Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I can confirm that he is a fantastic Prime Minister for Indigenous affairs. It is terrific to work with him. The answer to the first part of the question—if the question was: why is it that people are somehow left in limbo?—is that we do not want to tell them that they have not got the job. That is the idea. We want to lean in and make sure that they have the capacity to have a valid application. So it cannot be late—and a large number were late and therefore noncompliant. We have gone back and ensured that they are compliant because we want those Aboriginal organisations and those organisations that have a demonstrated history of employing Aboriginal people to get the job. We know from the sins of the past that those very large NGOs who have crept into this space are not delivering in the same way that locally-based Aboriginal organisations can deliver.