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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-11-08 Daily Xml
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MINISTER FOR MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg) (15:49): I rise today, in the spirit of the edict issued by the Premier, to congratulate the Minister for Multicultural Affairs on her appointment to her new portfolio. There are some other important portfolios which she has acquired, but this is one to which I draw attention today. This is particularly because on the last day of our parliament the minister addressed her attention, in a grieve, to what appears to be, in summary, a complaint about my attendance at Ecuador and to the Galapagos Islands as part of my travel allowance. I do bring this to the house's attention and to you, Madam Speaker, because I want to assist her in her duties.

It is important in being the Minister for Multicultural Affairs that she attends a number of functions and that she ensures, notwithstanding other allegations of other ministers in this area that they have not looked after a wide spectrum of people in different multicultural communities, that she does so. Of course, she is also ensured, by taking on this appointment from the Premier, to be able to provide a white car service to the member for Croydon. I am sure on many occasions that he will be attending. He, of course, has coveted a great pride, as he should, in attending a wide variety of multicultural events, and may that continue.

What I draw to your attention, though, is that I would not want the minister to be overly embarrassed or unfairly cornered in a circumstance should she come across South Australia's Honorary Consul for Ecuador, Ms Gladys Arboleda, who in South Australia represents the interests of Ecuador, including the Galapagos Islands, which is, of course, a province of Ecuador.

There are two matters which the minister brought to the attention of the house. One is her complaint that there seemed to be no justifiable reason for there being a delay in my reporting to the parliament. Can I bring her attention to two things: one is that in fact I gave a report within weeks of returning to the parliament on 28 September 2010. I urge her to have a look in the Hansard and to learn from it, in particular the importance of the UNESCO listing of world heritage for the Galapagos Islands. What is important is that she has a look at that, because that, of course, was presented to this parliament within weeks of return.

The other thing to ensure so that she avoids embarrassment at the next function that she comes across with the Honorary Consul is that she takes the time to read the covering letter with the ultimate final written report to the Speaker, which covers the presentation of the report. In that she will be able to identify the attempts to consult with the Honorary Consul and the circumstances surrounding an issue in relation to ill health. There are two things: one is the initial meetings to be cancelled and the attempts to make subsequent convenient times to her. This is to be in no way reflected on the Honorary Consul. I think she does a sterling job, and I think it would behove the new Minister for Multicultural Affairs to forward a letter of apology to the Honorary Consul when she has read that covering letter.

The other area of concern by the minister appeared to be that she found pest management a rather remarkable issue to investigate because she did not consider that to be relevant to my constituents or relevant to my portfolios. She made that very clear. I again urge the new minister to view a map of South Australia, and in particular a map of the electorate of Bragg. About two thirds of it is in the Adelaide Hills, a region of which takes up a number of areas of concern about pest management. One, of course, is bush fire management, and one is the invasion of species into our parks, and, very significantly, at many of our public meetings the invasive species and pests affecting adversely our horticulture industries in those areas and, of course, some marine environments.

All of these things are very important. She also mentioned during her contribution that I only need to look at some of this pest control by catching a ferry to Kangaroo Island. Let me say, it is the very projects, particularly of goat control on Kangaroo Island, of which I learnt from the Galapagos Islands that this government have failed to deliver properly. This is a very important issue to my electorate. Next time she wants to have a briefing with me, with the Minister for the Environment, on pest matters she's welcome to attend.

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