Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Excuse me, members opposite! It was only in the previous sitting weeks that representatives of the plaintiffs of the Mabo decision stood on the floor of this parliament. They were here to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the historic Mabo decision, which gave this nation native title rights for the first time ever. But, as I mentioned earlier, this is not a gift for you guys to dole out as you see fit. It is a common law right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

I know it is sometimes difficult for you to understand this. You have been completely muddle-headed the entire time in conflating two completely different sets of rights and arguments—land rights versus mining rights. No wonder you have people in Australia confused when you muddle in Adani with this conversation. You led that conversation. Your Prime Minister actually set up this confusion, this conflation of two distinct arguments, from day one. You should be ashamed of yourselves for allowing that misinformation to continue in this country.

You should stand tonight and thank Labor for saving your butt, because you would have been completely embarrassed had this legislation gone through without these amendments. As usual, you could not help yourselves. You completely overreached. You went well beyond the scope of what was necessary in the bill in the first place. That has finally been reined in thanks to the work of our colleagues in the Senate, who led a very thorough process to knock this bill into shape so that the parliament could pass it and have some confidence in doing so. I commend the work of Labor for getting this right.

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