Federal Minister and NT senator Malarndirri McCarthy on Yipirinya school funding

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joining me live on the line is the Senator for
the Northern Territory, but also the federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs,
Melanderie McCarthy. Good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Good morning, Katie, and good morning to your listeners. Coming
to you from down in the Barkley.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Oh good stuff, minister. Lovely to have you on the show. Now,
there's quite a bit for me to discuss with you
this morning. I do just want to ask you what
was your reaction to the news over the weekend that
police have charged three Darwin residents over an alleged multi
million dollar defense fraud scheme.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, Katie, I think, like most people who heard the
news or read it in the NT news, it was
an incredible surprise. And of course, like all things, we
have to now wait to see what happens with support proceedings,
which I understand is taking place today and it's a

(00:58):
shal pase spot on.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
We are expecting that to happen today. I guess you know,
some out there listening this morning we'll be thinking it's
already incredibly difficult to win a defense contract, you know,
through the federal government. Is there going to need to
be work here to tighten things up further and are
you concerned that it may have some reputational damage for
Northern Terror tracks, for the Northern Terror Tory.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Well, clearly there was a need by the AFP and
the Defense Department and the Nauble C to make these arrests.
But like I've said, Katie, until we know the details
at this point in time, as much as I know
is what I've been able to ascertain from the media,
and I think it's really important given that there is

(01:44):
so much at stake here. And I am also mindful
of a number of people who you know, will be
affected outside of this, whether they're employees, are the businesses
that are involved, or whether they're people out on communities
and across the Darwin and Catherine and Tenant and Alice

(02:04):
who are also connected. You know, there's a lot of
people who need some certainty about what's going on, and
of course we have to see what happens with the courcat.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
All right, Minister. Last week the future of y Burnya
School in Alice Springs was well thrown into thread I
guess after just fifty students turned up to class on Thursday.
It was down from the peak enrollment of three hundred
and sixty in December last year. We know that staff
at Ybrina were told on Wednesday between fifteen and twenty

(02:34):
of them would be made redundant after plunging enrollments left
the school three point seven million dollars in debt to
the federal government. We just caught up with the Chief
Minister a short time ago. She had seen, okay that
the funding is through you guys and made it sound
as though it's a federal responsibility. What is the situation

(02:55):
from your perspective.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Well, the day to day running of the of ye
per in your own in fact, any independent school and
any school in the Northern Territories the responsibility of the
Northern Territory government. That's really important to distinguish that. In
terms of the funding. We've certainly assisted with funding for
year Poomier. In fact, I think as late as Friday

(03:21):
cadies in the Education Minister Jason Claire is offering the
school a five year repayment plan, so you know, twenty
twenty seven to thirty one rather than the existing three
year repayment plan. That offer has been made two year
per in yr school and it has been accepted. So

(03:41):
now that is a development that happened on Friday, so
I would expect today and the following days that there
will be further conversations around that repayment plan. And I'm
certainly encouraging and I'm sure the Education Minister at the
Commonweal level is encouraging that this repayment plan assists the

(04:04):
staff and the school so that they can revisit any
talk of redundancies. It's a very difficult time and people
should not feel like they're without jobs going into Christmas.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Do you feel as though they're going to be able
to pay that back? I mean, that's a lot of
that's a big debt for a school to have to
be paying back. Whether it's over three years or five,
it's going to be tough.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Absolutely, it will be tough. But one of the things
that I do know about Yuprenia School is that there
is a great deal of love for that school around
all of those town camps around Central Australia. You've got
about sixteen town camps that it caters for. I was
there at U Dunmow Camp just last week talking to
families there, even talking to staff from eu Prenia College,

(04:50):
and there is a great deal of support around the
country for this school and we will ensure that this
school gets back on its feet.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
All right, So the Education Minister has liaise with the school,
so that payment back is going to be over a
five year period and you're certainly hopeful that that is
going to mean that the school is able to continue
to operate.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Well, it's an important first step, Katie. Clearly there are
other areas and this comes down to the report that
I understand that the Northern Territory Education Minister has to
deal with, and there are significant issues within that report
which appropriately have to be dealt with by the ND government.
But I would say that overall, in terms of yu

(05:33):
Breunia School, to those students and staff and their families
who may hear your interviews, there is a great deal
of support at the Commonwealth level for.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
You, all right, Minister. I know this morning as well,
you're also out announcing more than nine hundred new Indigenous
ranger jobs are going to be created across the country.
It's part of the Federal government's commitment to double the
number of Indigenous ranges by the end of the decade.
What's it going to mean for the Northern Territory.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Well, it's good news. For the Northern Territory. We've got
significant ranger groups around the territory and we're going to
see seventeen more that will come out as a part
of this funding announcement. This is a second round of
the ranger program that's going to start rolling out over
the next couple of weeks. I'm here in the Berkley.

(06:22):
We're going to see rangers here actually at the Coulehman
Dinner Rangers. It's a new group. What I'm asking for
is that there's also gender parody Kdie. We're trying to
roll out at least a thousand positions for women across
the ranger groups across Australia, because I do want to
see more women rangers who are a part of what

(06:45):
we're rolling out.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
It's not the only thing you're announcing today. I understand
the government's also announcing that you're going to provide two
hundred million dollars in funding to support ninety six projects
across Australia to ensure disaster prepared What does that mean
for the Northern Territory. Are any of those projects here
in the NT?

Speaker 2 (07:05):
Well, it certainly encompasses the NT. I mean it's conscious
there's heavy rain in Darwin at the moment and will
be probably for the next few days as we watch
the low that's sort of to the north of Darwin
and water in that area. It is that time of
Yeukadian and I think all Territory residents know that we've

(07:26):
got to be cyclone ready, We've got to be prepared
for any flooding and the Commonwealth government is always there
to assist.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
Minister before I let you go. We spoke to the
Chief Minister earlier today. We didn't actually touch on this
with her today, but we spoke about it last Monday.
She said that the government, the Northern Territory government, is
still waiting for the Prime Minister's Office to sign off
on the next administrator. They apparently sent through the paperwork
or the recommendation in June. Do you know what's causing

(07:57):
the delay or do you know if they've put forward
somebody that might be I don't know, maybe questions being asked.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
Look, I just checked in this morning one of my
advisors did with the Minister McBain's office. I understand that
they are considering the Chief Minister's request. I'm not familiar
with what the next step is but I'm happy to
certainly advocate once I get back to Canberra. But you know,

(08:24):
at the same time, the Chief Minister is the leader
of the Northern Territory and I'm sure she's probably able
to have a conversation with the Prime Minister as well well.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
Melan Dearye McCarthy, Senator for the Northern Territory and also
Minister for Abridge and All Affairs. Always appreciate your time.
Is it warm in the Barkley this morning?

Speaker 2 (08:42):
It's lovely, It's really lovely. Yeah, it's still lovely and
green actually, which is nice.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
Very nice. Well, it's beautiful here with the wet weather.
I tell you what you're missing out, but I'm sure
you'll be back. Thank you, Thanks so much, much appreciated.