those activities, it leads to the students feeling left out, and that can lead to drop-out.

If we want to keep our kids in schools, we need to look at how we manage that extra demand on parents for money. That needs to be addressed in the upcoming budget, and I hope that it is addressed in the upcoming budget. When we look at how indigenous kids are going in school and how indigenous education is progressing, we also need to look at how education to remove discrimination is working across the community.

If young people are feeling discriminated against outside of school-when they go to the shops, when they try to get part-time jobs, when they try to participate in the broader community-it has an impact on what they do in school and how they participate in the community. So we need to have a broader and more realistic approach to indigenous education, looking at it throughout the community.

We need to know that discrimination is no longer a part of this community and is no longer having an adverse impact. A lot of work needs to be done in that sense. I thank

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