Mr RAMSEY (Grey—Opposition Whip) (13:44): Today I want to talk about Charles Jackson OAM from Port Augusta. Charlie Jackson is the South Australian Senior Australian of the Year and an Adnyamathanha man. The Adnyamathanha are the rock people of the Flinders Ranges. Charlie’s worked all his life for the betterment of his people in a number of government agencies and outside in different businesses. He’s a very erudite man, well-spoken and highly regarded in his community.
In the last few years, I and my office have been working with him trying to get to the bottom of the jumble of what on earth has happened to the Adnyamathanha traditional owners lands trust and its entanglement with a body called Rangelea. In my valedictory speech the other day, I named ORIC as one of the most useless government corporations I’ve ever seen. How on earth we can have a body which is entrusted to police Indigenous corporations not be able to get the facts and figures needed to get to the bottom of the problems, I do not understand.
I congratulate Charlie for his incredibly strong stance in this area and for leading his people in this transparency case but also for his long life of commitment to his community and to the Port Augusta area in general. Well done, Charlie. He is a very fine ambassador and a very fine pick for South Australian Senior Australian of the Year.