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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-10-14 Daily Xml
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Indigenous Advancement Strategy

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (14:58): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation questions about the Indigenous Advancement Strategy from the commonwealth.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: I am referring to a media release from September from the commonwealth Minister for Indigenous Affairs. The release talks about the federal shadow minister's call to scrap the Indigenous Advancement Strategy (IAS) at a time when the commonwealth is working on optimising funding to Indigenous communities. My question to the minister is: does he agree with his federal colleague, Shayne Neumann, on these calls to abolish the IAS and, if so, why?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:58): I thank the honourable member for his question. Certainly, there has been, from communities I have visited, some criticism of the Indigenous Advancement Strategy. Some of the funding decisions that have been made communities have not understood and have not been given an explanation for. This is a new strategy, pooling funding that has previously gone directly to communities and to other things in communities that are not necessarily going to where the money has gone before.

There have been many reports over the last month or so in The Australian, particularly in The Weekend Australian, on where some of the money has gone and just how effective, and in some cases ineffectual, that money for that strategy has been. I think there should be a very hard look at this strategy to see if it is meeting its objectives.

I think it is a good idea to try new things, but this has been going for more than a year now, and I think it is worth having a look to see if it's meeting its objectives. There are clearly things, from what communities have told me, that aren't working and should work better, and those elements certainly need to be changed.

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