Tony Abbott to join worker bees in Aurukun school project

TONY Abbott will attempt to underline his indigenous reform credentials next month by joining a three-day working bee.

TONY Abbott will attempt to underline his indigenous reform credentials next month by joining a three-day working bee to rebuild a school library in the Cape York community of Aurukun.

The Opposition Leader has also recruited business leaders, including Fortescue Metals chairman Andrew Forrest and National Australia Bank and Woodside Petroleum chairman Michael Chaney, to join the project, designed to "show solidarity" with attempts by Cape York indigenous leader Noel Pearson to lift disadvantage through personal responsibility and education.

For several years Mr Abbott has made a point of spending at least a week a year as a volunteer in indigenous communities and has vowed to continue the habit should he become prime minister.

Mr Abbott has also long been an admirer of Mr Pearson, who has spent more than 10 years arguing against welfare dependence. He has also endorsed the work of Mr Forrest's Generation One Foundation, which seeks to revamp indigenous training systems by linking skills training of indigenous people to specific jobs.

Mr Abbott told The Australian last night that he had worked as a truancy officer at the Aurukun School for 10 days in 2009. Six years ago, he said, school attendance rates were 30 per cent or less with academic results "abominable".

"Now, thanks to new instructional methods pioneered by the Cape York Institute, attendance rates are close to 90 per cent and the school is in the top half of the state on scholastic performance tests," Mr Abbott said.

He said that several months ago Mr Pearson's organisation had sought his advice on applying for a grant to rebuild the school library, which he described as looking like a bomb shelter.

"I suggested an alternative: a community working bee to repaint and re-landscape the school, as would happen in many Australian communities faced with a similar problem," he said.

The working bee would take place between August 10 and 12.

Businesspeople had agreed to help as a way of "showing solidarity with remote indigenous communities and support for the work Noel and his people have done to try and ensure that young Aboriginal kids get a good start in life," Mr Abbott said.

"What's happening at Aurukun and elsewhere in the Cape, is part of Noel's idea that remote Aboriginal people should have an orbit that takes in their traditional country but which also takes in places where they can be part of the real economy, which might be Cairns, Brisbane, Weipa, Sydney or even London and New York.

"So, for three days, a dozen of Australia's senior business leaders, with me and Nigel Scullion the Shadow Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, will be in Aurukun scraping, painting, digging and planting to try to ensure that the school is an attractive place to learn as well as a place where good learning happens."

Mr Abbott said the working bee should be a big step forward for Aurukun, which had long been marked by social dysfunction.