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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-11-12 Daily Xml
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APY LANDS

Ms BREUER (Giles) (15:03): My question is to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation. How is the government improving service delivery and community governance on the APY lands?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Environment and Conservation, Minister for Early Childhood Development, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister Assisting the Premier in Cabinet Business and Public Sector Management) (15:03): For some time there has been a number of concerns about service delivery on the APY lands. That has been obvious. Rubbish collections have been irregular, road maintenance has not been consistent and maintenance and supervision of airstrips have been patchy. There have been dog control issues and the collection of rent has been sporadic and inconsistent. A whole range of services that a community takes for granted have not been well delivered.

A key part of that issue is governance. There is no identifiable body that is clearly responsible for local government and allied services on the APY lands. In the absence of such a body, service delivery has been fragmented between commonwealth and state agencies, the APY executive board, non-government organisations and individual communities on the lands. Understandably, in those circumstances real tensions have emerged between those various organisations, often paralysing service delivery.

In the report into the APY lands, Commissioner Mullighan identified that improved service delivery would be critical in order to establish a safer community. Indeed, it was the subject of his first recommendation. Last year the commonwealth and state governments commissioned John Thurtell to examine these issues and, in response to his report and Commissioner Mullighan's recommendation, a few weeks ago we released a discussion paper, which sets out the principles on which we will act on what we regard as our preferred model for service delivery.

Last week, government officers went to the lands to meet with communities to talk about those principles. Consistent with the Thurtell report, we believe that a regional council should be established to oversee service delivery, and it would be responsible for service delivery to the communities. It would draw its representation from communities and engage with communities in determining service needs. Strong accountability measures would need to be in place, and there should be adequate training for the staff.

The regional council and the way it links with communities would be designed in a way which strengthens Anangu to participate in the decisions that affect them. We need robust grievance procedures, and there needs to be, critically, the protection of the role of APY Executive as landholder and manager of those lands.

I am pleased to be able to tell the house that the suggested changes were generally well received right across the lands. Anangu encouraged us to take these steps to improve service delivery. Significant stakeholders, such as APY Executive and AP Services, have expressed their support for the general thrust of what we are suggesting. Indeed, I am meeting with representatives of APY Executive this week to further these discussions. We have also had discussions with the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee, and I must say that there is general bipartisan support for the thrust of what we are trying to achieve here.

This is absolutely critical if we are to improve conditions on the lands to get basic service delivery right. I am hopeful that we will be able to reach early agreement and, hopefully, approach the parliament with an agreed bipartisan position.

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