Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable members who have contributed to today’s historic debate on the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment Bill 2006. This legislation will allow Aboriginal Australians in parts of the Northern Territory who have been denied rights for many years to be able to own their own home. I think it almost defies belief that in 2006 we are at a stage where many Australians simply do not have the right to own their own property where they desire to live and where, in many cases, generations have lived before them. This proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the enforcement of collective rights over individual rights has been an abject failure. As the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Clare Martin, recently said, self-determination was the biggest mistake. Unlike those who sit opposite, their colleagues in the Northern Territory agree with the thrust of this legislation. The Northern Territory’s Minister for Housing, Mr Elliott McAdam, who is of course of Indigenous descent, very much supports this and understands it is about—

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