Aboriginal ID Fraud

The Hon. S.L. GAME (14:47): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before directing a question to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs regarding Aboriginal ID fraud in South Australia.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.L. GAME: Recent media reports, including one in The Advertiser, outlined claims of widespread Aboriginal fraud with increasing numbers of people self-identifying without verifying their Indigenous ancestry. Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows that the number of people who identify as Indigenous rose from 548,370 in 2011 up to 812,728 in 2021, an increase of roughly 33 per cent.

In South Australia the percentage of our population identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander was expected to jump markedly at the next national Census in 2026. In the media reports I referenced, an Aboriginal land council chief executive told government figures that he had continuously received community complaints about non-Aboriginal abuse of Aboriginal programs, initiatives and projects such as employment, housing and university entry.

In addition, a Riverland-based young Indigenous leader, Tyson Lindsay, has told my office that he, too, is aware of Aboriginal ID fraud in regional areas, and he told us that the current processes and policies in place lack authentication and allow for unverified claims to be made and go unchecked. My questions to the minister are:

1. Is the minister and his government aware and willing to acknowledge this growing problem of Aboriginal ID fraud?

2. Given that SA taxpayer funds set aside for Indigenous affairs need to be spent on those it is intended for, and that we know self-identification can be a simple box-ticking exercise, what measures are the minister and the state government taking to guard against Aboriginal ID fraud?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:49): I thank the honourable member for her question. If she has evidence of someone fraudulently claiming any government funds, any government benefits, any government program on the basis of fraud, I would encourage her to take that to the relevant authorities. At first instance I would suggest she takes that to SAPOL.

In relation to Aboriginal identity, for some decades now the test that has been applied since I think it was Justice Brennan's judgement in the Mabo decision—Mabo v Queensland No. 2 1992 has a tripartite test, which is accepted very widely in most states, and certainly the commonwealth, that has for Aboriginal identity that if someone holds themselves as an Aboriginal person, is accepted by that community as an Aboriginal person, and is of Aboriginal descent, that is a well-defined test in our law, and has been since Justice Brennan set it down as part of the Mabo decision.