Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment Bill 2015. I first acknowledge that each day as this parliament sits we pay our respects to the traditional owners. We acknowledge the importance of their place; we acknowledge them as the First Australians. We have come a long way and we still have a long way to go in securing what I think are appropriate opportunities for our First Australians in a society which has sometimes been seen as divided and, perhaps, a little unwelcome.

I was in the parliament when the land rights legislation was enacted. In fact, I entered the parliament in 1973. The Aboriginal Land Rights Commission was established at that time. Justice Edward Woodward was the commissioner of it, and it became known as the Woodward Royal Commission. It was the report initiated by the Whitlam government which gave rise to this legislation enacted by the Fraser government.

The commission, interestingly, had two reports. One presented in July 1973, and one of its key recommendations was the establishment of the land councils, the central and northern councils. Later we saw others, such as the Tiwi Land Council, and, from time to time, there have been views that there should be even further divisions. The second report, presented to the parliament in April 1974, was one that was drawn from a lot of the material that was submitted, particularly through the land councils, and the second report recommended that land rights legislation be introduced. I could go into detail, but it was legislation that achieved bipartisan support. I might say that I played a role later chairing the joint select committee on the implementation of Northern Territory land rights legislation. So I have had an interest in this legislation over a long period of time. There was a point at which I also was the minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs and later for a merged portfolio of immigration, citizenship and Indigenous affairs. For me, we have been on a very important journey over a period of time and one not always as successful as I would like.

I remember when I was a young student at university studying with Charlie Perkins at that time and later knowing Margaret Valadian. These were the two Indigenous graduates that we had in Australia when I was a student and first became a member of parliament. I remember others that emerged over time. I look at people today who have had university degrees and contributed very significantly. I think of somebody like Professor Larissa Behrendt, whom I know and saw only a few days ago in Sydney. I think of the many thousands of Indigenous graduates that we have today, and I look back at the Tranby Aboriginal College in Sydney, around Sydney University, where I studied, and think of those First Australians who were receiving university education. For me, these were important developments, slow in coming. For many, those opportunities still do not exist, and that has to be addressed.

I had the great privilege of serving with Neville Bonner when he first arrived in the parliament as an Indigenous Australian in the Senate. There have been others that have come in the Senate. I am so delighted that I have been able to serve in a parliament with my friend Ken Wyatt, an Indigenous Australian and now a minister. I think, 'Isn't it great that we have come this far?' He has been elected not because he happens to be Indigenous but because he is a person with extraordinary ability and capacity and is able to make a contribution to this nation and its future. I am immensely proud that I am able to know him and to see his success.

For me, I still focus on the fact that we have a long way to go. I see many Indigenous people in a city like Sydney—some who are marginalised and some who are given their educational opportunities, and we see a lot with our schools that are helping young people to get sounder educations and to get into our universities. There are many who are achieving but there are still many who do not. The areas which I think are most challenging are those areas in which the level of contact has been more difficult, where isolation and the way in which we do our bit mean that many Indigenous people do not have the opportunities to make choices about what opportunities there may be for their future. I have always found this very difficult. How do you give self-management and self-determination and allow people to make elections and ensure that they are still able to make choices about how they participate in our broader society? How do they get the education that will help to enable them to make those choices?

I look at many of the places where people live and where we have given land rights, and where we think this is going to create opportunities for them, and, as I see it, those measures that we thought were going to be beneficial and helpful have not always worked as intended. I think that is one of the reasons we are looking at this particular legislation today. One of the things that has surprised me, when I have been into many communities where land is traditionally owned, is how you get people who may want to save and to work and to get themselves a home or create a business but who are going to do it on community-owned land. How do they feel that they have actually got a benefit—a benefit that they have worked to achieve—when the land interest is not theirs?

I see this legislation as particularly important because it will enable individuals who want to take up those opportunities to do so in an Indigenous community because there will be the opportunity for reasonably long-term leases to be granted by the community to an individual. I think that is a very significant movement. It may have to go further, but this legislation is about providing a new engagement for Indigenous Australians to get better outcomes in the communities in which they are living. In that sense, this delivers on a commitment that the government made to amend the Northern Territory land rights act to better empower communities—that is, the Aboriginal landowners—to be able to make these decisions to give opportunities to their people. It removes barriers that have been an impediment to economic development and opportunities.

If you get the impression that I think this is a very meaningful advance, you are right. Does it fully empower individuals to function in those environments? Time will tell, when we see whether the leases are made and how people are able to use them. But, for me, measures that work in partnership with the local communities to put in place localised decision making which can produce these benefits ought to be approved. I am pleased that the opposition has said that they support these measures, because, quite frankly, in relation to some of the issues that this legislation deals with—by working to resolve long-term tenure issues and to open up the Mutitjulu community to be able to take advantage of the unique economic opportunities offered by its location close to one of the most visited world heritage sites at Uluru—it becomes fairly obvious, doesn't it, that there are economic opportunities there that can be leveraged if people are freed to make those decisions.

I am pleased that the land councils, through this legislation, will be able to delegate their functions and powers to Indigenous corporations in a way which now, given the changes that we are making, will ensure it will happen. Back in 2006, we thought benefits of this sort might arise, but for particular reasons that did not happen. I am certainly glad that we have land councils that have recognised the importance of moving forward with this. I am certainly hopeful that the very significant investments that we are making in Indigenous-specific programs will ensure that people can take steps that will enable them to benefit more fully from all of the opportunities that are offered here in Australia.

I think the government's emphasis on helping our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to have better opportunities for education, employment and economic opportunities is going to be important for the future. I have been watching these issues for some 40 years. I would have liked to have seen progress very much earlier than we have seen it. I saw the Whitlam government, I saw the Fraser government, I saw the government of Hawke and Keating, I saw the Howard government, and I have seen the governments of Rudd and Gillard and now Abbott and Turnbull. There have been governments of many different variations in that time, and there is nobody who can say, 'We had the perfect answer and we have made it work.' Nobody can claim that.

So I see this as a step along the way. If people are given the capacity to utilise their skills and their talents then I think we will see, inevitably, a better society. It can happen in some of the most remote and difficult areas of Australia, and if that happens it will be a very good thing. I will be watching these measures very closely. I hope that many Indigenous people will be able to take up the opportunities that this bill will provide, to be able to build their own home and be proud of it and to know that they have security of tenure, and to be able to create a business and be proud of it and to build economic opportunities for themselves and their families. I think it is a good reform, and, if it produces those sorts of outcomes, I think it will make Australia a better place for our First Australians.

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