APY Lands, Bike SA Program

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (14:46): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation a question about the Bike SA program on the APY lands.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: Recently the government announced a $300,000 community youth grant to expand a Bike SA program on the APY lands. The minister would be aware, as are many in this place, that the state of the roads on the APY lands is parlous at best, making use of bicycles problematic and counterproductive due to the risk of punctures, injury, etc. Therefore, my questions to the minister are:

1. What is the current Bike SA program on the APY lands?

2. What is the nature of the planned expansion of the program?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:47): I thank the honourable member for his most important question, which, if I am right, should properly be directed to the Minister for Social Inclusion in the other place, and I undertake to take that question to her and seek a response on his behalf. I also point out that his federal Liberal colleagues in the commonwealth government recently advised of their intention to cease, as of 30 June 2015, funding of almost $10 million.

The Hon. T.J. Stephens: I am laughing!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The Hon. Mr Stephens outs himself as laughing at this cut by the federal Liberal government, this callous, cold, hard, ideological cut by this federal Liberal government against the most vulnerable Aboriginal communities in the remote parts of South Australia:$10 million—$9.6 million from municipal—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: Answer the question!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Oh, I am glad to welcome the Hon. Mr Ridgway back into the chamber. I do not know where he has been for the last half hour of question time.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: On a point of order—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Sit him down! I ask the minister to withdraw that. I left the room for maybe seven or eight minutes to receive some paperwork from my office. He says half an hour—that is a disgrace and I ask him to withdraw it.

The PRESIDENT: The honourable minister, it was only a few minutes because there was peace for a few minutes. So, it definitely wasn't half an hour.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: It may have been, Mr President. Of course I had not heard from the honourable member for quite some time, but we hardly notice when he is here anyway. To get back to the point, he was probably out checking—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The honourable minister, let's just keep to the question.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Indeed I should, Mr President, but if I were to infer as to his motives, he may have been checking up on the report, on which he asked a question of the leader in an earlier part of question time, which he clearly had not read before reading out the question.

So, $10 million was cut by the Liberal Party inc. at a federal level into municipal and essential services delivered to regional and remote Aboriginal communities in homelands in South Australia. Peremptory cuts, phoned up by the federal minister, who said, 'We're cutting $10 million, and if you're very, very good, and you swallow this with a dose of sugar, we might give you a little bit extra just to make it go down easily.' The commonwealth government is walking away from the historic funding to these remote homelands and regional areas of South Australia which, for the last 50 years, has been its responsibility. These funds are used for municipal services, collecting rubbish, looking after roads, powering generators. Effectively, the federal Liberal government is going to turn out the lights and say 'sayonara' to these communities; 'You're on your own now. Pick up your own rubbish, look after your own communities. We are not going to accept that responsibility any more.'

This is a cold, hard and callous ideological federal Liberal government that does not believe in government. It does not believe in government, that is its problem, and it is withdrawing funds and passing services back to the states without any funding stream to pay for them. Is it any surprise that the Treasurer in the other place today is going to have to cut his budget to suit the federal cloth that has been sent to us with no funding stream whatsoever—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Hon. Mr Dawkins, you are particularly loud. Please refrain.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The Hon. Mr Dawkins has a very powerful voice, Mr President.

The PRESIDENT: He does indeed.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: I would like to see that voice lifted up in song occasionally, in tune with the South Australian government, when we oppose these hard, callous cuts of the federal Liberal government.