Education crisis ‘destroying young lives’

Noel Pearson says the new alcohol restrictions in Alice Springs are crucial to stopping the crisis that has swallowed the regional town.

Noel Pearson told The Australian alcohol bans were crucial to ­“stabilising the family (and) to stabilising the community”.

Noel Pearson says alcohol restrictions are crucial to curbing the ­crisis gripping Alice Springs, but a failure of education was a longer term problem that had denied generations of Indigenous children a better future and destroyed lives.

A key architect of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, Mr Pearson said on Monday that the establishment of a voice to parliament could help address an ­Indigenous educational crisis and improve literacy rates in First ­Nations communities.

The warning comes as Anthony Albanese awaits a report setting out a road map for “opt-out” alcohol restrictions in Alice Springs from his new Central Australian Regional Controller, Dorrelle ­Anderson, due on Wednesday.

In Canberra to speak at a Catholic education conference, Mr Pearson told The Australian alcohol bans were crucial to ­“stabilising the family (and) to stabilising the community” but that there were more entrenched problems facing Indigenous ­Australians. “What’s happening there is the product of previous failures … schooling failure is at the heart of it,” he said.

If the referendum later this year was successful, Mr Pearson said a voice to parliament would make clear “demands” of education providers to improve schooling and address youth crime in remote communities.

“Ultimately, the voice will ­demand better results out of school education,” he said. “At the moment, demands are not heard. Governments are just rolling out rounds of new policy … and then three years later say ‘oh that didn’t work’. It’s Groundhog Day.

“What the voice will do is ­finally place demand on the school providers.”

Noel Pearson enjoys time with indigenous students, shortly before delivering a talk about Mabo, at his old school, St Peters Lutheran College in Indooroopilly, Brisbane. Lyndon Mechielsen/The Australian

Mr Pearson told the conference that of all the policy areas that needed reform to help close the gap “education is the one that sickens me the most”.

“I’ve seen so many children over 30 years fail to reach their potential. We have a juvenile justice crisis in this country and you know where it starts? It starts with the failure to read occasioned by the failure to teach,” he said.

“Every year we spend stuffing around and failing to see the evidence for what it is. We fail children. We destroy lives.

“What do you think is going on in Alice Springs? That’s the product of failed learning.”

Mr Pearson, one of the strongest advocates for a constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament, urged more than 2000 Catholic educators gathered in Canberra to vote Yes in the referendum that he expected to be in October.

“I’m 22 years into the journey for constitutional recognition and we are about 95 per cent there,” he said. “I will need your vote in October.”

The speech came after churches across the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist and Hindu faiths last year united to endorse the Uluru statement.

According to government figures, the country is “not on track” to reach key targets aimed at closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in the categories of school attendance, reading and numeracy.

The National Indigenous Australians Agency estimates that about 30 per cent of Indigenous students had a reading level that was below the minimum standards compared to less than 10 per cent for non-Indigenous students.

Mr Pearson’s plea for the Yes vote comes amid internal division in the Greens party over whether to formally support the Yes campaign after its First Nations spokeswoman Lidia Thorpe last week blasted the body as a “joke”.

She used anti-Australia Day rallies on Thursday to argue that Indigenous Australians “deserve better than an advisory body”.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said on Monday that it would be “devastating” if there was no progress on the voice this year. “I want to see progress on all of those elements (voice, treaty and truth). I want to make sure we can bring as many supporters together as possible to ensure we get this progress,” she told ABC radio.

Police check identification in Alice Springs on Saturday night. Picture: Liam Mendes / The Australian

She said Senator Thorpe had been “upfront” about her opinions on the voice. “There are different views about what the best way forward is. There’s different views across the broader community, across the First Nations community,” she said. “But we’re all committed to making sure we have progress.”

When asked if Senator Thorpe should retain the Greens’ First Nations portfolio, Senator Hanson-Young said such a decision was up to leader Adam Bandt.

“I’m not interested in getting into that because I think we need a more united voice and a more united position than ever before,” she said.

While Labor MPs including Malarndirri McCarthy believe Senator Thorpe was “separating herself” from her party, Mr Bandt on Monday would not distance himself from her comments and left the door open to opposing the voice.

“The Greens want to see progress on all elements of the Statement from the Heart and have been seeking clarity from the government for some time as to how they will advance truth and treaty and address important issues of sovereignty and outstanding royal commission recommendations,” he said.

The party is due to formalise its position during a two-day ­partyroom meeting from Wednesday, while Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will meet the government’s referendum working group on Thursday.

Mr Albanese also made his own pleas for the voice to be backed from the arts community on Monday, urging celebrities including Missy Higgins and Rachel Griffiths to “join the campaign for yes to reconciliation”.

MORE REPORTS P4