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

We can’t have that. I notice a supplementary explanatory memorandum has been put forward, and I have quickly browsed through the 158 amendments which have been moved to the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Bill 2005. Whilst I do not have the act in front of me, I can see what they are there for. The concerns which have been expressed about this legislation by those of us on this side of the chamber—and previously by those in the Senate who provided additional comments to the report of the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs—highlight our desire to ensure that we get the most effective mechanism for looking after the interests of Aboriginal corporations. I say that knowing that there have been real issues to do with the Aboriginal Councils and Associations Act, as it previously existed, and that there have been, and are, difficulties with individual corporations and that they require assistance to address those problems.

I have expressed my concerns previously, and I maintain this desire to ensure that the bill operates in the best interests of Indigenous Australians and is not just seen by some—I hope it is not but I want to make sure it is not—as a mechanism for the government imposing control over Aboriginal corporations. I say this because there is clear evidence that that is what the government has attempted to do at least in some instances. I think it behoves us to ensure that the Office of the Registrar of Aboriginal Corporations is, as far as is possible, independent from day-to-day influence of government, whether it is through the government seeking to control the funds that go into Aboriginal corporations, as they have done in a number of instances, or through the government effectively issuing instructions to the registrar that the registrar ought to appoint an administrator because the government does not like the form, the style or the haircut of individuals within a corporation. That is not an appropriate use of government powers, and it is what the government have sought to do in at least two examples I am fully aware of in the Northern Territory. The registrar, who is in the parliament this evening, knows my concerns about that.

It is fundamental to the interests of Indigenous Australians to ensure that they do account properly for the way in which they run corporations, but it is also important to understand that, for many Indigenous Australians, corporations involve a new language and new responsibilities and we must endeavour to ensure that they are properly educated about their roles, functions and responsibilities in relation to those incorporations. Unfortunately, this has not been the case to date, although I know that the registrar has been keen to ensure that her office and her staff are available to assist corporations when they have difficulties and to provide them with assistance to ensure their governance arrangements are appropriate to their needs.

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