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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-04-03 Daily Xml
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National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:24): My first supplementary arising from that answer, Mr President.

The PRESIDENT: I rule on each supplementary so just let's get this one out.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Which Aboriginal communities or organisations has the minister spoken to about Aboriginal housing, and which ones did she speak to when she was in Brisbane?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:25): The meeting in Brisbane wasn't for the purposes directly—

The Hon. K.J. Maher: Which organisations—it wasn't for housing so which ones—

The PRESIDENT: Leader of the Opposition, you have asked—

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Leader of the Opposition, I call you to order. You have asked a supplementary well within the standing orders; allow the minister to answer.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: The meeting in Brisbane was really to sign off on the follow-up arrangements for Closing the Gap, and I was very pleased to be able to represent South Australia as the—

The Hon. K.J. Maher: Name one organisation you have spoken to—

The PRESIDENT: Leader of the Opposition, I am more than fair with supplementaries. Hold your horses; you can ask those as supplementaries. Informal questioning is inappropriate. Minister, let's hear your answer to the supplementary.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Thank you, Mr President.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: Where is the list of communities that you have spoken to? Tell us.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Mr President, I'm trying to not engage with the out of order interjections from the opposition.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Go on, minister.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: I was very pleased to represent the Premier at such an important and momentous occasion. I took my riding instructions from our esteemed representative, Nerida Saunders, within DPC, as she attended as well last week. I took the view that in that meeting it was because this process is about elevating the voices of Aboriginal people that ministers should do their best to—

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Point of order, Mr President, on relevance.

The PRESIDENT: Yes.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: The supplementary was directly about any organisation the minister had spoken to about housing, and if she hasn't spoken to a single one she can just say, 'I haven't and I'm not going to.'

The PRESIDENT: Leader of the Opposition, I take the point. The Leader of the Opposition has raised relevance, minister. You have some latitude but the question was specific, so back to you, minister.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: I apologise, Mr President. I thought I was asked about what took place in Brisbane. In that sense I took the view that as a minister I should be respectful of the fact that the process was about elevating Aboriginal voices and therefore I would speak only at appropriate junctures. Unfortunately, some of the Labor ministers who were there felt the need to talk ad nauseam about all the wonderful things that they were doing and then were not necessarily prepared to sign up to the agreement.

I assume there are many people in various Aboriginal communities who are a little bit tired of all the fine words of Labor members without anything being delivered; therefore, we are very pleased that the NPARIH funding has been delivered. As I have spoken about in this place previously, the previous minister in the previous administration did nothing about advancing funding. This is one of the key points in terms of how we are to involve Aboriginal communities in terms of what it is that they want to see happen with housing in remote Aboriginal communities.

As the honourable member has heard on the jungle drums, I will be visiting the APY lands later this month. I have previously been a member of the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee and have visited many communities on the lands in that previous role. I have met various people since being appointed in this role and also in opposition.

It is my practice generally that I do not like to name people in this place because of the particularly vindictive and vitriolic nature of the Labor opposition. They then go to people and pick them off, pit people against each other, and are particularly unhelpful for the genuine advancement of these matters. But, I would have to say, I find it really—

The PRESIDENT: Minister, I am just going to give you a time warning here. We are very close to the four minute mark.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Isn't that just for Dorothy Dixers?

The PRESIDENT: It is not necessarily a tight rule because normally it applies to questions from your own side, but we are getting on and I'm anxious to get to crossbenchers.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: I apologise. Mr President, I accept your judgement. But I do find it quite rich for a party which dismantled the Aboriginal housing within the South Australian Housing Trust, who did not appoint somebody to the Housing Trust Board, which is the organisation which is going to be delivering housing for Aboriginal people into the future, and for not having an Aboriginal housing strategy to be even asking these questions.

The PRESIDENT: Further supplementary, Leader of the Opposition.

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