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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-10-16 Daily Xml
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APY Lands, Governance

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:21): Supplementary: can the Premier update the house on the status of the APY Executive or governance review? This was tabled by the government before the end of last year and it still has not been implemented.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:21): I will bring back an answer to the house, but I think the broader question of the APY lands needs to be looked at through the prism of what the future is for the APY lands, and after question time today I will be meeting with Mr Andrew Forrest who has produced the Forrest review in relation to remote Aboriginal communities. He is in South Australia to advocate for some of the measures that he has placed in his report and that is all about having a future for the APY lands, a persuasive vision for the future, which means that young people there can actually see a place for themselves in the broader South Australian community.

All of these questions about the scrabbling for essentially the spoils of misery in the APY lands, these dysfunctional communities that are riven by child sexual abuse, dysfunction and unemployment, are never going to be resolved unless there is a strong sense of purpose in these communities, where young people can imagine a job for themselves and a future, and where schooling means something because there is actually some vision for the future for themselves. That is what Mr Forrest's ambition is. He has a range of controversial measures, some of which are pretty hard to swallow, but for me it is the first time I have seen a persuasive vision for the future in relation to these remote Aboriginal communities, including the view that these are no places for young people to see a future for themselves.

There is no economy in these remote Aboriginal communities, and I have seen all of the high-minded ideals that somehow we will let private property rights flow and then the cold winds of capitalism will turn these into mini tourist icons. Then I see the other group of people saying they should be closed down, robbing people of their connection to land and community. The truth is young people need to be shown job opportunities outside these communities, given the schooling, the training, and the connection to those jobs to allow them to see a future for themselves. That is how we will grapple with the dysfunction, violence, sexual abuse, domestic violence, and drug and substance abuse that sadly are too often the lot of these communities.

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