Mr TOYNE - 2000-06-20
Within your portfolio there are no less than five consultative committees including the Aboriginal Economic Development Advisory Committee, the Aboriginal Economic Development Focus Group, the Aboriginal Economic Development Working Group, the Aboriginal Development Tourism Task Force and the Aboriginal Mining Enterprise Task Force. Now the Chief Minister has established the Aboriginal Development Consultative Forum. Isn’t this an example of another layer of window dressing when real action on Aboriginal development is 26 years overdue?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I am pleased to say that the Chief Minister’s consultative forum must certainly make wide use of the committees the member has already mentioned. These groups work across agencies; they work with business, they work with local government and with community councils. They have a very widespread consultation and they meet regularly and come up with some very innovative ideas to make ...
Mr Toyne: Then why isn’t anything happening?
Mrs BRAHAM: ...sure a system of Aboriginal development occurs out there in communities. What you have to remember is that they are working with business people for the advancement of the Aboriginal people. They have such a widespread group of people they consult. They are able to draw in all that expertise, all that knowledge, they receive funding for areas. What the Chief Minister has actually established as a consultative forum will be of benefit to all those groups that are now working for us because they will give the expertise, the information, the advice in this forum.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Aboriginal Development has the floor.
Mrs BRAHAM: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Any way that we can involve Aboriginal people in the process of advancement for their own good, all the better. And you should be actually saying: ‘Yes, let’s get on with it, and use just that person’. These committees will be able to give advice to this forum that the Chief Minister has. We are making sure that he is getting the best advice he can from Aboriginal groups, business people, from across agencies, working together for the simple reason that we want to make sure Aboriginal people have a good future in this Territory.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I am pleased to say that the Chief Minister’s consultative forum must certainly make wide use of the committees the member has already mentioned. These groups work across agencies; they work with business, they work with local government and with community councils. They have a very widespread consultation and they meet regularly and come up with some very innovative ideas to make ...
Mr Toyne: Then why isn’t anything happening?
Mrs BRAHAM: ...sure a system of Aboriginal development occurs out there in communities. What you have to remember is that they are working with business people for the advancement of the Aboriginal people. They have such a widespread group of people they consult. They are able to draw in all that expertise, all that knowledge, they receive funding for areas. What the Chief Minister has actually established as a consultative forum will be of benefit to all those groups that are now working for us because they will give the expertise, the information, the advice in this forum.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Aboriginal Development has the floor.
Mrs BRAHAM: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Any way that we can involve Aboriginal people in the process of advancement for their own good, all the better. And you should be actually saying: ‘Yes, let’s get on with it, and use just that person’. These committees will be able to give advice to this forum that the Chief Minister has. We are making sure that he is getting the best advice he can from Aboriginal groups, business people, from across agencies, working together for the simple reason that we want to make sure Aboriginal people have a good future in this Territory.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016