Aboriginal Remains, Riverlea Park

The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO (15:08): I seek leave to give a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs regarding the Walker development at Riverlea.

Leave granted.

The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO: In a recent news article, the Kaurna Yerta Aboriginal Corporation asserted that specimens had been taken away from the site at Riverlea for radiocarbon testing and that results would be a few months away. My questions to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs are:

1. What detail or level of support has been provided to the Kaurna Yerta Aboriginal Corporation, and what feedback has been provided?

2. When did the minister last meet with this corporation?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:09): I thank the honourable member for her questions. I assume the questions are about the preamble the honourable member gave in relation to carbon dating and testing of ancestral remains. I think it was in another media report just yesterday that it was reported that there was a misunderstanding that has occurred somewhere and that no remains, according to that report, had been removed. I think that quoted the chair of the Kaurna Yerta Aboriginal Corporation in that article to say that, despite earlier comments in a media report, in fact no remains had been removed.

As with a question the Hon. Frank Pangallo asked earlier, I won't go into specifics of a process that is underway under the act at the moment, but often in these sorts of applications if there is a desire for destructive testing, such as radiocarbon dating of ancestral remains, they form part of an application process.