House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-10-19 Daily Xml

Contents

MINISTER FOR ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS AND RECONCILIATION

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:53): My question is again to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation. Given that the minister has lost the support of Noel Pearson, Mick Gooda, David Cappo and Warren Mundine and has been criticised by Lowitja O'Donoghue, will she now do the honourable thing and resign?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI (Hartley—Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers, Minister Assisting the Premier in Social Inclusion) (14:53): The last time—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Morialta, behave. Order! Minister.

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: The last time I checked, three out of those four people are not from the APY lands, nor are they from South Australia.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: That's right. They want to ignore. What we need in South Australia are solutions, policies and programs that are designed for our communities here. Lowitja O'Donoghue, on the other hand, is a Yankunytjatjara woman. I have said in this place before how I have enormous respect. These are some of the things that she says and they are very important. She says—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: If they were interested in advancing the cause of Aboriginal people, they would pay attention.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: This is what Lowitja O'Donoghue says:

[We] must give Aboriginal people the capacity to run their own affairs and income management is one part of it only—

Mr Venning interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert, you are warned for the second time.

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: She also says:

My biggest message is about stopping welfare dependency programs and give Aboriginal people the capacity to run their own affairs.

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: She also says:

I'm happy in relation to that financial literacy stuff.

That 'stuff' she is talking about is the stuff that minister Macklin and I announced just recently. She also says:

At the moment these communities are becoming much safer places.

She also says:

I know the minister—

She is referring to me—

is trying to stop the fly-in, fly-out sort of rubbish that goes on.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Can I again remind the media—there is a cameraman up there that is very cross-eyed and keeps filming members on my left when the members on my right are on their feet. Member for Davenport.