Bills Digest 85 1995-96
Indigenous Education (Supplementary Assistance) Amendment Bill 1996
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.
PRS staff are available to discuss the paper's contents with Senators
and Members and their staff but not with members of the public.
ISSN 1323-9032
© Commonwealth of Australia 1996
Except to the extent of the uses permitted under the Copyright Act
1968, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, including information storage and retrieval
systems, without the prior written consent of the Parliamentary Library,
other than by Members of the Australian Parliament in the course of their
official duties.
Published by the Department of the Parliamentary Library, 1996.
This page was prepared by the Parliamentary Library, Commonwealth of
Australia
Last updated: 22 May 1996
|
