Yadu Health Aboriginal Corporation

The Hon. T.T. NGO (14:50): My question is to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. Can the minister tell the council about his recent attendance at the official sod turning event for the new Yadu Health clinic?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (14:50): I thank the honourable member for his question. I know the honourable member has a keen interest and in fact has visited many remote Aboriginal communities throughout South Australia in his time as a member of this chamber.

It was a distinct privilege recently to attend the official sod turning ceremony for the new Yadu Health clinic, the Aboriginal health clinic in Ceduna, a milestone that marks a significant step forward for health care on the Far West Coast. For decades, Yadu Health has been a lifeline providing essential services to the Aboriginal community, even as it operated out of a building that was plagued by water damage, black mould, asbestos and serious safety hazards, including electrocution risks. The clinic was widely acknowledged as a ticking time bomb and an accident waiting to happen, and its demolition in January of 2024 was long overdue, although the journey to this point has taken some time.

In 2022, after listening to communities' concerns, both the then South Australian Labor state opposition and the then Labor federal opposition announced a commitment to delivering new funding needed to rebuild a purpose built Aboriginal health clinic. It was a commitment of around $16 million between state and federal Labor oppositions that has now seen the planning and the development and now the sod turning for this new clinic.

I distinctly remember at the time this was announced, before the last state election, the then minister who had responsibility, although not the title, for Aboriginal affairs, the former member for Dunstan, described the commitment of two and a half million dollars from the state government towards this as extremely concerning for South Australian taxpayers. Having visited Yadu Health clinic a number of times, the conditions for the people who work there but more importantly the Aboriginal people who went there for help were exceptionally concerning.

There were reports of people plugging mobile phones in after rains and being electrocuted. There was asbestos throughout the building; as I said earlier, black mould; and water damage. To expect some of the most disadvantaged marginalised South Australians, the Aboriginal community on the Far West Coast, to put up with that standard of health care I think should be even more concerning to most people.

The building that housed Yadu Health, apart from being completely unfit for purpose, was also the old Department for Community Welfare building in Ceduna, the place where in decades gone by Aboriginal mothers took their children, often to never see them again. So for a whole range of reasons it was not an appropriate building to provide health care to anyone.

With the sod turning we will see a new purpose built Yadu Health clinic. It is a great example of a collaboration between state and federal Labor benefiting a local community. It was a privilege and an honour at the sod turning to be in the presence of some remarkable trailblazers for Aboriginal health on the West Coast.

Previously known as the Ceduna Koonibba Aboriginal Health Service, it included Aunty Colleen Prideaux, who was the first Aboriginal CEO for the Ceduna Koonibba Aboriginal Health Service and also the first Aboriginal CEO employed at any Aboriginal community health organisation in the state; Uncle Peter Miller, who from the shearing shed to the boardroom was the first chairperson of the Ceduna Koonibba Aboriginal Health Service; and Aunties Gwen and Mavis Miller, both Aboriginal health workers who joined the health service in the 1970s along with Aunty Colleen and Uncle Peter.

I would like to thank all of those and everyone else who over the decades have done so much for the service of better Aboriginal health care for the Aboriginal people of the West Coast. Aboriginal people deserve infrastructure that is not only safe but functional and culturally appropriate and that is what this commitment represents.