The Hon Julia Gillard MP
Minister for Education. Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
Minister for Social Inclusion
Deputy Prime Minister
28 September, 2009 Speech
Later this morning at a meeting of Education Ministers I will be putting forward a new Indigenous Education Action Plan.
I will be asking Education Ministers to agree that those schools that are identified as not performing through our new transparency measures will have the full force and resources of the National Partnerships and National Education Agreement directed them to drive improvement.
They will be required to develop school level strategies and take action in the four areas of attendance at school, quality teaching and school leadership, literacy and numeracy and parental and community engagement. In addition, States will be asked to direct resources through our National Partnership on universal preschool to helping the young children who will go to those schools to be ready to learn.
To help build this new approach and the outcomes of this Summit, I am pleased to announce today that the Australian Government has committed $16.4 million to the Stronger Smarter Learning Communities project.
The project, to be led by Chris Sara, will help ensure that school leaders across Australia are supported and challenged in ways that will help them turn outcomes around for Indigenous students.
I can also announce that the Indigenous Education Leadership Institute at the Queensland University of Technology will also be renamed the Stronger Smarter Institute reflecting the importance of the Stronger Smarter philosophy in delivering transformational change in Indigenous education.
I will also be asking Chris Sarra to bring the resources of the new Stronger Smarter Learning Communities network to bear on the task of driving improvement in schools which are shown by our new transparency measures to be in need of help.
See full speech at http://www.deewr.gov.au/Ministers/Gillard/Media/Speeches/Pages/Article_090928_130255.aspx
THE HON JULIA GILLARD MP
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER
Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
Minister for Social Inclusion
TRANSCRIPT
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
JOINT PRESS CONFERENCE WITH DR CHRIS SARRA
10AM MONDAY
28 SEPTEMBER 2009
BRISBANE
ISSUES: Indigenous Education Action Plan; Stronger Smarter Learning Communities Project; Pension Increase and Public Housing rents.
JULIA GILLARD: Can I say it’s a great pleasure for me to be here today in Queensland with Chris Sarra and here at the Stronger Smarter Learning Communities conference.
We’re here today to talk about a new focus for the education of Indigenous students. We’re here today because we know we can make a difference for Indigenous children. We want to set high expectations. We want Indigenous children to succeed.
For too long the nation has succumbed to a sense that there is something inevitable about Indigenous kids ending up at the back of the class. We want to break away from those negative mindsets.
I’m here today with Chris Sarra to say we can change Indigenous education, we can set high expectations for Indigenous students, we can ensure that Indigenous kids succeed at school.
The Government has a major reform agenda in schooling underway. We want that major reform agenda to make a difference for Indigenous students.
Today at the ministerial council in Brisbane we will be talking about an Indigenous Education Action Plan. It will work with our reform agenda.
Particularly, it will work with our new transparency measures, so when we see schools educating large numbers of Indigenous students doing well, we can share the best practice from those schools. When we see schools who educate large numbers of Indigenous children doing badly, we can step in, in a spirit of partnership to make a difference.
And today I am very pleased to announce that we will be providing funds to the institute and to the program that Chris leads.
This is a network to bring high performing, successful principals who have made a real difference for their Indigenous children in their schools, to bring them in a network so they can work with principals who need assistance, who need help with that leadership training to make a difference for their Indigenous children.
This is a new investment by the Federal Government of around $16 million in a four year program to be lead by Chris to bring our high performing principals who know what works and who know how to make a difference for Indigenous education into contact with, and a relationship with, those principals who need a helping hand.
I will turn to Chris for some words on Indigenous education and then we will take questions on that.
CHRIS SARRA: Thanks, Julia. The Stronger Smarter Summit symbolises a tipping point in our country beyond which there can be no place for any educator with low expectations of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children in schools. Not in any jurisdiction, not in any school, not in any classroom that we have. The tide has changed and it’s now time for hard work and time to let the results flow.
JULIA GILLARD: Can we take questions on Indigenous education, Stronger Smarter, and then if there are any questions on other issues we’ll do them at the end, so any questions?
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) about the Government’s programs to include Indigenous education and outcomes, when can we reasonably expect the outcomes of Indigenous children to be comparable with those of non-Indigenous, is there a time frame?
