Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

The Democrats support the Labor Party’s opposition to these items. What the government seeks to do in this part of the legislation is give more power to the minister and take power away from land councils representing the traditional owners, and that is not something we accept. It will also provide just one more stick for a minister, whether the current one or a future minister, to basically keep land councils in line. The government will have the ability to imply threats—that it will cut budgets more significantly if land councils behave in a way that the minister does not like. I do not think that is acceptable in principle and, again, it is not in line with the supposed reason for the changes in this legislation, which are to improve independence and development of opportunity and initiative amongst Indigenous people in the Territory.