The State Government has stopped funding the governing body of the APY Lands.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ian Hunter has refused to authorise payment of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara administration since July last year, documents obtained exclusively by InDaily reveal.

The State Government has been invoiced for approximately $1.3 million by the APY Executive Board.

Interim General Manager of the APY Lands Lesley Johns told InDaily she has advice the administration is now close to insolvency, and will soon have to stop paying its employees and meeting electricity bills if Hunter does not urgently authorise the payments.

Communications between Hunter and the administration, seen by InDaily, show he is demanding that the board hand over  documents relating to its financial management before he starts funding it again.

A spokesperson for Hunter told InDaily: “In providing the current year’s funding agreement to the APY Administration, the Minister made it clear that he would not allow the release of taxpayer funds until he was provided requested information relating to the financial position and accountability of the organisation”.

“Interruptions to the APY administration meant that the provision of some of this information was not possible.

“Accordingly, the Minister revised his request and the APY has now disclosed some information.

“The Minister has received additional information suggesting significant payments have been made by APY to other organisations.  This would suggest the APY has sufficient funds to meet its immediate obligations.”

Last year, Hunter warned that the APY communities could disband if the Federal Government stopped its funding of projects not associated with the executive board, such as the maintenance of air strips, pumping water, diesel generation, rubbish collection and dog and cat management.

“[If] the Federal Government closes down the funding of these remote communities, they’ll be the ones who are turning off the lights, literally, in these communities, they’ll be stopping the generation of electricity, they’ll be stopping the pumping of water, they’ll be stopping the collection of waste and they will be the ones responsible and have to answer to these local communities,” he told the ABC in November.

Hunter has written to APY Executive Board Chairperson Owen Burton today, saying some financial statements had been provided and only one statement was outstanding.

The APY Lands cover about 10 per cent of South Australia’s land mass and house around 2,500 people.