Warren Mundine hopeful Malcolm Turnbull's app idea will cut truancy

A prototype of the app is already in existence and will be modified for use in Indigenous communities

Malcolm Turnbull is a self-confessed gadgets man, and within minutes of meeting a group of Indigenous leaders, the new prime minister had come up with the idea of using technology to reduce truancy rates.

"Within five minutes he said, why don't we get an app," the chairman of the prime minister's Indigenous Advisory Council, Warren Mundine said. "The teachers have an app. They sit there and they tick off Little Johnny and Joe and Mary as they come into the classroom. And if the kid is not there, then it sends an SMS to their parents."