APY Executive

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (14:30): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs questions about the APY Executive.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: The previous minister, approximately 12 months ago, sought and gained support to give him extraordinary powers over the APY Executive. Subsequently, our new minister (Hon. Kyam Maher) has not exercised these powers that were rushed through this place with some urgency. My questions are:

1. How is the new CEO of the APY Executive performing?

2. Is the APY Executive meeting all its statutory requirements?

3. Are all reports of the APY Executive being made available in a timely manner?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:31): I thank the honourable member for his question and his interest in these matters, and his regular visits to the APY Lands and his involvement in the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee.

As I think I said very soon after I became minister, I was not averse to using the powers that had been granted the minister by the change of legislation; however, that was not my preference. I was not opposed to appointing an administrator, but that certainly was not my preference. We have seen, this year, the resignation of the former chair of the APY Executive and we have also subsequently seen the election of the new APY Executive. I am pleased with the progress that has occurred during the course of this year.

The new APY Executive is chaired by Milika Paddy. Mrs Paddy is the first woman to chair the APY Executive, and the reports that I am getting are certainly positive about how the APY Executive and its management are going forward. There have been significant improvements in terms of financial controls, processes and transparency. Certainly, the release of the third and fourth quarter of funding to APY from this financial year—and I think also the second quarter from last year—was made contingent on much improved financial controls and transparency.

Some of the significant improvements have been: implementation of longer and more involved executive meetings; workshops to plan law and cultural events; complete and final sign-off for insurance; and I am advised that minutes from the May, June, July, August, September and October APY Executive board meetings are up online. In fact, I understand that there are now sections on the APY website devoted to the act, the election, annual reports, code of conduct and the constitution. Certainly, some of those were requirements for the release of further funding this year, in that a whole lot of things that previously were not necessarily easy to find were to be put up on the APY website.

I have been advised recently that a program manager for the land management position has been filled. The APY Executive have supported the NPY Women's Council AGM, and the 35^th anniversary of the council's events in September this year. The NT Chamber of Commerce has completed their first stages of work, which involved assessing some of the practices, particularly award coverage of staff, for APY Executive.

I will not go through the whole list, but I will certainly provide some of the recent developments to the honourable member and to the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee. I am pleased with the progress that has been made. I think there have been significant reforms that have improved financial controls and transparencies. Certainly, I think the management of APY and the executive is improving, and I look forward to continuing to work with the executive to continue to improve financial controls and transparency. Certainly, if these improvements aren't continued and kept up, I am not opposed to an administrator being appointed but, certainly at this stage, I see no need for that to happen.