Mind your own business, Aboriginal lands chief tells Ombusman

The general manager of a remote Aboriginal region is challenging the authority of his state’s Ombudsman.

APY Lands Council general manager Richard King.

In an unprecedented legal case with implications for indigenous land councils across the country, the general manager of South Australia’s remote Aboriginal ­region is embroiled in a Supreme Court challenge over the authority of the state’s Ombudsman.

In his first public remarks about the case, Richard King told The Australian that he took the “unusual” step of launching legal action against Ombudsman Wayne Lines to defend the principle of self-determination.

Mr King also took aim at his critics, saying he had been described as a “stern uncle” because he took action when he came across “wicked” behaviour in indigenous communities.

“I am spending a whole year responding to authorities that add no value, that make no change,” he said.

“It’s a waste of time and resources. Organisations from outside that are meant to be autonomous but make judgments on something they absolutely do not understand, and are being used to make judgments by third parties who have no idea either, creates wicked problems.

“The wicked problems that exist in Australia — and there are many of them — need people just like me.

“What we don’t need is 30 per cent of our time taken up responding to vexatious and frivolous claims that have no standing, with authorities who are supposed to be independent but are stepping beyond their brief.”

Mr Lines declined to comment yesterday.

Mr King is responsible for daily operations on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, a region of more than 103,000sq km in SA’s remote far northwest, including the use of around $2 million a year in state government funding to manage matters relating to the Land Rights Act. There is separate government funding provided to Regional Anangu Services Aboriginal Corporation, including for municipal services.

An Ombudsman’s investigation began after a complaint by former APY Lands chairman ­Trevor Adamson about a lack of access to handwritten notes from board meetings.

Mr Lines found Mr King had been unco-operative and “acted in a manner that was wrong” in refusing to provide the notes. He recommended Mr King apologise to Mr Adamson.

However, Mr King has argued the Ombudsman had no jurisdiction to conduct the investigation, and that the decisions and recommendations were “invalid, or unlawful, or were beyond power”. Mr King sought an injunction to block the Ombudsman from taking any further action.

Mr King said APY was a land council that offered no services to non-indigenous people.

“This is why the action was brought forward to the Supreme Court. APY is a self-determined entity managing the APY Lands for the benefit of Anangu and only Anangu. This is what the action is primarily about,” Mr King said.

“In my view, the fact that there has been no decision means that the legalities of what APY is will have huge and lasting impacts by the precedent the decision will set for all self-determined organisations. Government can’t call something ‘self-determined’ if they want to continually interfere.”

Mr King, who was born in the Northern Territory town of Katherine, was appointed in 2015 after turmoil over dysfunctional governance and alleged financial mismanagement led to seven general managers in four years.