JULIA GILLARD: The Government set and agreed with all state and territory governments closing the gap targets - closing the gap in literacy and numeracy, closing the gap in attaining Year 12. We’ve set those targets for 2020 but we want to make a difference each and every day between now and 2020 as we seek to achieve those targets.
The essence of Chris’ philosophy is that we can do this, we can be stronger, we can be smarter, we can make a real difference for Indigenous kids and we want to get about that task now. That’s why we are investing this $16 million in Chris’ work and why, of course, our new reform agenda gives us new tools for change to drive improvement for Indigenous children.
JOURNALIST: There has been a lot of money, a lot of approaches over the years; can you guarantee this will work?
JULIA GILLARD: Chris has made it work in his own school and I will turn to Chris for a comment here, but Chris in his own school made it work, made a difference for Indigenous children and improved standards. Here at the Stronger Smarter Summit today we are joined by educators who have shown what works in their schools.
So we know we can do this. There are schools where it is working. The challenge now is to spread that best practice around the country so we are making a difference for every Indigenous child, but I will turn to Chris for a comment on his experience as an educator.
CHRIS SARRA: When we established the institute some years ago, we were heavily supported by the Telstra Foundation and the Sydney Myer Foundation and I said to them that at some point with their investment in us we would change the tide of low expectation of Indigenous children in Australian schools.
Today I am pleased to suggest to educators throughout the country that the tide has changed and I am very pleased to be able to say to those foundations and QUT and Queensland Education that they got what they payed for. The expenditure of public money is a matter that I take very seriously, I know there have been some bad precedents in the past, but it is a matter that I take extremely seriously and I am determined to ensure that the Government will get what they payed for in regards to this.
JOURNALIST: How many schools have affected turnaround in literacy and numeracy, Chris, that have been involved with your institute?
CHRIS SARRA: It’s difficult to say off the top of my head but it’s important to know that there are a lot of Aboriginal children and Torres Strait Islander children who are out-performing their non-Indigenous counterparts and the Stronger Smarter Learning Communities project is about articulating good practice that enables that circumstance and being able to distribute that to other educators around the country.
JOURNALIST: But in real terms, what will happen to schools that aren’t performing well for Indigenous children, how much money will you give them, will you give them more teachers, what will be the reality of it?
JULIA GILLARD: The way this will work is at the start of next year we will have our new transparency measures. People will be able to go online and they will be able to see how schools are performing. We will be able to identify those schools with large numbers of Indigenous kids who are doing very well and study and share that best practice.
For the schools that are falling behind, we have new resources available through our national partnerships. New resources for disadvantaged schools, a $1.5 billion investment, so schools teaching large numbers of Indigenous kids who are falling behind will be able to work with that new national partnership.
We are also making an investment of more than $500 million in teacher quality and school leadership. We want schools teaching Indigenous children who need a helping hand to access that resource.
And we have more than half a billion dollars of money to invest in literacy and numeracy and we obviously want to bring those resources to the schools that need it the most.
So the new tools for change are there with our education reform agenda - a new focus on disadvantage, a new focus on literacy and numeracy, a new focus on teacher quality and school leadership. We want to bring those tools for change to the schools teaching Indigenous children that need that change the most. We will know where those schools are as a result of our transparency measures and Chris and his Stronger Smarter Institute will be able to provide partnering and mentoring for school principals in those schools.
JOURNALIST: How will you know how much money to give them or how many new teachers to give them?
JULIA GILLARD: We will work with schools and local communities. What we know from Chris’ work, from the Indigenous educators who are here at the Stronger Smarter Summit, that there’s not a one size fits all solution here, you need to bring resources and capacity to a school and work through a plan with that school to improve its results.
There is not one way of doing it but the elements of success are clear: we need to make sure kids attend school, we need to make sure we set high expectations for them, we need to make sure there are good teachers and good school leadership, we’ve got to focus on literacy and numeracy and we’ve got to focus on engaging parents in the community. These are the common elements of approaches but approaches will vary school to school to make a real difference in that community and in that place.
JOURNALIST: So will you go over the heads of state education ministers?
