APY LANDS, SCHOOL ATTENDANCE

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood—Leader of the Opposition) (15:31): Supplementary, sir: how can the government claim in the Mullighan progress report tabled yesterday in the parliament that recommendation 25 has been completed, when the APY lands school attendance has fallen from 73 per cent, before the Mullighan inquiry, to 65 per cent in 2012?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (15:31): As I say, I will take that question on notice. I presume that the particular measures that are contained in the report have been completed, but the fact that we are still struggling to achieve the attendance rates which are desirable is a matter of regret and means that we will have to put in place other measures to address this issue.

I have said very openly to both the Prime Minister and to Senator Scullion that we don't regard this as a matter of party politics. We don't think any political party has a mortgage on understanding how to solve the difficult question of remote Aboriginal communities and service delivery there. I have said directly to the Prime Minister that we are prepared to contemplate measures that perhaps hadn't traditionally been on the table, because we do accept that what has been happening up to this point has not delivered the outcomes that we had hoped for.