Sally Sara: Some of the poorest classrooms in the country are in for a big injection of funds, with the Commonwealth pledging to double its funding for schools in the Northern Territory. It's the latest in a blitz of funding announcements in the NT in an effort to address the Indigenous Closing the Gap targets. Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney says she's also continuing conversations about the government's next move after the failed voice referendum. Some advocates are holding out hope that the voice could be legislated. Jacqueline Breen reports.
Jacqueline Breen: Michelle Ayres loved her job teaching in the tiny desert community of Utopia, north of Alice Springs, and the students and families she worked with. But she watched things go from bad to worse in the Territory education system over the past decade.
Michelle Ayres: For the last 10 years we've seen a downward trajectory of attendance and engagement in schools across the Territory. Our buildings are, some of them you wouldn't put an animal in and that's the easiest way to put it.
Jacqueline Breen: She quit teaching to join the union and lobby politicians to turn things around, and has been waiting for a day like today.
Michelle Ayres: Absolutely a huge amount of change. We're talking about children getting the learning they need, which is really going to set them up. And that kind of difference, it's really difficult to put that in words. We're talking about the Northern Territory's future and really Australia's future here.
Jacqueline Breen: An investment of $1 billion from the federal government over the next four years will mean Territory schools are fully funded according to the needs-based Gonski model. It's the latest in a string of big funding commitments announced in the Territory in an election year by the Prime Minister and Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney.
Linda Burney: This is very much a way of showing that we are very serious about closing the gap. We've made a priority in housing and a priority in employment, which is why you've seen a $4 billion commitment yesterday to housing in remote communities for over 10 years. And then we also made $1 billion to bring schools up to a good standard here in the Northern Territory.
Jacqueline Breen: $700 million was also announced last month to create 3,000 jobs under an overhauled remote jobs program, replacing remote work for the dull. The commitments have been framed by the government as practical measures to close the gap. Practical measures being a kind of Canberra speak for policies other than the Indigenous voice to Parliament defeated at last year's referendum. The government is still yet to clarify whether its commitment to the Uluru Statement from the Heart holds in full. Minister Burney said again today that conversations with Aboriginal groups are ongoing, including on this visit to the Territory. She was specifically asked if local and regional voices are actively being discussed.
Linda Burney: Well, at the moment, I can't. Only because I'm not going to break cabinet solidarity. But I can assure you there is extensive discussions and consultations going on across the country, not only in relation to closing the gap, but also in relation to the sorts of things that we want to go forward with.
Jacqueline Breen: Since its defeat at the referendum, advocates for the voice have had a lower profile, but are watching the government's moves now closely. Uluru Statement advocate Thomas Mayo is urging the government to honour the commitment made to the voice through legislation if necessary, and to treaty and truth-telling.
Thomas Mayo: Well Minister Burney's right, there is a lot of conversations that are happening and that is one of the ideas that has been thrown around. So, you know, I hope that the Australian people will see this as a positive and when announcements do happen about how the next big step forwards are done, they get behind it and support what Indigenous people are calling for.
Sally Sara: That's Uluru Statement advocate Thomas Mayo there, ending that report from Jacqueline Breen.
