Newsroom

March 11, 2025

Member for Kennedy Bob Katter is supporting calls for Mount Isa and Cloncurry to be classified as ‘very remote’ so teachers can access the federally funded Reduction of Higher Education Loan Program (HELP).

“We have written to the minister for education requesting an urgent review of the location classification systems in use and how we can streamline results and definitions across Australia,” Mr Katter said.

Currently, education uses the ABS Remoteness Structure, which classifies Mount Isa and Cloncurry as ‘remote’, while health officials use the Modified Monash Model (MMM), which classifies the North West towns as ‘very remote’.

“While both location’s classifications use data collected during the national census every five years, with the results collated into the Australian Statistical Geography Standard – Remoteness Areas (ASGS-RA), the differing results for our teachers living and working in remote areas is significant,” Mr Katter said.

HELP provides financial assistance for students to pay costs associated with higher education. During 2024, the HELP scheme covered nearly $122,000 of education costs for the majority of students taking up work in very remote locations and $175,000 for graduates of medicine, dentistry and veterinary studies.

“Despite being a wonderful place to live and raise a family we have difficulty recruiting qualified and experienced teachers to the North West, and when they see their fellow public servants who work in health being given extra benefits to work in areas away from the coast, well it’s not fair is it?” Mr Katter questioned.

“I may be biased when it comes to how good it is living in north Queensland, but I am not blind to the challenges people in remote areas contend with; issues our coastal cousins could not even comprehend.

“Not many metropolitan families would be comfortable with unqualified teachers instructing their children, waiting eight weeks to see a GP and paying between $125 and $300 for that appointment, waiting years for knee operations that will alleviate disability, driving a 20-hour round trip or paying $800 for a two-hour flight to the nearest city with no inflight meal or entertainment.

“Yes we are tough in the North West but enough is enough; we demand the governments do more to progress remote communities towards having access to the same services provided to our city cousins,” Mr Katter said.

Queensland Member for Traeger Robbie Katter has also contacted the federal education minister on this matter.