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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-05-07 Daily Xml
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APY LANDS

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:20): My question is to the Premier. How many people running petrol, alcohol and cannabis on to the APY lands have been caught and locked up since March 2004?

Members interjecting:

Ms CHAPMAN: Wait for the quote. On 15 March 2004, when the government announced a radical intervention in the governance of the APY lands, Deputy Premier Foley made this pronouncement:

There are people involved in petrol running on the APY lands. Others are also running alcohol and cannabis onto the lands. These people are helping to create a social catastrophe...we want them caught and locked up.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

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) (14:21): The most powerful and cogent evidence of the effect that we have had on the running of petrol on the lands is the 83 per cent reduction in the amount of petrol sniffing on the lands. I know members opposite cannot bear to hear that statistic: an 83 per cent reduction in petrol sniffing. All of those young lives—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The deputy leader will come to order.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: All of the acquired brain injury avoided. All of the suffering and misery avoided. All of the behaviour, and the damage and havoc that people who have acquired these injuries wreak on the lands has been avoided and the reason it has been avoided is because people no longer bring petrol into the lands.

They do not bring petrol into the lands because there is a fivefold increase in the penalties that were applied by this government in relation to the trafficking of petrol. Petrol is now a prescribed substance for the purposes of the legislation which allows us to pursue the people who run this foul activity. It is much more than that. There is now a point in intervening. In the past there was a view that there was just no point at all. There was a sense of utter hopelessness.

I am not suggesting that things are solved on the lands. The report that we tabled yesterday demonstrates that there is an extraordinarily long way to go, but there is hope. There are good leaders, and we are working with the good leaders. Frankly, there are bad leaders, and we will push aside the bad leaders. We will work with the good leaders to uplift these communities, because we actually have something that those opposite lack. We have a long-term commitment to these communities.

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