Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I ask the minister to also follow up on the comments reportedly written by Minister Abbott that, normally, a dysfunctional local government would mean sacking the council and imposing an administrator to sort out the mess. Something like this was tried in South Australia’s Pitjantjatjara lands in early 2004. Can the minister confirm that the particular decision to appoint an administrator for the APY lands back in 2004 was made without any consultation, resulted in the appointment of three different administrators in as many months and was widely considered to be a complete and costly failure? Can the minister reassure the Senate that the federal government’s new paternalism, as outlined by Minister Abbott, towards Indigenous Australians is not going to repeat the failures of the old paternalism?