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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-09-14 Daily Xml
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APY LANDS

The SPEAKER (15:18): Before I call the next speaker I just want to make some comments. This is not a reflection on the member for Norwood but on a whole range of people who are commenting on this. I have been the local member for the APY lands for the last 13½ years. I have visited regularly in that time and I have done that quietly and unobtrusively, not in a blaze of publicity. I am appalled at some of the comments that are being put around in the media currently and in this place, made by Johnnies-come-lately very often or armchair experts in Adelaide who think they know everything.

I can say quite categorically that the lands are significantly better than they were 14 years ago. The children are not starving in the lands. There are problems with income management and feeding children but they are not starving and the communities will not allow that to happen. There is a reflection on the poor people on the lands in communities there where they have been implicated and talked about in a way that it is just not appropriate for them.

You may have a point of order, but I am the Speaker and I am saying what I want to say. So much of what is said is true about income management. There are severe problems but these are not new and the member for Morphett and I have discussed these for the last 14 years. He has been on the Aboriginal Lands Committee with me, and I think it is time for some sanity in this argument and this situation. People need to be very careful about what they are saying because they are reflecting on the local people in the communities. They will look after their children and they will look after their situation.

Mrs REDMOND: Madam Speaker, can I inquire how that statement was orderly, with you making it from the chair, rather than vacating the chair and putting someone else into the chair so that you could make it as the member for Giles?

The SPEAKER: I will be making a statement as the member for Giles also when I get an opportunity, but I can make it from here if I choose. The member for Mawson.

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