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

I thank the member for Banks for his constructive comments. I want to assure him of a couple of things. I do not have a closed mind to changes. I have only one goal in mind, and that is to improve the lot of Indigenous Australians. This legislation deals in particular with traditional owners. The member for Banks mentioned sitting in the sand. I went to Galiwinku, which I am sure you are very familiar with, on two occasions. The second time was to sit down, in language, and go through chapter and verse what is being proposed there, which does involve this legislation, and then talk to the entire town that was assembled—again, it was all being interpreted.

They asked for two months. As the member for Banks and others who have had any real dealings with Indigenous people would know, these decisions are not made quickly. They asked for those two months. They have now said to me: ‘Can we have a few more weeks? It’s not that we do not want to do it, but we have to talk things through.’ That is perfectly reasonable. These are major decisions. For the benefit of those who are not so close to these issues, particularly around the issue of leasing, we should all remember that this is not a new proposal; this is an amendment to refine an existing proposal. Leases can be done, and they have been done. They are just very laborious. They are slow, they are frustrating and they are costly.

These amendments are aimed at trying to facilitate a more efficient way of achieving a goal that traditional owners may have. I also need to stress that no traditional owners will be required, under any circumstances, to lease back their land. I know there has been a debate in the other place about the way in which we handle things and whether or not they believe it could be done differently. Let us leave that aside. I want to make everyone understand that that is the way this is approached. When we say that the consultation with the traditional owners will continue from now, it is not that they have not been engaged with these changes; it is that for any specific community—any discrete community that decides that this may be a path they wish to go down—there will be a lot of consultation involving the Northern Territory government, the Northern Land Council or the Central Land Council or whichever land council is involved, sometimes private sector people who are going to add their advice to it and, of course, the federal government, the local councils themselves and, most importantly, the traditional owners.

Getting your mind around the concept of this change in ownership is a very major thing for people who, in many cases, have never really had to be part of that or considered being part of it. For them to take this step, it is paramount that they do so with understanding, acceptance and willingness. Otherwise, people are set up for failure. With respect to all sides of politics and those who have come here before with the best of intentions—and those at state and territory levels—I have to say that too often Indigenous groups have been set up for failure with the best intentions in mind. We do not want to repeat that, and I will certainly make every effort to ensure that any traditional owners who elect to use this legislation do so knowing exactly what is entailed, what the benefits are and, of course, what some of the issues are that may have to be resolved around those decisions, which some will see as not necessarily being in their personal best interests today. If they cannot accept that, that is reasonable and they remain under the current land ownership arrangements in those communities.

See this speech in context