Appropriation Bill 2021

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 26 August 2021.)

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (17:21): I rise to speak on this bill. The opposition will of course be supporting the bill. I spoke, I think last year, about an area to do with my portfolio responsibilities and how the government's appropriation has met the needs of that area and I will just expand on that momentarily while I have the opportunity on the Appropriation Bill.

I talked about the government's Aboriginal Affairs Action Plan and the 30-odd elements that made up the first version of that the last time, I think, I spoke on the Appropriation Bill. By way of an update, a closer analysis of the government's Aboriginal Affairs Action Plan indicates that around two-thirds of the items in that first action plan were initiatives of the former Labor government, so two-thirds of the new action plan were business as usual, carried on from Labor government initiatives.

For example, the Aboriginal Interpreter Service was not even one that was carried on. It was an initiative of the former Labor government and was included in that first action plan, but it was actually never delivered. So it was a former Labor government initiative set up towards the end of the term of the Labor government, I think in 2017. In the action plan it was claimed as a new item for the new Liberal government, but at the end of the reporting period for the first version of the Aboriginal Affairs Action Plan it was, spectacularly, not delivered at all.

In the 2019-20 Aboriginal Affairs Action Plan, the Premier himself was responsible for seven items. One of them was the interpreter service that did not happen at all. There were reconciliation action plans for departments that had missed deadlines. There were other things to do in the arts area that were missed by the Premier. In the 2021-22 second version of the Aboriginal Affairs Action Plan, the Premier is now responsible for many fewer areas, given the failure to deliver on a number in the first plan.

The 2019-20 first action plan for Aboriginal affairs update on the Department of the Premier and Cabinet website has things like, 'A prison to work action plan has been completed,' yet the explanatory text says it is not complete. The budget papers did not have a target to deliver on the action plan. So apart from the majority of the actions in the so-called action plan being initiatives of the former government, multiple actions on top of that are ordinary government business, plans to make plans or have been spectacularly not delivered upon.

One of the areas was an Aboriginal housing strategy that was released with some fanfare and formed part of the Aboriginal Affairs Action Plan. It will result in zero, not a single new additional home in remote communities like the APY lands over the next four years.

A number of other areas in the new Aboriginal Affairs Action Plan have been completely left off and had to be revised because they were not included, they were forgotten about and left off. We have seen in so many of these areas a big fanfare, glossy brochures with Aboriginal artwork on and then non-delivery. We see, as a result of freedom of information applications, the Premier's itinerary regularly and the times that he flies up once a year to remote communities and visits art centres.

Early on in this term of government it was noted by a journalist in The Australian newspaper that the Premier talked about, in remote communities, areas such as domestic violence and child protection, but the journalist who the Premier flew up with, who accompanied him on the visit to the APY lands, pointedly noted that the Premier did not visit any of the services that provide for these areas on the APY lands. Instead, he visited arts centres, which is an exceptionally important part of the community but is the one area that the Premier seems solely fixated upon to the detriment of other areas.

While we support the Appropriation Bill, I do note, once again, that the Premier has failed drastically in an area that is so important for South Australia in Aboriginal affairs and in the so-called Aboriginal Affairs Action Plan.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (17:26): I thank the honourable Leader of the Opposition for his wholehearted endorsement of the second reading of the Appropriation Bill.

Bill read a second time.

Committee Stage

Bill taken through committee without amendment.

Third Reading

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (17:28): I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Bill read a third time and passed.