‘Gross hypocrisy’: Aboriginal boarding school in remote town in limbo

Plans for a desperately needed Aboriginal boarding school, to be built in the very same remote community where the government promoted the Yes campaign, is in limbo.

Desperately needed boarding schools for more than 150 Indigenous children living in remote Aboriginal communities have been canned by the federal government at the same time as the Commonwealth is championing for an Indigenous Voice to boost Indigenous education outcomes.

Two new boarding facilities for high school students were set to be built in remote Northern Territory and Western Australia — two areas where school attendance was at shockingly low rates.

One of the schools would cater to the Yolŋu people living on East Arnhem Land — the same region where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pushed a very public pitch for the Yes vote at last week’s Garma Festival.

The schools were part of a $75m funding package from the former Coalition government, that had been honoured by the Albanese government, to build or refurbish four schools.

But only two of them have progressed, citing a rise in costs as the reason all four cannot be built for $75m.

PM Anthony Albanese and a Dhupuma school during the Garma Festival 2023. Picture: Getty Images

“Studio Schools (the organisation responsible) has come back to us and said that those schools cannot be delivered within that budget because of the significant increase to the budget more broadly,” a government department spokesman told a Senate Estimates Committee in June when grilled on the proposed schools by Coalition education spokesman Sarah Henderson.

The Coalition is using the backflip to attack the government for skimping on initiatives on the ground while promoting appearances on Arnhem Land.

“This is gross hypocrisy from Labor which shows once again that they are not listening to remote indigenous voices,” Ms Henderson said.

“How many indigenous children must forego an education while the …(government) spends $384 million on the Voice referendum?”

But Education Minister Jason Clare put the blame back on the Coalition for not putting enough money into the project.

He committed that the government will work with Studio Schools on funding but a site for the East Arnhem school had not been found yet.

“The community is still working with Studio Schools to locate the most appropriate site. Once a site is chosen, we will work...on funding.”

“The previous government did not allocate enough funding to deliver on their commitment to build these schools. Their costings were out by around $100 million.”

Its understood low enrolment at the existing remote schools was also an issue.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was invited by Yolnu elders to attend the Garma festival but declined.

Alice Springs based Yipirinya School principal Gavin Morris. Picture: Grenville Turner

Mr Albanese also used Question Time to personally invite Mr Dutton to the event before Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney invited deputy leader Sussan Ley to attend but neither attended.

Gulkula, Nhulunbuy, where one of the schools was proposed to be built, is in East Arnhem Land where the attendance rate was just 47 per cent for term one in 2023.

A young boy dances at Garma Festival. Picture: Melanie Faith Dove

In the Roebourne District of the Pilbara where the second school was expected to be built, the attendance was just 30.5 per cent in 2022.

Alice Spring school principal Gavin Morris is pushing to build a boarding school on his site to overcome barriers to education.

“Our bus leaves school at quarter to six to pick up the first child, six or seven years old on the bus at quarter to six before school starts at 9. They do half the school day before it even starts,” he said.

“If you want to make a difference on NAPLAN and raise the next generation of Aboriginal leaders, you have to address the barriers to education.”