Indigenous Affairs

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (14:49): My question is to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation. Will the minister inform the chamber about the impact of the National Commission of Audit's recommendations in relation to Indigenous affairs?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:49): In reflecting on what the federal Liberal Party in government is doing, we have to remind ourselves, of course, that this is what the state Liberals promised the South Australian electorate at the election: a commission of audit. We are seeing what a Liberal commission of audit looks like now. It is an outrage. Of course, it is a softening-up exercise that they are engaging in, but the real horrors will come in the federal budget.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: You're pretty soft already.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: They say that, Mr Ridgway. They say that, indeed, and I am very pleased to be considered an old softy by you. Closing the Gap is a goal that all Australians must take seriously, I would suggest, if we are to break the cycle of Aboriginal disadvantage in this country. It is a goal that requires a partnership approach, a great deal of dialogue and mutual understanding if we are to succeed at our aims.

The Weatherill Labor government is committed to ensuring that the opportunities for Aboriginal people are shaped by choice, not by chance, in life. We have worked very hard to establish a good collaborative relationship with Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people must be at the helm making choices about their own destiny. That is fundamental to the concept of self-determination. For this to occur, we need to have strong relationships, but also mutual respect and an open dialogue with our Aboriginal peoples across the state.

This government has been very committed to a genuine and inclusive dialogue with South Australia's Aboriginal communities and their leadership. We have established the South Australian Aboriginal Advisory Council to support the government in the appropriateness of its policies and programs with respect to Aboriginal people. On the recommendation of the advisory council, we created the Office of the Commissioner for Aboriginal Engagement to ensure an independent Aboriginal voice prevailed in discussions about broader policy decisions.

Aboriginal South Australians deserve sustainable, effective and accountable political representation across all of their interests. This is what must be at the forefront of our minds as we work to develop better ways to create opportunities for future generations.

This government will introduce legislation to recognise self-governance for South Australia's Aboriginal communities. This legislation will also recognise the unique cultural identity of Aboriginal communities and set out guiding principles for cooperation between the different levels of governance and those Aboriginal communities. It will be complemented by community capacity-building initiatives that will improve the governance of Aboriginal organisations.

Such a partnership approach seems to have been ignored by the federal Liberal government—and also the Liberal opposition, but particularly the federal Liberal government—in its National Commission of Audit. I doubt that anyone could have missed the controversies surrounding the various recommendations contained in the commission's recently released reports, albeit they may have been deliberately manufactured to be controversial. As I said, it is part of a softening-up exercise. Nonetheless, they do show what Liberal governments look like, and it is a salient feature for us in South Australia to look at what a commission of audit—which was promised by the state Liberal Party—might look like.

The recommendations made in respect of Aboriginal Affairs have the potential to significantly set our efforts back decades. Most importantly, the recommendations were made without consultation with Aboriginal people, who are at the very heart of the services that the commission has reviewed.

I am aware that the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples has already strongly criticised the commission's recommendations. There is no surprise there. The congress is a growing community-owned and operated organisation that has a national role to defend the rights of the Indigenous peoples of this country and to deliver self-determination. Today it has, I am told, over 8,000 individual members. The congress is a direct expression of Australia's First Peoples' desire for self-determination.

Congress summed up the problem perfectly when it said that it would like to see 'government change the way it does business so that nothing is decided about us without us'. We should all agree with that very, very basic understanding about how to deal with these communities. We should be respecting them and working with them, not doing to them. The recommendations made by the commission, however, are far reaching. They include:

collapsing about 150 Indigenous programs and activities down into six or seven;

cutting Indigenous programs to fund a means-tested and needs-based education voucher program for Indigenous children;

discontinuing the $15 million in funding announced in last year's budget and included in this years' budget forward estimates for the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples;

merging the Indigenous Land Corporation with Indigenous Business Australia; and

reviewing with a view to merge, abolish or transfer—who knows——Aboriginal Hostels Ltd; four Northern Territory land councils; the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies; the Torres Strait Regional Authority; and the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community Council.

These wideranging policy changes have the potential to severely impact programs and services for Aboriginal people across the country.

While there is merit, of course, in reviewing programs to ensure that they are delivering the best outcomes for Aboriginal people, the fundamental damage caused by these recommendations, if they are put into practice, is that they were done in isolation from Aboriginal people. They are being done to Aboriginal people without consultation, without their ability to play a role in this decision-making process. The danger, of course, is that this will be interpreted as a decision to oppose the rights of Indigenous peoples to that very self-determination they claim for themselves.

It is sad to say that we probably should not be surprised at this direction by the federal Liberal government. The Abbott government has already made a series of decisions that will severely impact services for Aboriginal people. They have already cut funding to the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, they have axed the position of Coordinator-General for Remote Indigenous Services, they have slashed Aboriginal legal aid by $13.4 million, and they have given, at the same time as slashing legal aid to Aboriginal communities, $2.2 million to farmers and miners to fight native title claims.

What have my comrades opposite had to say about the commission's recommendations and the other cuts implemented by the federal Liberal government? Hear that, Mr President? Nothing at all—absolutely nothing, not one skerrick of criticism of these Liberal cuts. Perhaps it is time that honourable members gave up their tactic of remaining absolutely silent when the federal Liberal Party comes into town to make significant cuts to the South Australian community, particularly to Indigenous programs.

No wonder the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples is deeply concerned at what it considers to be a flawed and shallow process, this National Commission of Audit—but that is what they would have got here in South Australia had the Liberal opposition won the last election.

I encourage those opposite to work with the government in a way that is productive, inclusive and seeks to put Aboriginal people at the heart of our solutions. I invite them to do so, but I sadly think that they are just going to kowtow to Tony Abbott and the way he does business.