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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-05-06 Daily Xml
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APY LANDS, HOUSING

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:48): My question is to the Premier.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Deputy Leader of the Opposition.

Ms CHAPMAN: How can the Premier assure the house that he will build police housing (announced today) on the APY lands when his government has failed to spend $10 million for Aboriginal housing on the lands over the past three years? The APY council advised the minister in writing just three weeks ago, that:

ChiP funds allocated as far back as 2003/04 through to about 2007 were not expended [and remain unexpended], although committed, to the tune of about $10 million at the present time.

The council further stated:

Cyclic maintenance on houses was not done properly or at all.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Families and Communities.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Families and Communities, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Housing, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Disability, Minister Assisting the Premier in Cabinet Business and Public Sector Management) (14:49): This is an important question, and I thank the honourable member for it. The short answer is because we will be building these houses ourselves. We will not be relying upon the system of indigenous community housing organisations that, frankly, has failed in relation—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: No, we do not. Indigenous community housing organisations—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: She asks a question then seeks to supply the answer, and gets both wrong. I have, under enormous provocation, always tried to maintain an attitude of bipartisanship in relation to Aboriginal affairs because, frankly, the issues at stake are just too serious to try to score points off one another. I have received very good cooperation from the member for Morphett (Duncan McFetridge), and I hope to maintain that with the balance of the opposition members as we try to deal with these difficult issues.

However, in relation to the question that the honourable member asked about the way in which there have been delays in putting houses on the ground in remote Aboriginal communities, it is important to understand that they are the subject of a model called Indigenous Community Housing Organisations. That is a scheme that is run by the federal government—and, frankly, it was acknowledged by the previous federal government that it had been failing. The new offer by the previous federal government, which has now been repeated by the current federal government—albeit with far fewer strings attached—is to use a completely different model, that is, the public housing model.

We are not going to rely upon community housing organisations in remote areas that simply do not have the capacity to put these houses on the ground. One of the recommendations that Commissioner Mullighan made in his report—a very clear recommendation—was to get on with the $25 million for community housing in relation to these remote communities. Just last week we visited the APY lands and consulted with the head of every community council. We had a major meeting in Amata with the head of every community council, which was a very positive meeting, and we want to take the next step to make sure that we put those houses on the ground.

Minister Macklin and I were communicating all weekend about how we would respond to the Mullighan inquiry. I have given a commitment to the federal minister that we will deliver that $25 million, and we will build housing in the APY lands. I will consult with the communities, but I will not consult endlessly, because this is too serious. The questions of overcrowding are centrally related to the sexual abuse that we are seeing in relation to the lands. At the moment, unfortunately, a little battle is going on between AP Services and the APY executive about precisely who should be responsible for the repairs and maintenance arrangements, and we are attempting to resolve that dispute.

However, I have made it clear in no uncertain terms to the leaders of AP Services and APY executive that we will not tolerate bickering around who is responsible for what, finger pointing at each other and factional politics over the question of Aboriginal housing on the lands. I want to work in partnership, but we simply cannot tolerate any further delays, and Commissioner Mullighan has made that clear. So, the first part of the answer is that the community housing approach has completely changed under this government, and we will get results.

The second part of the member's question related to how we will get the housing for police and social workers on the lands. We will be doing that using a completely different model. We will be building it ourselves: we will not be using the same model as was used for community housing. The federal government is funding that aspect, and we will take urgent steps to put that housing on the ground. We have already built a substantial number of houses at Umuwa and other parts of the community. We will, in fact, build these further houses on the communities, and that will allow us to have police on the ground, which is a central part of Commissioner Mullighan's recommendations.

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