The Wire

It’s a motion that could brand Queensland’s Liberal National Party a mob of bigots, according to some party members. The LNP decided in a narrowly-won vote at the party’s state convention on the weekend that Abstudy payments for Indigenous students should be scrapped. Supporters of the motion said the Abstudy scheme is racist and that there should be one scheme for one Australia.

Abstudy is a Federal responsibility and the Abbott government have already knocked the motion down.But senior educational advisors say the sentiment is worrying and shortsighted. They say positive discrimination is needed to secure Indigenous education.