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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-02-06 Daily Xml
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Davenport Community Council

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (14:49): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before directing a question to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs regarding the Davenport Community Council.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: In a recent article, it was reported that Davenport Community Council is still in receipt of federal and state funding despite not having operated for at least 14 months. I understand the Attorney-General's Department has been quoted saying that the Corporate Affairs Commission:

… recently filed proceedings to wind up Davenport Community Council Inc as an incorporated association as a result of breaches of the Associations Incorporation Act.

My questions for the minister are:

1. Can the minister provide an update to the chamber on the filed proceedings by the Corporate Affairs Commission to wind up the Davenport Community Council as an incorporated association as a result of breaches of the Associations Incorporation Act, including when the proceedings were filed and when the commission became aware of the council's breaches?

2. Can the minister advise on the current funding arrangements between the state government and Davenport Community Council?

3. Can the minister advise the chamber on what plans his government has to address the ongoing concerns in Davenport?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (14:51): I thank the honourable member for her question. I know that through the honourable member's former role in housing she would be very familiar with Davenport, which has a significant amount of public housing on the Aboriginal Lands Trust land for Aboriginal people in that area.

As I have mentioned in the chamber before, the Corporate Affairs Commissioner has filed an application in relation to appoint a liquidator to Davenport Community Council Incorporated. That is a matter for the Corporate Affairs Commissioner as a regulator of associations to make that decision in relation to their compliance with their rules and the law in relation to that association.

In relation to state government funding, there is a very small amount—from memory it is some tens of thousands of dollars but I will check that if that is dramatically wrong—that is paid for by the state government for, I think, things like dust suppression around Davenport and general clean-up around Davenport. The state government provides funding for rubbish collection. My understanding, and again I will double-check it is correct, is that is not paid to Davenport or the community council but to the service provider directly who does that rubbish collection.

In terms of housing at Davenport, of course that is SA Housing who provides the housing. That is not provided by, or goes through, Davenport Community Council. There is a Wami Kata Old Folks Home near Davenport that is obviously, I think, federal government-funded for that purpose. There are further federal government programs. I am happy to see if I can get some information from the National Indigenous Advancement Agency, who are responsible for providing those programs.

I have had a meeting in the last few weeks with the Aboriginal Lands Trust, as I do regularly, who own the land that Davenport is situated on. Like I think about half a million hectares that are held on trust by the Aboriginal Lands Trust for Aboriginal people, Davenport is an old mission, the Umeewarra Mission, as are many areas around South Australia. The old Point McLeay Mission at Raukkan, Point Pearce, and many other areas are Aboriginal Lands Trust-held land on behalf of those Aboriginal communities, as former missions in the centuries gone by.

I know that the Aboriginal Lands Trust is ensuring that services continue to be provided. There is continuity of services that are provided to Aboriginal people on Davenport so that if there was a transition from the Davenport Community Council, residents there should not be disadvantaged in terms of services that are generally provided. I know that both state and federal government Aboriginal affairs agencies are working towards that aim as well.

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