JULIA GILLARD: We are working collaboratively with state education ministers. As we, as a national government, have driven this reform agenda. Each and every step of the way we’ve consulted and worked with our state and territory colleagues. State governments have endorsed our closing the gap targets; they are partners in these national partnership agreements for change and at the ministerial council here in Brisbane today, I will be asking them to be partners in this endeavour, this new endeavour, for Indigenous education. And the important thing here, and it stems from Chris’ work, we’ve got to aim high and have high expectations for Indigenous children.
JOURNALIST: When are you announcing outcomes for quarantining of the welfare payments?
JULIA GILLARD: The welfare quarantine trials are just in the process of being developed and started, so they will work over the coming years and in the few years in front of us, as these different areas are trialled, we will monitor the evaluations of those trials.
Now what does that mean? It means that there will be some places in this country where if there is persistent non-attendance at school, the ultimate sanction is income management, but what we want to do is use that as a process that drives change.
We’ve got to have kids in school, this is one way of trying to work to ensure kids are in school; it’s not the only way and we will obviously be monitoring and evaluating which approach has worked the best. But the underlying message there is kids have to be in school. If we fail to get kids to school, then we fail in everything else.
JOURNALIST: If the trials are proven to be effective in both the metropolitan areas and in the remote Indigenous communities, is it possible that the Government will consider extending it to everywhere in Australia?
JULIA GILLARD: We are going to work a step at a time. The reason we are trialling these measures is to see if they work, how they work, what works well, what needs change. When we have done that monitoring and evaluation and have those results in, then we’ll make some decisions about the future.
The reason for piloting something is genuinely because we want to see how it works and how it goes before making other decisions.
JOURNALIST: What’s your view of these welfare trials, Chris?
CHRIS SARRA: I had a feeling you would ask me that, Margaret.
I have been on public record describing it as a strategy that I’m not fond of but I guess, begrudgingly, I have to accept that we’ll try in our efforts in the Stronger Smarter way and accept that there are other means.
In my discussions earlier today, I signalled that if principals are at a point where they need to do reporting in that context, then at least it’s a point to start the conversation about school attendance and why in fact children may or may not be wanting to engage with school. And in some ways I suppose that’s a good thing because it leaves room for principals to have to reflect on the things that they have the authority to change inside the school gate.
JOURNALIST: You were able to effect change without using the blunt instrument of welfare in for example, Cherbourg, it has worked in other schools as well so is this using the stick first instead of perhaps using a carrot?
CHRIS SARRA: In many ways I think it can be seen as that. It’s a whatever it takes approach and that has been my experience that where schools are intent on affecting the things they control, differences can occur.
As I reflect on my own experience as a principal, I have to say that there are very few circumstances where I would have found that kind of strategy useful but at least it would have started a conversation.
JOURNALIST: What happens now with the money the Federal Government has given to you? Can you look at this transparency record and force principals who aren’t achieving results to join your program, how will it work?
CHRIS SARRA: I will say to my colleagues as educators right across the country that this sense of transparency is crucial to the integrity of our profession and that it’s not something that we should fear; it’s something that we should embrace. We need a sense of honesty and some ability to be able to compare how children in Aurukun are going compared to children in Melbourne or Brisbane or any other place in the country. That’s important. We need to be able to do that and I think things like NAPLAN, again are useful tools, I have said that they are not all of the story but they are part of the story and again they are useful means to start the conversation.
If a parent of a child in a school at Woodridge in the western parts of Brisbane for instance, gets on the net and sees that their school is not performing so well in comparison to other schools in Brisbane or Melbourne, then they’ve got a means by which to start a conversation about what’s happening inside my child’s classroom. And I think that’s a good thing and I think that’s something that educators across the country have to embrace in the interests of the integrity of our profession.
JOURNALIST: Will the Federal Government money help you expand your program nationally or is it already national?
CHRIS SARRA: We already work nationally and with the support of the Telstra Foundation and Sydney Myer Foundation, we have been able to build a network of what we call Stronger Smarter leaders and this will enable us to drive a deeper relationship with 60 hubs and for us to be able to support and develop them collegially and intellectually in a way that enables them to be able to support and develop and challenge other schools around them.
JOURNALIST: What sort of returns are you expecting for your money?
JULIA GILLARD: We’re obviously very persuaded by Chris’ work. Chris is an educator who made a difference in his own school and we want, through Chris’ leadership, to bring together educators who have made a difference and to enable them to share their best practice, to mentor, to lead and assist principals who needs those tools and those skills in their own schools. So it’s a fantastic way of driving a collaboration between principals who know what works with principals who some help and assistance.
