Tim Hammond (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do not pretend to have been in this place for a long time, but in my short time here there have been things that have made me very proud to be a member of the Labor Party, sitting on this side. There also have been things in the conduct of those opposite that have profoundly disturbed me, and what we see here is conduct that is nothing more than profoundly disturbing. Let me explain why. Let's explain the conduct we have seen in recent times. What we have seen here, quite frankly, is an exercise demonstrable of either muddle-headed cack-handedness or just not understanding the issues at hand.

Not only did the federal parliamentary Labor Party, which I am incredibly proud to be part of, usher in historic legislation in the Native Title Act back in 1993; what we have seen every step of the way is meaningful attempts to ensure that Indigenous people in this country do not have things done to them but, rather, we do things with them. We are standing now in the same place that our federal Labor leader Kim Beazley did back at the time of the Bringing them home report. He stood here and wept with empathy in relation to the need to make things right for Indigenous people. What have we seen in this parliamentary term, Mr Deputy Speaker? We have seen the irony of this Prime Minister standing here to deliver the Closing the gap report and having the temerity to utter those words: we must stop doing things to Aboriginal people and perhaps do things with them. I cannot help but think of the hypocrisy, in the context of the Closing the gap report, the 25th anniversary of the Mabo decision and the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum, and in response to an issue that everyone saw coming a million miles away—that is, the uncertainty created as a result of the McGlade decision—of the government rushing into this place a bill on which the ink was barely dry, with the expectation that we would just wave it through.

There was a very, very good reason why we did not wave it through—that is that this government just did not get the legislation right. Do not take our word for it. In the very brief—perhaps even 24 hours—period of time we had to study this bill before, through protest, it was passed to the other place, it took four attempts in the Senate in order to try and land upon some legislation able to be implemented which has simply sought to do what we have sought all along—that is, to create some stability and certainty in relation to ILUAs that are already in place. If we had taken the ignorant approach demonstrated by the government in this place, we would have done a complete disservice not only to the legislation but to all of those Indigenous people who, quite frankly, deserve much better than what they are getting here.

And the insensitivity to think that, just because some peak groups thought that the legislation as initially introduced into this place was okay, it comprised sufficient consultation! Well, it did not then and it does not now. It simply demonstrates what we have known all along: this government just does not get it. They do not get it because they are distracted, divided or worried about other things. They do not understand how important it is to do proper justice to our relationship with the Indigenous peoples of this land. We need to take a stand over here, because it is not appropriate to do things to Indigenous Australians; it is only appropriate to do things with them. (Time expired)

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