Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment (Jabiru) Bill 2020. To start with, I want to pay my respects to the Ngunawal and Ngambri peoples, the traditional owners of this land here, Canberra. I also take this opportunity to acknowledge the Larrakia, who are the custodians of the land that I represent in the far north. I want to acknowledge in particular Richie Fejo, the chair of the Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation; the board; and all the Larrakia families. I am very proud to represent the people who live on the land that they are custodians of.

As you've heard from previous speakers, Labor is supporting this bill, which has been a long time coming for the Mirarr people, who live out around Jabiru, in West Arnhem Land. The effect of this bill will be to return ownership of the township of Jabiru, which services the Ranger Uranium Mine, and allow a community entity representing the Mirarr people to hold a head lease over the town.

Jabiru falls within the realm of the Northern Land Council, and I'm pleased to record the NLC's support for this bill. After the bill was introduced, back in May this year, the NLC noted that it would allow for the transition of the township from a mining town to a regional service centre and tourism hub that would drive economic activity throughout the West Arnhem region. In the lead-up to the last federal election, there was a lot of attention paid to Jabiru, with a lot of funds—over $200 million—slated for upgrades to the park and to Jabiru itself. The only problem was that those opposite, the federal government, said that those funds would be forthcoming over 10 years. I note that the ministers have done a bit of work on the Prime Minister, or at least with the Prime Minister's media office to say that quite a bit of that funding will in fact be in the near future. But we will wait to see whether or not that's going to be the case.

The Mirarr people have withstood immense pressures over the years and just want to see some action. Now, finally, they will have an opportunity to chart their own destiny and to manage their own affairs and also to prosper through their own endeavours. That local decision-making has been strongly supported by the NT government. I welcome the NT Labor government's re-election for four years. That will at least allow, from the NT government's perspective, the honouring of commitments that have been made to those traditional owners so they are able to make more decisions locally and uphold their cultural connection to that land. I really wish the Mirarr people all the very best for the future. We will work to assist them in any way, shape or form. Although Jabiru is part of the member for Lingiari's electorate, should those opposite not act to guarantee two seats for the Northern Territory, Jabiru will become part of the single seat of the Northern Territory. The Mirarr and every nation around the Northern Territory deserve much better than that. I'm sure the minister is having those conversations with the Prime Minister about fair representation for the Northern Territory.

Labor has always been committed to greater self-determination for First Nations Australians. As mentioned, it's really encouraging to see the Northern Territory government continuing on the path that they are to empower more communities. We will see better results as a result.

I heard a call out to the Mirarr people at the TIO Stadium in Darwin last weekend. It was by Ritchie Fejo, the chair of the Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation, welcoming the crowds to Darwin and welcoming everyone watching that game of AFL, the Dreamtime game. He called out to the Mirarr people and called out to First Nations people around our country. It's a great game, that Dreamtime game. In fact, it's one of the biggest events on the AFL calendar. It was marvellous to have it played in Darwin. For those who are not AFL tragics or, should I say, proud supporters, this clash between the Richmond Football Club and the Essendon Football Club was very special to Territorians, and having it at TIO meant that some of the players from those teams were back at their original stomping ground.

In the past, we've seen many Indigenous and non-Indigenous AFL superstars come from the Territory. So the significance of this game, Dreamtime at the 'G, was hard to put into words. But there's a lot of proud heritage in those two AFL teams in particular. To be fair, I'll speak about one from the Essendon side and one of the Richmond side.

From the Richmond side, I'll speak about the Bowden family. I congratulate Joel Bowden on being re-elected as a Labor MLA in the Northern Territory government. His brothers Patrick and Shaun, and their late father, Michael, who has gone to God now, all proudly represented the Tigers, as did Richard Tambling, Troy Taylor and Relton Roberts.

Daniel Rioli was obviously back in the north for the game. I also need to speak about the Essendon players: Dean Rioli, Owen Davies, Shaun Edwards, Richie Cole; and, for Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, it was a homecoming. Of course, I've left one famous Essendon player from the north until last, and that's Michael Long. Michael Long is a leader, legendary football player and someone who's stood up against racism in our country. As an Indigenous rights advocate, Longy said that it was up to the government, to those opposite, to the minister in the chamber to make a change and stand up for what is right in relation to the Aboriginal flag. He said, 'We just want the Prime Minister and government to intervene and to put it in its rightful place, where it should be.' He's had things to say to other prime ministers in the past too. I joined Michael Long on the highway walking to Canberra in 2004, where he wanted former coalition Prime Minister John Howard to show a bit of love for First Nations people in this country.

In the lead up to the Dreamtime at the 'G game, I spent some time with Michael Long at a school in Darwin. As a proud original Long walker, it was great to answer questions from those kids about the original Long Walk and about the Aboriginal flag. We were joined by another Territory legend, Nova Peris. Nova, an Olympian and former Northern Territory representative in the Senate, spoke about the need for action in relation to freeing the use of the Aboriginal flag. Nova said: 'We're calling on the government to fix it. We're calling on the Governor-General, who proclaimed it in 1995. You've got the power to make the rules, and we just want the Aboriginal flag to have the same rights as the Australian flag. How do you copyright something that represents a race of people? How do you copyright our pride? How do you copyright our history and our values and everything we stand for?'

I just want to give both Michael Long and Nova Peris, a couple of constituents of mine—they are; they live in Darwin—a voice on this issue that we all feel very strongly about. When Richie Fejo welcomed all the First Nations that were present at the ground for the Dreamtime at the 'G match, it was incredibly stirring. What I saw around the AFL ground at Marrara were a lot of Aboriginal flags that were flown with a lot of pride.

It is an important issue where there's a dilemma between individual rights and collective rights. I am very keen to see the agency of Harold Thomas, who owns the copyright, respected, and I am very, very keen to see the government fix this issue so that the rights to use the Aboriginal flag pass into the common domain, because it is valued collectively and it is a great source of pride so many Australians—in particular, the First Australians. But non-Indigenous Australians also see it as a very powerful symbol. So I support the work of the minister. I understand that the minister is in discussions with the copyright owner, Harold Thomas, and he is close to fixing the situation, so I wish him well and say that it's very important that he does so.

These powerful symbols, which is what flags are, are important to the nation. Land rights are important. Self-determination is important. These are critical issues to people who have been, to a large extent, disenfranchised, particularly in the Northern Territory. You might find it pretty hard to believe, Madam Deputy Speaker Wicks, that, in some communities in the Northern Territory, there was a turnout of under 50 per cent at the recent NT elections. We have the lowest enrolment in the country. We have some of the lowest voter turnout in the country.

You may ask yourself, 'Who's got responsibility for getting out to those communities and educating them about the electoral process?' First Nations peoples' place in this country and their ability to vote were fought for strongly, over decades and decades. Who has that role? It turns out that the Australian Electoral Commission has that role. It also turns out that the Australian Electoral Commission used to have a sizeable office in Darwin but, when those opposite got into power, they gutted it. So they sacked the people and sent them to Brisbane and other places away from the Northern Territory—the very people who were to go out and get First Nations people on the roll. That was a deliberate decision by those opposite in their first government, under former Prime Minister Tony Abbott; it was continued by former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and then by the current Prime Minister. So I call on him and those opposite, whilst wishing the minister luck, to start respecting First Nations people in our nation.

See this speech in context