Question: ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS ACTION PLAN
The Hon. J.S. LEE (14:40):
I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs about the Aboriginal Affairs Action Plan.
Leave granted.
The Hon. J.S. LEE:
The initiatives outlined in the South Australian government's Aboriginal Affairs Action Plan 2021-22 focus on delivering positive outcomes in areas of employment and business growth, improving the quality of government services and designing and implementing measures that will strengthen the capability of Aboriginal corporations and organisations. My questions to the minister are:
1. Will the minister make an official commitment to supporting the ongoing development of the Aboriginal Affairs Action Plan?
2. Will the minister commit to implementing the 41 initiatives outlined in the action plan, and when will the minister implement them?
3. Will the minister guarantee that state government agencies will continue to report to the government, and will he will commit to publishing the status updates on the Aboriginal Affairs website to maintain accountability?
The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Attorney-General, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:42):
I thank the honourable member for her question. The first Aboriginal Affairs Action Plan, from memory, had 30-something individual actions. About two-thirds of those were continuations of things individual government departments were already doing, a number under the former Labor government. A number of those remaining one-third were modifications of things being done by departments under the former Labor government, and there were a handful of new actions put in the first Aboriginal Affairs Action Plan.
The second iteration of the action plan had, I think, 41 actions. Of those, I think 30 were carryovers from the former Aboriginal Affairs Action Plan. We certainly expect government departments, in doing their work, to take into account the needs of Aboriginal people and Aboriginal communities, and those actions they have been taking that were collated into a glossy brochure at some cost we will expect government departments to continue doing.
The Hon. J.S. LEE (14:43):
Supplementary: when do we expect the government to release a 2022-23 Aboriginal Affairs Action Plan?
The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Attorney-General, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:43):
We are focused on government departments doing things they ought to be doing for Aboriginal communities, not collating them at cost into glossy brochures.
The Hon. J.S. LEE (14:43):
Supplementary: is the minister confirming that his government is abolishing the action plan altogether in that collation?
The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Attorney-General, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:43):
What I am confirming is that we expect government departments will be abiding by things that provide advantage to Aboriginal people and Aboriginal communities.
The Hon. J.S. LEE (14:43):
Supplementary: can the minister confirm who has oversight of implementation of those initiatives that were set by the action plan?
The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Attorney-General, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:44):
As the previous two iterations of the action plan set out, oversight by and large was by those departments responsible for them, I think.