News Service from House Harris

NT: Kids brave croc-infested billabong to get to school

DARWIN, Feb 26 AAP - The Northern Territory government is investigating claims children from a remote Aboriginal community must walk through a crocodile-infested billabong to get to school.

A caller from Palumpa, about 375km southwest of Darwin, has told talkback ABC radio in Darwin that students brave the dangerous waterway every day of the wet season.

The caller said a ferry service had in the past been used to get the children to school, but was cancelled because it was considered too dangerous.

NT Chief Minister Paul Henderson on Thursday said it "was the first I've heard of that".

But he said he'd look into the claims and "would get right onto" them as a matter of priority.

"I don't know what the issues are, it hasn't been raised with me," he said.

"Obviously if there are safety issues that's something else, but we will find any way we can to get those kids to school.

"If the ferry service used to operate and it doesn't operate now I'll find out and I'll fix it because we've got to get kids to school."

Earlier this week, Mr Henderson said education was his number one concern when it came to closing the gap of Aboriginal disadvantage.

About 2,000 Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory are not enrolled in school and another 2,500 fail to attend regularly.

The Rudd government hopes a controversial new approach to parental responsibility - which links school attendance to welfare quarantining - will boost school enrolment and attendance.

Under the scheme, parents on welfare from six remote Aboriginal communities will be required to tell Centrelink where their children are enrolled.

If the child fails to attend school, the government can suspend their income support payments.

Mr Henderson said on Wednesday that both governments and the community share the responsibility for getting children to school.

"Unless every day we're not focused on getting kids to school, and actually supporting the education of young indigenous people, and all young people in the Northern Territory, we're all failing," he said.

"It's not just government failing, it's indigenous people failing, communities failing."