Indigenous Voice to Parliament

[Magpietothemax]

^Wonderful clip. Thankyou for posting.

[Skids]

I wonder if the voice had been successful, would the kid my wife is supposed to be looking after at school, have got his attendance above the 3 days attended so far this year?

[David]

[stui magpie]

^

There's lots of reasons why kids don't go to school and 90+% of them come back to the parents.

[Skids]

^

There's lots of reasons why kids don't go to school and 90+% of them come back to the parents.

Exactly.

There's no way it would of made a difference.

Education is the key to progress and the non attendance at schools is unprecedented.

[David]

^

There's lots of reasons why kids don't go to school and 90+% of them come back to the parents.

And what's up with the parents then? Surely we have to dig deeper than that.

[stui magpie]

What do you mean, dig deeper?

As I said, there's lots of different reasons.Poverty, cultural, lack of education, mental health, substance abuse are just some.

[David]

Skids’ assertion is that the Voice to Parliament would have done nothing to aid school attendance, and that it’s merely the parents’ fault. I just thinks that’s incredibly superficial. If there’s a lack of will or capacity for parents to ensure their children get to school, then that suggests bigger policy problems of the exact kind that the Voice was designed to address.

I understand you may agree with that at least in part, but the trouble with saying "it’s the parents’ fault" implies that the solution is on the individual level, not structural.

[stui magpie]

It is on the individual level in the main, and each individual case will be different with a different combination of factors contributing.

There are cases in remote communities where it's a problem across the whole community. That's not an issue for the Voice, that's a situation requiring localised consultation with the community and state government money to support solutions.

The Structural elements are the education system in general that lets kids slip through the cracks despite the best efforts of many hard working caring teachers, and the lack of funding to case workers who work with the parents because more often than not the lack of school attendance is just a symptom of bigger issues at home.

I supported the Voice, but it was never going to be a silver bullet.

[nomadjack]

^

There's lots of reasons why kids don't go to school and 90+% of them come back to the parents.

Exactly.

There's no way it would of made a difference.

Education is the key to progress and the non attendance at schools is unprecedented.

You're absolutely right Skids. I mean it makes no sense. Why would you actually involve those directly impacted by a policy around school retention in the design and implementation process? And why would you give them any input into evaluating whether it works or not? Just crazy stuff...

[Kingsofclutch]

If the truth be told our wonderful lifestyle including schools, hospitals, roads, entertainment, food etc is earnt off the backs of the poorest countries and peoples of the world, and we will always look the other way or make excuses for it because no one really wants to face the fact that given the opportunity to push a button and give up the luxuries of 1st world to save the poorest and make for a more equitable world, that button would only gather dust.

[Skids]

^

There's lots of reasons why kids don't go to school and 90+% of them come back to the parents.

And what's up with the parents then? Surely we have to dig deeper than that.

What's up with the parents?.... maybe you can tell us?

The Mum rocked up on day 1 of the school year. Obviously has alcohol and substance abuse issues. She poured out this story about how her son was going to attend school and 'not turn out like me'. The boy is 6, wears a nappy, which he rips off after filling it, can't spell his name and can't count to 3.
Her main concern was getting home for the new fridge that 'better come this morning'. She was aggressive toward staff and other parents.

He showed up on two more days.

They live locally in a house (when repaired) worth circa $800k, there's 2 late model commodores and a prado out the front. Empty cans and rubbish cover the front yard. Just can't get the kids (5) to school.

There's been some kids over the past 25 years that Kels worked at the school that have done reasonably well... until around grade 5 or 6. Then the older siblings direct them away from school and into shoplifting.
The girl with the mist potential, she now has a tik tok page which shows her using drugs, picking fights and bashing random girls in the city and at train stations.

[David]

[stui magpie]

^

He's not suggesting that there's nothing that Indigenous people could suggest to fix it, the point you miss is that you don't need The Voice to make that happen at a local community level.

Is this a one of case, unique in the area? If yes get community services and case workers onto it, liaise with people in the community to find out what has worked before.

If it's endemic in the community, organise a community consultation group to get thoughts and feedback.

The Voice was to make representations to FEDERAL government on policies etc pertaining to First Nations Peoples. This kind of thing is a state and community issue.

[David]