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

I also want to provide a contribution to this and will go to the reasons why the opposition has in fact put up these amendments. Let us face it: the amendments that we are now moving—essentially the block of (2) to (15)—really go to the heart of some of the major changes in this bill, and that is a complete abrogation by this government of absolutely and categorically guaranteeing that Indigenous people are involved in this whole process. I am surprised that the government would want to go to this length to ensure that the native title process effectively, by and large, can exclude Indigenous people. That is really what these amendments go to. These amendments, if they get up, will ensure that Indigenous people still have a very big voice in this.

I know the minister will get up and say, ‘Senator Crossin, I think you’re being a bit extreme here,’ but that is not the case. Whenever you move amendments to a native title bill, it just opens the door a fraction to allow native title rep bodies, for example, to be registered. In the registration process, if there is not a mandatory requirement that they have at least a majority of Indigenous people on their rep body, then you open the door to ensuring that legal firms or corporations representing people in a native title arena in this country are not driven by Indigenous people—that they do not have a majority of Indigenous people or, potentially, native title holders driving the process.

This government now wants to remove the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act and suggests that there would be another form of act that could substitute the requirement for having Indigenous people involved in the process. What we actually want to do here is propose a change that would extend the bodies which can become native title reps to include corporations under the Corporations Act. Such corporations do not have special constitutional requirements relating to Indigenous members, as do Aboriginal corporations under the Aboriginal Councils and Associations Act and the replacement act that we put in place in this chamber sometime in the last 12 months.

The shift here from the government is away from the importance of the representative nature of the native title rep bodies. When the minister has to recognise an eligible body now, one of the things they must do is satisfy themselves that that rep body represents native title holders, that they will consult effectively with Aboriginal people in this country. Under this legislation, we see that this government would allow the minister to recognise a rep body if it just performs, or would be able to perform, its functions satisfactorily. It is a very slight shift. There is a very small crack in the door here. But it seriously limits the importance and the recognition of Aboriginal representatives and the role they play in the rep bodies.

Our amendments also go to striking out the change that would allow the minister to extend or vary an area covered by the rep body without the consent of the body in question. We do not believe that that is acceptable either. Our amendments would make such a change conditional on the consent of the rep body concerned so that the minister could not unilaterally make changes to those boundaries without having consulted and gained the consent of the body.

Let us be very clear about this. This is the thin end of the wedge. These changes proposed by this government to the Native Title Act continue to diminish the voices of Indigenous people in this process. No matter what this minister is about to say to defend the government’s position, that is the reality here. If in legislation you do not mandate it and have a requirement to specifically consult and get the consent of Indigenous people then it provides you with the opportunity to not have to do that. That very small opportunity will become quite a large opportunity in this government if it ever gets the chance to totally ignore the wishes of Indigenous people and to ensure that those Indigenous people are not represented on a rep body and are not driving the process. This starts to shift the balance in a very major way.

These are minor amendments, but they will have quite a major impact out there in the field. They will have an impact in the sense that once again Indigenous people are going to be one step removed from this process under this government. If this legislation goes through as it is without the amendments from the Labor Party, it will ensure that Indigenous people can potentially be locked out of this process in some instances.

So we ask the government to seriously look at this and to take on board their commitment. They talk about practical reconciliation. Well, practically recognise now the role of Indigenous people in the native title process and support our amendments, particularly to this section of the bill.