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Kate is passionate about contributing to public debate on a wide range of important issues. Here are some of the issues she has touched on in the past.
- Should successful athletes have to pay back the AIS 10 Jun 2009
- Let's give youth voice now for a better future 12 Oct 2008
- Organ donation it's the greatest gift of all 21 Sep 2008
- Is safe sex message falling on deaf ears 31 Aug 2008
- Grassroots funding is key to Olympic glorys 10 Aug 2008
- Easy to overlook big issue of homelessness 20 Jul 2008
- Trailblazer Natasha leaves lasting legacy 29 Jun 2008
- Heavy hitters boost our World Cup hopes 01 Jun 2008
- Youth Forum Discussion Paper 17 May 2008
- We can't take sport for granted 11 May 2008
- Women truly can do anything be anything 20 Apr 2008
- Let the Games begin with all our athletes 30 Mar 2008
- Proud past but future a challenge for women 09 Mar 2008
- Young people will be heard at highest level 17 Feb 2008
- Our nation has changed dramatically in three weeks 16 Dec 2007
- Mobile Phone Towers 23 Sep 2007
- Bradken Foundry 01 Jul 2007
- Full Fees 03 Jun 2007
- Eating Disorders 17 Dec 2006
- Iraq 27 Jul 2006
- Electoral Laws 26 Jun 2006
- Dental 08 Jan 2006
- Make Poverty History 18 Sep 2005
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Media Releases
2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 200811 Feb 2010 - Sporting Chance Expansion
PRIME MINISTER
MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS
MINISTER FOR SPORT
JOINT MEDIA RELEASE
11 February 2010
Sporting Chance Expansion
About 10,000 students will benefit from an expansion of the Australian Government's Sporting Chance Program to support Indigenous students' engagement with school.
Sporting Chance Program uses sport and recreation as a hook to better engage Indigenous boys and girls in their schooling to improve educational and employment outcomes.
There were 42 Sporting Chance projects in 2009 37 school-based sports academies and five engagement strategies, supporting about 9,000 students.
In 2010 an additional 17 sports academies will commence across Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Victoria, supporting about 1,000 students, which will bring the total supported under program to some 10,000.
Ten of these new academies will be for girls and are funded as part of the $10 million expansion jointly announced by the Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, in the 2009-10 Budget.
The academies will operate in Broome, Fitzroy Crossing, Bunbury and North Albany, in Western Australia; West Arnhem, Palmerston, Katherine and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory; Mooroopna, Bendigo and Ballarat in Victoria; and Townsville in Queensland.
Seven new academies are funded under a $10 million expansion of the Clontarf Foundation announced in December 2008. The Foundation will operate its football academies in Jabiru and Gunbalanya in the Northern Territory; and in Bairnsdale, Warrnambool, Swan Hill, Robinvale and Mildura in Victoria.
The Sporting Chance Program is delivering strong results for Indigenous students, particularly in remote and rural areas. Attendance rates are starting to climb and are, on average, better than attendance rates for Indigenous students not involved in the program.
Data collected from projects in 2009 indicates that the average attendance rate for academy students was 79 per cent. The average rate for all Indigenous students in the schools the projects were in was 73 per cent.
More than half of the academy students were reported by the schools to be improving their school performance and many were also reported to have made significant gains in their self-esteem and behaviour.
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