SA: Calls to immediately replace Bob Collins as AP lands chief

AAP General News (Australia)
08-11-2004
SA: Calls to immediately replace Bob Collins as AP lands chief

ADELAIDE, Aug 11 AAP - South Australia's government has resisted calls to immediately
replace Bob Collins as coordinator of the Anangu Pitjanjatjara lands in the state's far
north.

A government backbencher and the Australian Democrats today called for Mr Collins to
be replaced given the former Northern Territory senator remained in hospital with serious
car crash injuries.

Labor MP Lynn Breuer, whose electorate covers the AP lands, said today a replacement
for Mr Collins needed to be immediately appointed, sentiments supported by Democrats indigenous
affairs spokeswoman Kate Reynolds.

But SA Deputy Premier Kevin Foley said the government could not appoint a replacement
until it spoke to Mr Collins.

"It's not about taking care of Bob Collins's sensitivities at all to be perfectly honest,
it's about a schedule of work that he wanted undertaken and he recommended (which) is
now being rolled out," Mr Foley told ABC Radio.

"We have to talk to Bob about how he sees that rolling out, what arrangements we should
be putting in place."

Mr Collins, a federal minister in the Hawke and Keating Labor governments, was appointed
as AP lands coordinator by the SA government on April 7.

But the 57-year-old suffered lower body and pelvic fractures on June 20 when his Toyota
Landcruiser rolled in the Kakadu National Park, and he has remained in the Royal Adelaide
Hospital since June 23.

AAP sl/cjh/jlw

KEYWORD: COLLINS

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