We’re obviously wanting to work with Chris as our transparency measures hit the ground and we can identify both educational success and schools that need assistance. We obviously want to work with Chris to be in that brokering role, putting together principals who are at the top of their game with principals who need assistance.
JOURNALIST: Is this a move away from, there has started to be a norm of kids being moved out of Indigenous communities and sent to boarding schools through various scholarship programs, is that something that this is going to challenge?
JULIA GILLARD: I think that there are going to continue to be a diversity of approaches. I mean if we look at our education system right around the country for Australian children overall, parents and communities choose to do education in different ways. Some people choose to send their children to boarding schools, some people choose to send their children to the school at the end of the road, some people choose to send their children to a school right across town or many miles from where they live because they think it’s going to offer some advantage that they want to see.
I’d like to see the choices and the opportunities for Indigenous kids being a rich array as well. So there is not going to be one approach supporting boarding schools, scholarship programs, that will be part of the array of approaches here. Then there will the children in their local school, in their local community and we want to make a difference for those children.
The essential thing here isn’t what type of educational facility an Indigenous child is in, whatever school they’re in, however they got there, we want to make sure there is a culture of high expectations and we are driving the change necessary to achieve those high expectations.
JOURNALIST: The change of name of the institute to Stronger Smarter, do you see that as a very powerful statement?
CHRIS SARRA: I think it is a powerful statement. It makes it much easier when we answer the phone - that’s just one reason - but it enables us to take the Stronger Smarter message out to other areas. Within the realms of education, it enables us to focus on other students who are in disadvantaged areas, and I don’t want to make synonymous disadvantage with Aboriginal, but it leaves us room to get the message through that for every student who comes in the school gate it’s important that there is some expectation about proper educational outcomes but also a strength and positive sort of perception of their cultural identity.
Beyond that, it allows us to venture out into other arenas and try the Stronger Smarter philosophy in the areas of health and justice and all sorts of other places.
JOURNALIST: How long would the Federal Government like to continue the housing subsidy for pensioners?
JULIA GILLARD: In my capacity as Acting Prime Minister, I have written to Premier Anna Bligh in her capacity as Chair of the Council of the Australian Federation, so the body that leads state and territory governments.
The perspective of the Rudd Government is we want pensioners who live in public housing to be able to maximise their ability to benefit from the recent pension increase.
There is obviously a way here, a formula here, where public rents in some places are factored off a percentage of the pension. We obviously want states and territories to look at those arrangements and to work with us so pensioners can get the maximum benefit from the rise. That discussion is obviously continuing.
JOURNALIST: How much longer than next September, do you think?
JULIA GILLARD: We’d obviously like to see pensioners benefit from the maximum amount of the rise for as long as possible. We understand that pensioners are doing it tough, that’s why we responded with such a historic change to the pension in the May Budget. It’s coming into effect now. We want to work with our state and territory colleagues to maximise the amount of benefit that flows to pensioners who are public housing tenants.
So today is a day for saying that conversation is continuing. We will continue to work with state and territory colleagues on achieving that but I believe the goal is clear; we want to make sure that pensioners benefit from the pension rise.
JOURNALIST: Would you be disappointed if it just gets upped?
JULIA GILLARD: I think we need to take this a step at a time. We’ve got the historic pension increase from the May Budget, it’s flowing through now. We obviously have arrangements in place for this 12 months and we are talking to states and territories about what lies beyond. But our aim is clear: we want pensioners personally to be able to benefit from the pension increase.
JOURNALIST: Are the states being greedy?
JULIA GILLARD: We worked through the conversation with them and the best way of doing that is to accept there has been longstanding arrangements in states and territories where public housing rents have been related to the amount of the pension. We obviously want to work through with states and territories for the maximum benefit of pensioners.
JOURNALIST: So how do you work through something like this? What are some of the solutions?
JULIA GILLARD: We continue to have the discussion and through having the discussion we will hopefully find some solutions. Obviously every day on a broad range of areas, whether its education, health, transport, we’re in dialogue with the states. I’m obviously at a ministerial council today with state governments on education so we continue to do business with state governments across a broad sweep of areas, including this one.