STATEMENTS BY SENATORS
Senator COX (Western Australia) (12:15): If you want to change the story for First Nations people in this country, education is where some of that change begins. This is not because education alone can undo generations of disadvantage but because it gives a young person choices—the choice to pursue meaningful work, to earn a good living, to build a secure home, to care for their health and for their family, and to see a future for themselves that doesn't end in poverty, poor health or the justice system.
When those choices open up for one young person, the difference can carry through a family and across generations. That is the real power of education, and that is what I saw in the work of Madalah and Wongutha CAPS, two very different organisations in different parts of Western Australia built around the same conviction: that our young people already have the ability and that it is our job to make sure that they have the opportunity.
But it only works when young people are supported to succeed as who they really are, connected to culture, family and community, surrounded by people who believe in them. And that is what I saw when I visited Wongutha CAPS in Gibson, just outside Esperance on Western Australia's coastline just last week. Wongutha is a Christian Aboriginal parent-directed co-educational boarding school for Aboriginal students in years 11 and 12.
I met young people who'd come from communities across Western Australia to work out what their future might look like. I played basketball with young Thomas and I hung out with Shalona. For some, home is hundreds or even thousands of kilometres away.
They arrive in Wongutha to finish school, gain some practical skills and begin taking those uncertain first steps into adult life. The school calls this 'training for life'. It means learning in a classroom but also learning how to live independently, how to drive, how to work with your hands and how to find your place in the workplace.
It means having a mentor who knows your name, notices when something's wrong and reminds you about what you are capable of. It also means being able to pursue an education without being asked to lose your connection to culture, family or community. That understanding has shaped the new independent living and recreational facilities I had the privilege of opening on this visit on behalf of our legendary education minister, Jason Clare, from the other place.
The Albanese Labor government contributed $1 million through our capital grants program, with the school making a substantial contribution of its own to deliver the project, worth just over $2 million. These are not just new buildings. For students a long way from home, these spaces are where they live, where they spend their time together and where they learn to manage everyday life as part of their education.
The new facilities will give students a more modern and appropriate place to live and learn, build their confidence and independence, and prepare for the next stage of their lives. They will benefit the students at Wongutha today and the generations of students to come. That's what this capital grants program is designed to do.
It improves infrastructure for schools and students who may not otherwise have access to the capital resources that they need. Across the next four years, the Australian government will invest around $1.1 billion in facilities in non-government schools, including $26.9 million right here in Western Australia in just this year. But, as I said when I was at Wongutha, it's not the building that delivers a great education; it is what happens inside it, and in the community that is based around it.
Back in Perth, I saw the same belief fill a very, very different room. More than 800 people gathered on Wadjuk Noongar country for the 2026 Madalah ball. Wongutha and Madalah may support young people in different ways, but they understand the very same premise: opportunity is not simply just offered once and then left for a young person to navigate alone; it has to be backed by people who understand the distance travelled, the pressures carried and the importance of staying connected to country and culture along the way.
That is what Madalah has done since 2009—support First Nations students from regional, rural, remote and disadvantaged communities with scholarships, mentoring and a community that continues to stand behind them. This year marked a decade since Madalah's first ball was held. But the night wasn't really just about that milestone.
It was about the young people in the room who led those conversations—from music to poetry to the impressive MCing of the night—and their personal stories, each one carrying their own ambitions, their family's hopes and the knowledge that someone believed in their future. It was absolutely worth attending and absolutely worth backing. There are many more young people waiting for the same opportunity.
The funds raised in 2023 supported 38 scholarships in secondary schooling. But, of the 233 applications received the following year, only 115 young people could be supported, not because they lacked ability and not because they lacked ambition; there simply wasn't enough to support every one of them in the chance that they deserved. That tells us that the need is real and that every sponsor, donor and government that can make a practical difference to a young person's life absolutely should.
Those 115 young people should stay with us. Organisations like Madalah and Wongutha can transform lives. But, for too long, the weight of closing the national gap has rested on the shoulders of a handful of small organisations doing absolutely exceptional work.
Their work should show us that this is possible. The responsibility of government is to take what works and to build it into a system so that the support is determined by the young person's needs, not by luck, by postcode or by whether a scholarship happens to be available. As our Minister for Education, Jason Clare, said at Garma earlier this month: No education system in the world has closed that gap.
But good ones can bend it. Bending it requires more than good intentions. It requires funding based on need, evidence about what works and the determination to follow a young person's education all the way through.
From their first years of learning to their first real opportunity in life, this is what the Albanese Labor government is doing. If we want to change where a young person finishes, we have to begin where they start. This is why we are delivering a three-day guarantee to give every family access to at least three days of subsidised early education and care for each child, and for First Nations children that guarantee is five days.
This year as a nation, we've reached an important milestone. More than 95 per cent of First Nations children are now enrolled in preschool in the year before full-time schooling. Closing the Gap target 3 has been met.
In 2016, that figure was just 61.3 per cent. Since then, it has dramatically and drastically improved in every state and territory. That is an incredible piece of work that has flow-on effects for generations.
It shows what's possible when governments, community controlled organisations, educators, families and communities absolutely work together. But we should make no mistake: one milestone is not the end of this journey. A strong start must lead somewhere.
It must lead to a child thriving in school, to a teenager finishing year 12 and to a young adult entering training, university and secure work with confidence in who they are and where they come from. Our responsibility here in this place is to make sure that that opportunity meets them at every stage, that it stays with them for as long as they need it and that education can and must change a life.
The progress we have made has shown us that change is possible. The gaps remain to inform us that work must continue. The Albanese Labor government will keep investing in our kids, in their skills for living and in First Nations community led solutions so that every young person has the opportunity not only to imagine their future but also to build on it.
We have closed one gap, but we must close the next and the next and continue to do the work that is required until a First Nations child's future is shaped not only by the barriers placed before them but also by their ability, their ambition and their dreams. Thank you.