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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-07-24 Daily Xml
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APY LANDS, DRIVER LICENSING

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:30): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Wade.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation a question relating to Aboriginal road safety.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Road safety impacts significantly on the health and safety of Aboriginal people in South Australia. Aboriginal people have three to five times higher rates of road death and 1.5 to three times higher rates of serious injury from road trauma than non-Aboriginal people.

A leaked 2012 cabinet subcommittee submission sought funding for two projects coming out of the Health in All Policies Aboriginal road safety project. This is an evidence-based project focusing on the issues of driver licensing. The first proposed project was an intensive driving program developed and trialled to assist Aboriginal people to complete the 75 hours of appropriate supervised driving required to achieve P1. A second proposed project was a community grants program to support Aboriginal drivers. My questions to the minister are:

1. What is the government doing to promote Aboriginal health and wellbeing through improved road safety?

2. Is the government funding an intensive driving program for Aboriginal people?

3. Is the government funding a community grants scheme to support Aboriginal drivers?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:32): I thank the honourable member for his most important question on this very important matter. Even though it is a bit unfortunate in that I am not quite ready yet to announce what the government intends to do on this matter, I can give him some satisfaction today.

Clearly, the honourable member understands that this government has a very strong commitment to the APY lands. We have invested heavily in improving the provision of services delivered to Anangu on the APY lands in the areas of preschool facilities, family centres, education, vocational education, policing, youth, allied health, home living skills and family wellbeing programs, as we have gone through in this chamber in the past quite comprehensively.

I understand that some APY residents face further disadvantage due to barriers to obtaining a driver's license, such as remoteness and the difficulty faced accessing resources, services and information that are integral to the licensing system. Without a driver's licence, Anangu have difficulty accessing health services, increased contact with the justice system by driving without a licence sometimes and reduced employment opportunities. This in turn has serious implications for Aboriginal people's health, wellbeing and security.

I have met with representatives from the Palya Fund, where we discussed the Mutuka Project which aims to assist Anangu to obtain a driver licence in order to increase job opportunities, improve road safety and reduce minor traffic offences. I believe there is merit in the propositions put forward by Anangu elders working in cooperation with the Palya Fund, and I have discussed with the Minister for Road Safety ways for licences to be appropriately accessed by APY lands community members by overcoming some of those barriers but without sacrificing necessary safeguards.

We have agreed that the consideration of the driver licensing issue will form part of a new accelerated project—a collaboration between the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure and the Attorney-General's office, which will facilitate more equitable driver licensing outcomes for Aboriginal people on the APY lands. Subsequently, the state government has committed to a second round of 90-day change projects as part of its Public Sector Renewal Program.

Creating Opportunity on the APY Lands is one of the second-round projects that will support the implementation of the Mutuka Project. The project is looking at options to improve driver licensing outcomes for Aboriginal people living in remote communities, in particular, for the Anangu on the APY lands. The project is being developed in consultation with Aboriginal community representatives and is considering a range of responses at this time.

Project partners are working to ensure that any new measures complement the proposed work of the Palya Fund in its development of the Mutuka project. DPC-AARD officers met most recently, I understand, with representatives from the Palya Fund on 8 July 2013 to discuss project progress and to agree on a future collaborative effort. The government will continue its efforts to work with Palya into the future on developing sustainable supports for Anangu to obtain driver's licences and to help improve the safety on the roads up in the lands.

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