Offering educational opportunities

Waiting in turn to have a shower in the morning or to use the toilet and then competing for the limited food, cereals for breakfast and bread to make lunch, would tax an adult, let alone a child. It may be stretching it a bit to expect the child in the overcrowded house to find a piece of fruit in the refrigerator for morning tea.

So as you could appreciate the offer of money - as much as $50,000 tax-free for experienced teachers - is a step in the right direction but will not gain the desired outcomes if the home environment isn’t also remedied.

I would also like to see financial incentives offered to all tradespeople who are in urgent demand in those communities: carpenters, plumbers, mechanics, electricians and so on.

As an urban Indigenous person I’d hate to experience a malfunction of my toilet, or have a power failure at home, or realise a major mechanical problem with my car, or sustain serious storm damage to my house. Worse still, I’d hate to be told over the telephone that the nearest tradesperson is a thousand kilometres away and I’ll have to make do for another four weeks - at least.

So yes there are many things we take for granted in large rural and urban areas. And if there is one thing I’d like our brothers and sisters to enjoy in the remote communities the most - it would be equity in the provision of goods and services.

For the most part I would like to see normality as an everyday occurrence so that children in remote communities can begin their school life with an expectation that they too can fulfil their dreams of being a plumber, actor, stock broker or prime minister because their school offered the same educational opportunities as any private school in any Australian city.