APY Lands, Child Protection

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:12): Is the minister aware of the recommendation in the fifth annual report handed down in November 2013 regarding the ongoing management being the responsibility of a steering committee—the APY Lands Steering Committee? If so, can the minister advise of the ongoing role of that steering committee, who is a member of that steering committee and what work they are actually doing to follow up on these issues?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for the Public Sector) (14:13): I appreciate the clarification there. When I said 'task force', 'steering committee' was in fact the expression that I was reaching for. I can't give you here now the membership of that committee—I can certainly provide that in due course—but that is the group that I understand recently had a productive meeting. There had been, I believe, a hiatus for a period of time due to a number of factors. That is now on track and is having productive discussions within the community.

From the time when I was on the lands a couple of months ago, I guess it is now, and spent some time with the police involved in that work as well as Families SA staff and education staff, my sense was that the engagement by the various forms of leadership within the APY communities was essential for productive change to occur and was getting closer. The work that was happening between government workers and the Anangu themselves was improving, which is in no way to suggest complacency or contentment that things aren't going as well as we all might wish they did.