The idea is OK, but you have the direction of the money flow wrong. Abstudy money should disappear when truancy reaches 10%, & the $10 per day should come out of the parents welfare, once truancy reaches 20%. This would have some effect, very quickly.
I am sick to death of the idea of entitlement. My entitlement was to work for 40 years to keep my family, plus 1/2 a public servant, [under worked, & over paid], & 1/2 a welfare recipient, [just over paid, no work].
Welfare should not be a hand out. It should be the opportunity , to earn, at minimum wage, an income, for those who can find no other way of earning that income. That should go for us pensioners too. Most of us could still organise.
Its not as if there is not plenty to do, even if it was just clean up the roads, & national parks.
Hasbeen

Hi all,

Some great comments from an interesting article.

Incentives always work better than threats.

I recall getting my ABSEG check every Thursday and thinking how that $3 (years 8-10) or $6 dollars (years 11-12) would benefit my afternoon at the corner store rather than how it would keep me in school.

In 1998 The Liberal Government changed the ABSTUDY awards and as a result %16 of Indigenous students did not enrol or re-enrol in Universities in the following year. The final report on this matter has still not been released and prelim report said that it was probably caused due to career change options. If %16 of non-Indigenous kids failed to go to University, I bet the higher education sector would be greatly concerned.

The "performance payment" or "no school no pool" approach that federal governments are wanting to impose on some communities in far north Queensland will fail because they still do not address why students/parents devalue school. As Chris Sarra (Former Cherbourg School Principal) recently stated that they turned Cherbourg around with community and children involvement without touching one welfare check so why do government officials believe their own staff and promote incentives rather than threats to Centrelink payments.

$282 million of Indigenous DEST funding was not spent last year. Why? Without consultation or discussion, the Federal government changed the process that Parents and Schools used to access this funding. Therefore very limited number of students were entitled to access the funds. Not to mentioned that no guidelines were given to explain to parents or schools on how to apply.

I suggest that incentives be increased and that a review of the economical and social conditions of families be taken into consideration. Surely intergovernment agencies can meet to arrange this or can they only operate well in crisis ie. Innisfail and Cyclone Larry? Well hello, Indigenous health, housing and education have been hit by a cyclone every year...its called the Federal Budget!

Back to work!

I like this idea. The money is quite a small amount. My guess is that if only 11 instead 12 out of the 15 kids in the class became alcoholics you'd get the money back in dole and medicare savings in the decade after they leave school. (Though that is still 11 too many)

Obviously it is not the complete answer to a succesful integration of indigenous Australians into the mainstream society. It is however a new approach and it seems that what we are doing now is not very effective.

If it works the scheme could be extended to all the underclasses in Australia.

I realise that 10 bucks a day is not far of the old age pension and many older people who have worked hard all their life may find it unfair.

As a side effect we are investing in education. If we as a nation want to remain competitive in a globalised economy we need to have a well-educated workforce.

I don't know how we execute a successful integration. Perhaps what they are doing in Cherbourg is working. It would not be something that happens overnight but every journey starts with a single step.

PS Is there a direct measure of integration or is it derived from other (mostrly negative) statistics such as life expectancy, employment and incarceration rates?

Where do they come from - these dreamy-eyed do-gooders?

Yes, wouldn't it be nice if Aborigines and Torres Straight Islanders were an equal, respected and integrated part of Australian society?

Yes, it would. And nobody would be more pleased than myself. They are beautiful people. So why aren't they?

It's partly because of whitey meddling and of throwing money to them. But it's mostly because of a lack of motivation on their own behalf - and frankly, I don't blame them. Who'd want to be a part of whitey's crumbling western culture? It sucks. Why go to whitey school and learn whitey ways to participate in whitey's rat race?

If I had the choice, I'd rather go fishing.

Motivation is what it's all about. Money can motivate some people, but not all. Motivation by money works with whitey and I imagine would help fill up empty chairs in remote schools, but nothing would be achieved unless individual kids each found the motivation to learn.

While whitey schools continue to teach leftist nonsense specific to academic whitey careers, there is no way your normal decent Aboriginal kid is going to get the motivation to learn. But yeah, if you paid them, they'd turn up - most of the time.

But who wants to learn the tripe that's served up at school's these days? Make schooling relevant to kid's existence and they'll be hanging around school like flies around a dead dog. Motivation not money is the answer. And in particular, motivation aimed squarely at the kids concerned. Spend the money on schools and motivational campaigns if you have to spend money. And syllabus overhauls.

If an aboriginal child lives in a dysfunctional home/camp/community all the money in the world is not going to help that child grasp what education is all about. If they go home from school to nothing but alcoholic parents, no proper food,clothing, shelter, nothing is going to help that child.
Going to a well run boarding school would lift them out of that squalor and give them some idea that there is a life worth living out there and it is attainable.
Motivation must be seen as well as preached. Otherwise it is not real.

The trick to getting anyone to willingly or voluntarily do anything is to make it appealing to them. We need to ask ourselves what we are doing to encourage students to want to be at school and want to learn. Money is nice but it would be better spent on making the kids want to come to school by improving the amenities. The no school no pool rules have been asked for, and seem to be working in some communities and this may also be a good strategy overall. I also like the idea of being able to undertake TAFE classes while still at school. Widening the curriculum can only be a good thing.

Students who say “school is boring” should be something that parents and teachers take as a warning sign rather than a student being lazy or not wanting to learn, and as a reply saying “it’s boring yes deal with it life isn’t about fun”. As adults we would never put up with a job that is boring, unfulfilling, and totally out of our realm of interest, we attempt at the very least to get a new job. Why should we expect our children to put up with that for 12 or 13 years? Because we had to?

I haven't come across a student (Indigenous or not) that will not come to class if it is interesting, relevant and fun. Having a family who is supportive though, I do admit will help immensely. Believe it or not I can make basic and so called “boring” school work fun, but I need to be allowed to do so in the curriculum, have the resources and a supportive staff. And I am not talking about relaxing the evaluation of students so they all “get over the bar” either. It just takes a little thinking outside the square, which in the conformist rules riddled school education system takes a lot of teacher driven (as opposed to school finances and political ideaology driven) hard work.