Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party, Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I present a supplementary explanatory memorandum to the bill, and I ask leave of the House to move government amendments (1) to (3) as circulated together.

Leave granted.

I move:

(1) Schedule 1, item 15, page 7 (after line 24), at the end of subsection 19B(1), add:

Note: Any native title rights and interests that exist in relation to the additional land are not affected by this section (see subsection (3)).

(2) Schedule 1, item 15, page 7 (line 31), after "than", insert "any native title rights and interests that exist in relation to the land and".

(3) Schedule 1, item 15, page 8 (after line 4), at the end of section 19B, add:

(4) In this section:

native title rights and interests has the same meaning as in the Native Title Act 1993.

I seek to introduce an amendment to the bill to ensure that native title rights and interests cannot be compulsorily acquired under the act. Native title rights and interests have been extinguished at Napandee, which was nominated by its owners as the site for a national radioactive waste management facility. This means that native title has been extinguished at land specified in the bill, including the facility site and additional land that may be required for the facility should the need be identified during facility development. It is also necessary to enable the acquisition of additional land for the purpose of all-weather road access to ensure that the government can meet any regulatory requirements to construct secondary or emergency road access if it is required by the regulator, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, ARPANSA. It is not possible to precisely predetermine the location of additional all-weather road access that may be required by ARPANSA, and there are some areas of land in the Kimba area that are subject to native title rights and interests.

Under the bill as drafted, new section 19B empowers the minister to acquire additional land for all-weather road access to the site by making a notifiable instrument. Under this provision in the existing bill the minister may exclude any rights or interests from being acquired, which may include native title rights and interests. The government does not propose to acquire any native title rights and interests for these purposes. Following feedback from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, it is acknowledged it could be clearer on the face of the legislation that these rights would not be compulsorily acquired. As a result, I am progressing amendments which put beyond doubt that native title rights or interests cannot be acquired or extinguished if additional land is required for the purpose of providing all-weather road access to the facility. It will remain possible for the minister's instrument to specify other rights or interests that are not required to be acquired or extinguished.

Question agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.