Dave Tollner (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Would the minister explain to the House how the government is proposing to make it easier for people, particularly Indigenous Australians, to own homes and businesses in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory? What has been the reaction to these proposals?

Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Solomon for his question and his obvious interest in this issue. He is obviously acutely aware that the unfortunate reality is that for decades many Indigenous Australians, particularly but not exclusively in the Territory, have been locked out of owning their own home, a right that the rest of us enjoy. They have also been locked out of being able to own their own businesses in the place where they live. This of course has led to them living in what many people would now recognise as little communist enclaves, where money comes in—they cannot own anything, they cannot run a business, they cannot own their own home—and where someone else determines who owns the house.

This government has before the House the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment Bill, which, amongst other things, will provide for 99-year lease-backs of town centres to allow a headlease to be provided to the Northern Territory government and for Aboriginal people, for the first time, to be able to own their own property in these places, build their own home, build their own businesses and build their own future for themselves and their families.

I am asked about comments and people’s views. I can inform the member for Solomon that last month I went to Nguiu in the Tiwi Islands and spoke with the people about a 99-year lease-back of the township of Nguiu so they could benefit from this legislation. They signed a heads of agreement there. They saw it as a new beginning for their people and their children so that they could join in the market economy like other Australians. Over the weekend I went back to the Territory. I went to Galiwinku and sat down with the traditional owners and said to them, ‘This is what the Commonwealth is proposing to do.’ We talked through the many issues of a headlease. Can I tell the House how excited they were and how engaged they were in the opportunity for the first time of being able to own something of their own. It is not understood by many people that many of the Aboriginal people who live in Galiwinku are not traditional owners. They do not have the rights of a traditional owner in the place where they currently reside because they were displaced from their own lands many years ago.

I then travelled on Sunday to Wadeye, an area which has been in the press quite a bit. I sat down with some of the leaders in some of the remote communities, such as Wudapuli, which is an outstation, and spoke about how they could also own their own homes in the land that they wish to occupy, where their children could go to school and where they could have the rights of other Australians. They, too, embraced this idea.

In the political arena, we have had eminent people like the National President of the ALP, Warren Mundine, warmly welcoming these initiatives and I appreciate his support. We also have in the Northern Territory the Hon. Elliott McAdam, Minister for Housing, who, in the Sunday Territorian, said:

Not everyone in Aboriginal communities is going to be in a position to own their own home, but the important thing is that people will now have a choice.

And he is right. This legislation is about providing a choice to Aboriginal people that has been denied to them through collective ownership up to this day. Unfortunately, there are still some people—not all of them, I might add—whose spokesman, Senator Chris Evans, on 13 June made a statement—

Bob McMullan (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I refer to page 102 of standing and sessional orders, relating to anticipation. The legislation to which the minister is referring is not only on the Notice Paper but scheduled for debate immediately after question time.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Fraser may be aware that that part of the standing orders has been suspended.

Bob McMullan (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I am referring to the amended one on page 102 which is the—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I hear what the honourable member for Fraser says, but part of the standing order has been suspended.

Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is sad that the honourable member opposite does not want to hear what his own party has to say about this particular issue. This consultation has gone on for nine years, and the only people who seem to continually have their head in the sand are some of those who sit opposite. And I deliberately use the word ‘some’ because some people, like the President of the ALP, see that in the past it has failed and a new way is needed and that being part of the market economy and having the right to own your own home should apply right across Australia. But the Labor Party, in a statement on 13 June, said, ‘Labor will not support the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment Bill in its current form.’ The most controversial part of the bill includes the 99-year leasing provisions. There is nothing controversial about giving Aboriginal Australians the same rights the rest of us have and have had for a very long time. I ask the federal Australian Labor Party to support their Territorian colleagues, get their head out of the sand and support Australian Aboriginals having the same rights as the rest of us.