National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:24): Further supplementary: given that the honourable member has two-thirds of sweet all—

The PRESIDENT: Do not put supposition into the question. Ask a simple question.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Hon. Mr Ridgway, I don't require your assistance.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Can the honourable member outline how much the federal government has provided for Aboriginal housing, and is it the $3.3 billion over nine years that she claimed yesterday and, if not, how much?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:24): The honourable member clearly is taking what I said out of context. He can read the Hansard from the House of Representatives.

The Hon. K.J. Maher: How much then?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: I didn't claim anything. I was reporting—

The Hon. K.J. Maher: You don't have a clue, do you?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Well, I do.

The Hon. K.J. Maher: So how much—how much?

The PRESIDENT: Don't engage with the Leader of the Opposition directly. Through me.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: It is as I reported it yesterday. The honourable member can read the Hansard. I took this issue so seriously that, as a member of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, I was making representations while I was still a member of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition to the federal government, because that is what I thought was the appropriate thing to do. This is a really important program.

I do hope that what the honourable member said yesterday about what he has been doing on the lands, going and scaring people, is not true. I'll be very disappointed if that's the case, that he has been making it seem that their funding is about to disappear and that their particular communities are under threat. If he wants to grow up and behave like an adult, he will take responsibility for the complete inaction of the previous government, which did nothing—nothing—to put funding on the table and just put out media releases—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: They withdrew it, Michelle, they withdrew the funding.

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Hunter, restrain yourself; you're not advancing the debate.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —media releases, complaining about how the program had ended, when clearly the commonwealth—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: The commonwealth withdrew the funding. That's the idea; you just cough it up—'So how much, sir?'

The PRESIDENT: Hon. Mr Hunter, please, you're not assisting the debate.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —when clearly the commonwealth was seeking the South Australian government of the day to come to the table and act like adults and negotiate and provide funding, and the Labor Party, in government, did none of that and has left us—we are still within 100 days, very early days of this government, and we are having constructive negotiations and I'm not going to go into the details of any of those discussions, because that is not the way you negotiate.