Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

There are a couple of issues, again. I now completely understand the question, and the answer goes to the answer that I have already provided. Partly in answer to your last question: with the process that is laid down here for finding an alternative to ‘just terms’, there has to be a trigger. If you cannot come to an agreement on ‘just terms’, what do you do? You then go to the independent judicial system that we have and go down that path. It is consistent with, for example, the Customs Act; the same words are used. This is just a red herring.

You are trying to assert that ‘reasonable compensation’ suddenly means something different from ‘just terms’. I refer you to my earlier submission on that: in terms of drafting, they are interchangeable. I have cited a specific case of precedent under which this was ascertained. There has to be a process. Can you imagine circumstances where we would say: ‘We’re going to acquire this on just terms and we will not have a trigger system. We will not have a fallback position, so, if a negotiated circumstance is not able to be arrived at, we will have no circumstances under which people will be able to exercise their rights’? Of course we have to, which is why we have relied on the judicial system. I suppose we can continue to fool around with words but, at the end of the day, if it is an acquisition under our Constitution it will be paid on just terms.