Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Financial Services) Share this | Hansard source

This bill, the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment (Jabiru) Bill 2020, amends section 19A of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 to remove the requirement that the initial grant of a township lease by the Kakadu Aboriginal Land Trust may only be to the Commonwealth and removes the requirement that the term of any lease of the Jabiru town land must be 99 years. The bill also amends the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act to make it clear that, upon the grant of a section 19A lease, any existing rights, titles and interests will not automatically be extended to match the term of the new lease. The bill is strongly supported by the traditional owners of the Jabiru township, the Mirarr people, and the bill provides for the return of the Jabiru township to Aboriginal control through the township lease. That return will help transition the township away from being a mining town and into being a regional services centre and tourism hub that will drive economic activity throughout the West Arnhem region.

Labor is of course supporting this bill, but I do, in speaking in support of the bill, wish to make some comments about the second reading amendment that's been moved by the member for Barton, which I wholeheartedly support. The Aboriginal flag is an important symbol, for the Aboriginal people of Australia, of the fact that they are the oldest continuing culture in the world. The flag symbolises that important connection between Aboriginal people and the country of Australia—their land. The flag has a long history in Australia. It was designed in 1971 by Northern Territory artist Harold Thomas, and in 1972 it was chosen as the official flag for the Aboriginal Embassy at the front of Old Parliament House. On 14 July 1995 the Australian Governor-General proclaimed the Aboriginal flag as 'the flag of the Aboriginal peoples of Australia and to be known as the Australian Aboriginal flag'. At that time, Aboriginal people saw this as their flag, their symbol of their connection with this land dating back tens of thousands of years. In 1997 the Federal Court recognised Harold Thomas as the creator of the Aboriginal flag and granted him copyright.

Often people ask what the status of the Aboriginal flag is. Australia has three national flags, and all of them have the same status. Those flags are, of course, the Australian flag which hangs in this chamber, our national flag; the Aboriginal flag; and the flag of the Torres Strait Islander people. All of those flags are protected under the Flags Act. But the Flags Act does not extinguish copyright, and that's separate from those protections that are granted under the Flags Act. Harold Thomas has the licensing right, and he has exercised that right and given licence to reproduce the flag to three companies. Those three companies have been seeking to enforce those exclusive rights to use the Aboriginal flag, particularly on clothing, by sending 'cease and desist' letters to Aboriginal groups, to sporting codes and to Aboriginal health services.

Many in our community are understandably upset by this, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, who see the flag as a symbol of their enduring connection with this land, a symbol of their Australianness and their connection with Australia, and, understandably, want to proudly display that and tell everyone about that, by either flying the flag, wearing the flag or producing the flag as a symbol of their pride. That has generated a community campaign to free the flag so it can be used by all Australians, but particularly by all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, as a symbol of their pride in the oldest continuing culture in the world and their connection to this country. I believe that that is important, and it's something that the Aboriginal community at La Perouse—proud of their ancestors and their connection with that land at La Perouse and Kamay, or Botany Bay—have said to me is important to them as well. It's on that basis that I am advocating and supporting the second reading amendment that has been moved by the member for Barton—the first Aboriginal woman elected to the House of Representatives in Australia, a proud Aboriginal elder, a person who deserves respect in this place and a person to whom this House of Representatives and this parliament should be listening on this issue.

This campaign has substantial community support. There's a petition that has been running, with over 140,000 signatures from Australians supporting this campaign to free the Aboriginal flag. Through this second reading amendment, Labor is asking the government to work with the rights holders so that the Aboriginal flag design can be used freely by the community in a similar way to the Australian flag, and so that hopefully we are able to reach this consensus and this result before the 50th anniversary of the Aboriginal flag on 12 July next year. I want to make it very clear: I and my Labor colleagues make it very, very clear that we are not seeking to extinguish the copyright rights that Harold Thomas has around the flag. Harold Thomas is the originator of that design, and his rights must be respected. Harold Thomas' rights must be respected. I call on the government to respect those rights and to work with Harold on a permanent solution to the use of the flag design. I have every faith that the minister, who's present in the chamber, certainly has the capability and the willingness to do that.

This isn't a partisan issue. This is an issue that unites Australians around the pride that we have in the fact that we have the oldest continuing culture in the world in our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and in the pride that we all have in the communities that we represent in working with the First Australians. First Australians have inhabited these lands and these waterways for tens of thousands of years, and we recognise the Aboriginal flag as a symbol of that pride and as a symbol of that connection with the land and the waterways of Australia. I sincerely hope that this parliament can work together on a solution that respects the rights of Harold Thomas and the rights holders, but, at the same time, frees the Aboriginal flag so that it can be used as a symbol of pride for all Australians.

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