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

You may not be interested, Senator, but I'm sure a number of Australians are, in Western Australia, in Queensland and in South Australia. Let's start with Western Australia. Did you mention the $130 million I paid them four weeks ago, Senator? Maybe you're not really on the clicker phone with them. Forty million of that has yet to be expended. So the entire NPARIH was paid off in good faith, plus a $40 million payment. In Queensland, we've already made sure a similar amount has been paid. And I have already told you personally and this place that there is at least a year's ongoing work that is still part of the original NPARIH. We are well advanced in our negotiations in South Australia.

It's a very simple narrative, and I can just use the Queensland example. As I've indicated, I thought that the Labor Party, which first started off the NPARIH process—it was quite a wise process because it was non-subjective and quite formulaic.