APY LANDS, FOOD SECURITY

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (14:35): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation questions about food security on the APY lands.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: The minister is aware that I have brought this issue to the government's and the council's attention on many occasions and have indeed asked the relevant minister a question on the issue of fresh food transport subsidies four times since November 2011 with little meaningful response. Given that the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation now sits in this place, I hope today will be the start of a real and meaningful answer.

In November 2011, the minister in response to a supplementary question stated, 'I hope that the Liberal opposition will join the Labor government in a serious attempt at solving these issues.' However, the opposition already has attempted this in concert with the Greens. It is the government who now must come to the table. On 28 February, the then minister, minister Portolesi, advised that there is no evidence to support the view that a transport subsidy of $300,000, as requested by Mai Wiru, provided by the government, would be a complete response to this very complex issue. We believe that this would be a very, very good start.

The government's sole policy action in regard to this issue has been the establishment of market gardens in the arid APY lands. On radio in September, then minister Portolesi defended a question asking how these gardens would grow in the tough conditions on the lands, stating, and I quote:

Each garden is fully irrigated. They are powered by solar. We can very successfully grow market gardens. It has been completely tested by environmental people.

My questions are:

1. How did the gardens fail if they were so rigorously tested and had irrigation and power systems in place?

2. Given that the government has now wasted $228,000 on the failed market gardens project, a core part of the government's APY food security strategy, why was a $300,000 fresh food transport subsidy not considered?

3. The minister stated in 2011 that a subsidy was not the only way to solve these issues. Other than the failed market gardens, what other ways has the government come up with?

4. He also stated that he had only been a cabinet minister for 47 days and therefore he was not in a position to comment on this issue. Does the minister have a position considering he has now been a cabinet minister for 16 months; and if so, what is it?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:38): I thank the honourable member for his very important question and for his ongoing interest in this area. He has also, of course, exposed the great hole in his argument and that of many others. He says that this is our sole policy on the issue. The key point is that it is not. It is not our sole policy on the issue.

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: No, well, it is not spin, the Hon. Ms Lensink. You might want to listen and you will find out what is actually going on.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: There are seven food security priority areas that this government, the federal government and the APY have been working on. This strategy is overseen by the APY executive action team which includes state government, federal government and non-government members, and the policy areas that we are addressing are consumer protection, financial wellbeing, home management supports, freight improvement, store management support, education and discrete projects, including community gardens and programs such as Come Cook with your Kids school holiday programs. So these programs can only work if we deal with them together.

There is not one silver bullet to fix this problem. The problem, for example, if you are talking about a fresh food transport subsidy on its own, is what happens when you get the fresh food up on the lands and the diesel generators are off in a particular store? The food will spoil, and that is what happens now. But this government has been spending $288,000 to put backup generators in place to make sure that spoilage is not the feature that it has been in the past.

It is accepted by most people, I suspect—outside of this chamber, at least—that improving the food security in the APY lands, like many other areas, will require sustained, long-term cooperative efforts between the APY executive and Anangu, the non-government sector and governments of all persuasions. This government is committed to improving the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal people living on the lands and is following through with its plan to increase the availability and consumption of healthy foods. There will not be one quick fix. It is a long-term program and we must approach it from many different avenues.