Rod Kemp (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for the Arts and Sport) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Evans, we have been mindful of the desirability of giving the Northern Territory government as much flexibility as we can. I understand that it is likely that the entity to be established by the Northern Territory government will be a statutory authority. However—and let me stress this—we do not want to prevent the functions from being exercised by another type of body, possibly a Northern Territory department, for example. It will be up to the Northern Territory government to decide what type of body it wants to have responsibility for the township leases. In essence, we are trying to be flexible, we are trying to be accommodating and we are trying to not be too prescriptive in this area. My understanding is that the Northern Territory government is now developing its own legislation on this matter. I have no doubt that it will be exceedingly mindful of the points that have been made in this debate.