Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for the information he has given us. I do not believe that this is an appropriate use of 64(4) moneys in any event. The 64(4) moneys, as they were originally envisaged, are for the benefit and use of Indigenous people and arise out of proposals under royalty equivalents which are received by the Commonwealth and paid into the trust account under 64A. The minister has the discretion to direct from time to time the transfer of amounts of money he specifies from the trust account to a consolidated revenue fund. Then there are a series of references as to how the money is to be made available. My concern is that what we are now doing under the regime which the government has proposed, indeed passed in this chamber and sought to amend in the Senate, is to impose a regime which effectively means that the way in which the government’s proposed leasing arrangements will operate may well rely on payments made out of this account at the direction of the minister. It is worthwhile to point out what 64(4A) says:

There must be debited from the Account and paid by the Commonwealth such other amounts as the Minister directs to be paid in relation to:

(a)

the acquiring of leases by, or the administering of leases granted or transferred to, approved entities under section 19A ...

I am concerned that this should be the case. It seems to me that we have Aboriginal people who are effectively the lessor having a benefit which they have accrued being paid out of their account for the purpose of a lease that is from them, which seems to me to be a very bizarre notion.

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