Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee, , 6:14:32 to 6:21:22
Oversight of integrity issues at Giuliardi and Tangentyere Council, including board eligibility and community safety priorities in town camps.
Topics: First Nations, Integrity, Grants administration
Speakers: Bridgette Bellenger, Senator Kerrynne Liddle, Julie-Ann Guivarra, Hon Malarndirri McCarthy, Unknown Speaker, Senator Karen Grogan, Speaker 22, Speaker 3
>> I'm going to turn to extensive reporting still in Western Australia about um Giuliardi director uh Rail Button organizing a fight club with children present and and in other native title corporation in another native title corporation throwing a fellow director to the floor. um there were images that were portrayed in news stories. There are also reports about extensive integrity issues around u representation of local people, five members on the board recirculating for many years. It's an organization that receives 13 million in Commonwealth funding. When did you first become aware of these issues and what steps did you take to assure yourself that that is a fit organization to receive Commonwealth funding?
>> Sure. with uh as we do with organizations or or individuals that are identified in the media, Senator Little uh the agency uh relevant agency or department will write directly to that organization uh to ask for a please explain. So I'll just refer now to the CEO.
>> Yeah, thank thank you minister and thank you Senator for the question. Um there were a number of agency heads um because in fact there are several common commonwealth agencies that are are funders of Giuliardi not just NIAA the department of social services and the department of education have also provided funding um over the period. And so when we became aware of the initial um uh incident, we uh as as secretaries wrote to um the board and the chair of Giuliardi um uh you know seeking explanations of what had occurred um when the second um uh video was released. We we've also followed up with other uh organizations which we fund that have um the particular person in question as a director of of those organizations. So we've actually reached out now to all of the the relevant organizations. I'll just turn to Miss Smith and see if there's anything else further to add to that at this stage.
>> No. Uh good afternoon, Miss Beck Smith, uh acting group manager, Western South Group. Nothing further.
>> Okay. Thank you. Um, Congress, Central Australian Ainal Congress back in July put out a media release saying that no one, and I applaud them because I've raised this many times, no one in their board can now have a criminal record and serve on their boards. Why, Minister, haven't you, with a stroke of pen made that have you started that work a requirement for any Commonwealth funding for all organizations that receive funding? given the issues we have with family and domestic violence. Have you started that work?
>> We've certainly uh engaged with Oric on that because most of these uh organizations uh do come under the Corporations Act and it is important to see what's possible. Uh I'm looking at certainly a review of the Katsy Act uh to look at that, but I will refer now to the CEO. Uh these are important questions uh and we are working on it. Senator Little.
>> Um so there's several things that we would check uh Senator in terms of uh integrity uh you know in relation to um organizations that we we do fund. Um there are requirements in in head agreements around the conduct and fit and proper persons um requirements in our in our uh funding agreements. And so those things are routinely checked um out through our compliance uh processes. But I will just check with um uh Mr. Worth whe there's anything else on the that particular aspect.
>> but where where the key risks lie as you can appreciate
>> clearly there are plenty of gaps. Um the the murder of Kumai little baby last estimates it was revealed that Tangajura Council receives almost 82 million in Comwalth funding. What steps have you taken to assure yourself and the Australian people that comm funding in Alice Springs Town camps remains appropriate and fit for purpose? and what changes have been made to NIAA's grant monitoring and reporting arrangements since that tragic event.
>> I'll hand to Miss Bellenger.
>> Uh thank you. Uh thank you Senator Little. Um certainly uh we responded to the question of notice with all of the KPIs and reports um from the last estimates. Uh Tang and Jer are still uh fully compliant in the services that they are delivering. uh the way that we monitor progress and what's actually happening is through site visits actually attending uh in the town camps and some of the activities that are run. So not only talking to Tanger as a service organization but also to community members uh that access that Um I would also go on to say in terms of the second part to your question about what have we done. So, we provided immediate support to the family um as you're likely aware um after the incident and that support continued until it was no longer necessary. We also have uh put a partnership together with both Tangia, the Northern Territory government, Department of Housing and Local Government uh and ourselves and we're working through a list of town camp president priorities around community safety. Uh so for example under old arrangements uh where there was an incident that involved uh you know a locked door or a broken window uh Tangier through the um housing arrangements had to report into the anti-government to get permission to get that fixed. Uh so we've been closely working uh with partners [snorts] and there has been a change of you know agreed change of process now where they can go if it's related to safety for residents they're able to do that fix repairs and maintenance immediately. Uh we continue to work with the town camp presidents. They've um bringing a number of uh different actions forward to us. They're still deliberating on some of those. Uh but certainly I expect you'll see some funding announcements in the near future.
>> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. We will go to Senator Thorpe. >> You can have after [clears throat]