Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

You say it is more efficient, but sometimes these native title rep bodies are stretched and they have limited resources. You sat on the Joint Statutory Committee on Native Title and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land Account—in fact, you may well have been the chair—when we handed down our report into the funding of native title rep bodies where we said they specifically needed better resourcing, better funding and better assistance. So you, probably more than any other person on your front bench at this point, would know the constraints that native title rep bodies are under.

I do not see how a more efficient system cuts out the requirement to consult rep bodies, to get the consent of the rep bodies and to consider consultation before the areas are reduced. There is now not a requirement. You say that that is what ministers would be expected to do. You say that they will take it into account but, unless it is in the law, there is no specific requirement for them to do that. That is why we have moved these amendments and that is why we disagree with the actions the government have taken in relation to amending the Native Title Act in this way.