• Breakfast and lunch programs that attract children from dysfunctional families to school.
• Programs that bring the Aboriginal community into schools (such as an elder-in-residence program) by providing a person who can liaise between Aboriginal students and the school environment.
• Aboriginal teachers and teacher aides who can also provide a support role for Aboriginal students and influence changes to curriculum and teaching methods.
• Curriculum that engages Aboriginal children because it teaches them the essentials in a way that resonates with their culture, values and world views.
• Programs that unite approaches that promote self-esteem and build confidence through engaging with culture with a focus on academic excellence.

Similarly, I look at the Catherine Freeman Foundation’s successful Non-Truancy Mountain Bike initiative in Palm Island off the North Queensland coast. The Foundation made 15 mountain bikes available to award to pupils who showed the biggest attitudinal and academic change.

Or in Ngukurr in the Northern Territory, where that community’s highly successful ‘no school, no swimming pool’ policy has been instrumental in keeping class numbers high and has been copied by towns around the country.

We have to get out of this mindset that – in relation to these issues – we’re going to change people’s behaviour by ‘waving a big stick’.
Common sense and experience tells us that we’re only going to overcome these issues by a combination of listening to local communities and offering both resources and innovation to meet their individual needs.

Helping vulnerable and struggling families and protecting children at risk is not going to be achieved simply by carrying a big stick.