APY Lands

The Hon. B.R. HOOD (15:16): My question is to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs regarding the APY lands. When will the APY staffing model, in conjunction with South Australia Police, be fully implemented and staffed appropriately?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:17): I thank the honourable member for his question. Certainly, the provision of services to remote Aboriginal communities right across South Australia is of great interest to me as Aboriginal affairs minister. I know that regularly on visits to the APY lands that I have been on, both working in policy development as a staff member for former ministers and in my role as a minister and shadow minister over the last eight years, the issue of policing in the APY lands has been regularly raised.

One element that I am particularly pleased about was the recent announcement for extra facilities to be built in Pipalyatjara, Fregon and Indulkana—I am pretty sure they are the three places where further facilities are intending to be built. These complement facilities that were built, I think, in the late 1990s with the help of the federal government in Murputja, Amata, Pukatja and Mimili. Certainly, there is a new multi-use facility that I attended the opening of in the middle of last year at Umuwa that brings together a number of agencies, including police, child protection and other agencies that provide services in the APY lands.

I am aware that the issue of staffing, not just for the police but for other service providers in the lands, such as teachers, nurses, doctors and others, isn't always easy. It is an exceptionally remote part of the state and it is not always easy to attract workers to go there. In relation to the policing model that currently exists in the APY lands, that was changed when I think the member for Hartley, Vincent Tarzia, was police minister. I certainly expressed views at the time about what I thought about a reduced frequency of individual officers being at individual stations in the APY lands where now, for a two-person police posting, you can have up to eight different officers in any one given month.

Some of the police officers that I have got to know in the APY lands have been extraordinarily good at what they do. A lot of it has been preventative policing, knowing the community well enough to know who to go and talk to if there seems to be trouble arising. I have seen remarkable policing over the years in the APY lands and I know that, regardless of the model, there are, and there continue to be, issues attracting staff. It is an issue I have had discussions, and will continue to have discussions, with the police commissioner about making sure we can provide a suitable policing model and as strong staffing as we can in the APY lands.