Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-03 Daily Xml

Contents

National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (16:43): Supplementary question: will the minister confirm whether these comments that the Hon. Ken Wyatt made about the Hon. Zoe Bettison refusing to put any money on the table as part of those bilateral discussions were true or not?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Attorney-General, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (16:43): No, I won't. Actually, I won't. What I am not going to do is ask the federal Minister for Indigenous Australians, did a former minister, five or six years ago, say this at the time. Do you know what: I am not going to do that. I will tell you what I am going to do, though. I will tell you what I am going to do, sir.

What I am going to do is put the best foot forward for South Australians to negotiate with the commonwealth. And I will tell you exactly what I am not going to do. What I am not going to do is try to negotiate an agreement that is so against South Australia's interests that the commonwealth can't do it in good faith because it leaves South Australia so poorly off. That's what I am not going to do.