WARNING:
This Digest is prepared for debate. It reflects the legislation as
introduced and does not canvass subsequent amendments.
This Digest was available from 22 May 1996
CONTENTS
Date introduced: 9 May 1996
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Employment, Education, Training and
Youth Affairs
Commencement: On Royal Assent.
The purpose of the Bill is to amend the Indigenous Education
(Supplementary Assistance) Act 1989.(1) The amendments made by
the Bill include:
- the insertion of a new object into the Act;
- the provision of statutory criteria for payments available for
supplementary recurrent expenditure. Formulae for per capita based
funding are provided. There will also be funding available for
particular projects.
- an increase in the amount appropriated from Consolidated
Revenue for the Aboriginal Education Strategic Initiatives Program
from $83,636,000 to $91,486,000 for the period 1 January 1996 to 30
June 1997,
- provision for money to be appropriated from Consolidated
Revenue for the Aboriginal Education Strategic Initiatives Program
during the third triennium of the National Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Education Policy (ie to 30 June 2000).
Indigenous education has been the subject of a large number of
national reports during the past twenty years - beginning with a
1975 report by the Aboriginal Consultative Group to the Schools
Commission. Most recently there was a National Review of Education
for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples chaired by
Mandawuy Yunupingu. The review was established in 1993 and reported
in 1994.(2)
In 1988 an Aboriginal Education Policy Task Force was appointed
by Minister for Employment, Education and Training and the Minister
for Aboriginal Affairs. The Task Force's report proposed the
establishment of a federal Aboriginal Education Policy (AEP). The
AEP was developed co-operatively by the Commonwealth, the States
and the Territories in 1989 and emphasised 'involvement, access,
participation and outcomes.' The importance of the AEP has been
described in these terms:
for the first time, the States and the Territories were able to
identify and unanimously support a series of national goals for
indigenous education; the Policy facilitated many new initiatives
that created a national focus on indigenous education and raised
the profile of the issue; the Policy was based on a triennial
funding model enabling, for the first time, longer term planning
for programs; and the national Policy included a supplementary
funding program, the Aboriginal Education Strategic Initiatives
Scheme, to fill the gaps in the programs of the States and
Territories.'(3)
The establishment of the AEP was followed by the enactment of
the Aboriginal Education (Supplementary Assistance) Act
1989 which provides funds for the Aboriginal Education
Strategic Initiatives Program (AESIP).
The AEP has four long term objectives:
- increasing the involvement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people in educational decision making;
- ensuring equality of access to educational services;
- achieving equity of educational participation; and
- enabling equitable and appropriate education outcomes.
The AEP sets down 21 agreed goals for Aboriginal education
covering all education sectors, to be pursued by all governments.
State and Territory government responses to the education related
recommendations of the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in
Custody indicate that the AEP has continuing support from all
governments.
AESIP, which underpins the AEP, provides funds to organisations
and institutions to supplement the cost of delivering educational
services to Aboriginal people. The program supports pre schools,
primary and secondary schools, and technical and further education.
The funding is provided by the Commonwealth as a supplement to the
normal provision of funds for education to the State and
Territories and is committed on a forward triennial basis. The
second triennium of the AEP covers the period 1993/94 to
1995/96.
For the second triennium, the Commonwealth nominated three
national priorities:
- responding to the relevant recommendations of the Royal
Commission into Black Deaths in custody;
- implementing the National Aboriginal Languages and Literacy
Strategy, the AEP components of which are:
- the Aboriginal Literacy Strategy which provides for an
intensification of efforts to improve English literacy among
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander school children and adults
with limited experience at school;
- the Aboriginal Languages Education Strategy promotes and
facilitates the teaching of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
languages in school, develops bilingual education programs, and
will move towards the teaching of aboriginal languages in TAFE and
higher education; and
- implementing the National Reconciliation and Schooling
Strategy.
Specific recommendations of the Royal Commission into Black
Deaths in Custody, which discussed funding under the Aboriginal
Education (Supplementary Assistance) Act 1989, included
increased employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
education workers from 1993 and an expansion of pre school services
from 1994.
The National Reconciliation Schooling Strategy provides for:
- the development of appropriate and consistent Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander curriculum studies for all schools from
preschool to year 12;
- the development of consistent teacher education courses;
- the establishment of a sister schools scheme; and
- a grass roots campaign to promote greater understanding by
students of their local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
community and its history.3
As well as AESIP, the other major Aboriginal education program
funded by the Commonwealth is the Aboriginal Study Assistance
Scheme (ABSTUDY) which provides income support to Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander students aged 14 years or over undertaking
primary education, students undertaking secondary education, and
full and part time tertiary education.
The Indigenous Education (Supplementary Assistance) Amendment
Bill 1996 deals with the funding of the Aboriginal Education
Strategic Initiatives Program. The Bill's Second Reading Speech
states that:
The Government intends to make major changes to the Aboriginal
Education Strategic Initiatives Program from January 1997, with a
new funding triennium to commence at that time.
In a press release issued on 14 May 1996, the Minister for
Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs stated that poor
educational retention rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples would be addressed in the Bill by:
... ensuring that the majority of funds under AESIP will be
provided through per capita based arrangements, which will ensure
that the bulk of the funding is predictable and based on changes in
enrolment demands. In addition, an element of the available funds
will also be set aside for Strategic Results which will be time
limited and outcomes oriented.(4)
Educational Participation for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Peoples
The National Review of Education for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Peoples reported in 1994 that educational
experiences for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
improved 'in the last five years'. However, the Review found that
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples continued to be 'the
most educationally disadvantaged groups in Australia.' Among other
things, the Review's Summary and Recommendations states
that:
- 'while the gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
and other Australian 4 year olds preschool participation has almost
halved, it remains significant at 9.5 per cent,(5)
- in all but two States/Territories there appears to be
increasing levels of participation by Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander children in primary school education. The majority of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children now commence and
complete a primary school education,
- 'significant numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
secondary school students do not complete compulsory Years 8 or 9.
