‘We live the Voice’: Hopes for Aboriginal school dashed in funding squabble
The Albanese government is under fire to answer why they have dashed the hopes of a desperately needed Aboriginal school in Alice Springs despite Labor’s dogged pursuit of an Aboriginal Voice to Parliament.
NSW
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The Albanese government is under fire to answer why they have dashed the hopes of a desperately needed Aboriginal school on country in Alice Springs despite Labor’s dogged pursuit of an Aboriginal Voice to Parliament.
Aboriginal school Yipirinya was hoping to build a satellite school at Burt Creek, 60km north of Alice Springs, to allow children from remote communities to attend school on their land instead of driving three hours to Alice Springs each day.
The school was relying on its share of a $40m education funding announced by the Albanese government in wake of rising youth crime in Central Australia but while some government schools are walking away with $1.5m, independent school Yipirinya is only getting $329,000.
Coalition Education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson wrote a scathing letter to Education Minister Jason Clare more than a month ago calling out the funding system that has resulted in the lack of cash but is still waiting on an answer.
“Indigenous independent school, Yipirinya School in Alice Springs, which is home to many vulnerable and disengaged Aboriginal children suffering acute disadvantage, has been advised it will receive only $329,000 and not the nearly $1 million it was expecting,” she said.
“Astonishingly you have determined not to provide some of the most at-risk indigenous students with their fair share of funding.”
The government is allocating funding by factoring in the differences in Commonwealth and territory funding between schools — with independent schools getting $42,000 per student and government schools getting $33,000 per student.
Principal Gavin Morris said Yipirinya “lived the Voice everyday” but the government was refusing to listen while pursuing constitutional change to recognise Aboriginal people.
“We have 300 Aboriginal students – we had real aspirations to build an on-country infrastructure to respond to a community request. We’ve been working for 18 months to develop curriculum and staffing and all the things you need,” he said.
“At Yipirinya, we live the Voice, we action the Voice in terms of centring Aboriginal world views. We live that every day but what we are seeing is you can have a Voice in parliament but if you are not being heard you are voiceless. It creates this fool’s gold where you think you’ve got some empowerment but unless someone is listening you are voiceless.”
Minister Clare said he was speaking to principals across Central Australia, including Mr Morris, on how the money should be spent.
“The Albanese Government is investing an additional $40 million in Central Australian schools to improve school attendance and student outcomes,” he said.
“This funding is being allocated to get every school in Central Australia to 100 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard next year. This means the most underfunded schools get the most funding.”
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Originally published as ‘We live the Voice’: Hopes for Aboriginal school dashed in funding squabble
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