An estimated 25 per cent or more of those who start secondary
school leave before the end of Year 10.'(6)
- 'Nationally, just over 25 per cent of the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander students who started Year 7 or 8 five or four years
ago (depending on the State or Territory) were enrolled in Year 12
in 1993. ... Despite the concerted efforts of the last decade to
raise Year 12 retention rates for all Australian students,
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students' current Year 12
retention rate is now what it was for all Australian students more
than twenty years ago.'(7)
Item 1 of Schedule 1 repeals the current definition of
'indigenous' and replaces it. The current definition of
'indigenous' in relation to a person is 'a member of the Aboriginal
race of Australia and includes a descendent of the indigenous
inhabitants of the Torres Strait Islands.'
The replacement definition will remove the implication that
Torres Strait Islanders are a subsidiary group.
Item 8 of Schedule 1 inserts new section 7A
into the Act. New section 7A provides for an
additional object for the Act - that of developing culturally
appropriate education services for Indigenous people. At present,
objects of the Act are set out in sections 4 - 7 and include
increasing Indigenous involvement in educational decisions,
ensuring equality of access to education, ensuring equity of
participation in education and achieving equitable and appropriate
educational outcomes for Indigenous people.
Item 12 inserts new section 9A into the Act.
New section 9A provides that Indigenous education
agreements may provide for the payment of money either for funding
supplementary recurrent expenditure or for funding for a particular
project or for both. If the agreement is for funding for
supplementary recurrent expenditure, then the amount of funding is
determined according to new Division 2 of Part 2
of the Act.
Item 14 of Schedule 1 inserts new Division 2
into Part 2 of the Act. New Division 2 is entitled
'Funding for supplementary recurrent expenditure.' The amount of
supplementary recurrent expenditure payments available for a
funding year is determined by the application new sections
10B to 10F and according to a per capita funding table set
out in new section 10A.
The per capita funding table in new section 10A
provides for government and non-government rates in different
educational sectors. These sectors are remote and non-remote
pre-schools; remote and non-remote primary schools; remote and
non-remote junior secondary schools; remote and non-remote senior
secondary schools; and remote and non-remote vocational educational
and training institutions (VETs).
New sections 10B to 10F set out the eligibility
criteria and formulae to be applied to determine a per capita
amount for each educational sector. New sections 10B to
10F cover the funding of government educational
institutions, systemic(8) non-government schools and pre-schools;
non-systemic(9) non-government schools and pre-schools, and
non-government VETs.
New sections 10G to 10K set out how preschool,
school and VET student numbers are to be determined for the
purposes of the Act.
Item 16 of Schedule 1 omits the figure of $83,636,000 currently
appropriated for the period 1 January 1996 to 30 June 1997 in
subsection 13B(4) of the Act and substitutes the figure of
$91,486,000. The Bill's Explanatory Memorandum states: 'This
increases reflects the Commonwealth's contribution that time period
as a result of its commitments to the third triennium of the
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education
Policy.'(10)
Item 17 amends section 13B of the Act for the purpose of making
permitted payments from Consolidated Revenue to the Aboriginal
Education Strategic Initiatives Program during the third triennium
of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy. The
amounts are:
- $102,376,000 for the period 1 January 1997 to 30 June
1998,
- $114,360,000 for the period 1 January 1998 to 30 June
1999,
- $121,976,000 for the period 1 January 1999 to 30 June
2000.
(1) The legislation was originally enacted as the Aboriginal
Education (Supplementary Assistance) Act 1989. Its title was
amended by the Indigenous Education (Supplementary Assistance)
Amendment Act 1995.
(2) National Review of Education for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Peoples. Summary and Recommendations; Final
Report; Statistical Annex; (3 vols.), AGPS, Canberra,
1994.
(3) Schwab, RG Twenty years of policy recommendations for
indigenous education: overview and research implications,
Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Discussion Paper,
No.92/1995, Australian National University, Canberra.
(4) Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth
Affairs, '$96 million in additional funds to improve Aboriginal
education,' Media Release, 14 May 1996.
(5) National Review of Education for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Peoples, Summary and Recommendations,
AGPS, Canberra, September 1994, p.22.
(6) Ibid.
(7) Ibid, p.23.
(8) 'Systemic schools are schools belonging to a system
administered by a central authority responsible for their funding
and overall policy. Such schools are declared to be part of an
approved school system by the Minister .. for the purposes of
funding legislation.' See Jackson, K Commonwealth Grants for
Non-Government Schools in the States, 1976 to 1981: By Federal
Electoral Division and School. Basic Paper No.3, Legislative
Research Service, Department of the Parliamentary Library, 1983.
Catholic parochial schools are an example of systemic
non-government schools.
(9) 'Non-systemic schools are simply those schools which are not
part of a school system. It should be noted that not all Catholic
schools are systemic schools.' Ibid.
(10) Indigenous Education (Supplementary Assistance) Amendment
Bill 1996, Explanatory Memorandum.
Jennifer Norberry Ph. 06 277 2476
21 May 1996
Bills Digest Service
Parliamentary Research Service
This Digest does not have any official legal status. Other
sources should be consulted to determine whether the Bill has been
enacted and, if so, whether the subsequent Act reflects further
amendments.
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ISSN 1323-9032
© Commonwealth of Australia 1996
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Published by the Department of the Parliamentary Library,
1996.
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Last updated: 22 May 1996
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