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

I am happy to say something here, and in the spirit of some sort of cooperation I probably should say something. Senator Siewert, I had mentioned in my contribution on the permit system that, if the intent of removing that system along main roads into these communities is to allow more tourist access to these communities, one of the things that may well occur as a result is that eventually people on the eastern seaboard may realise, if they have a long hard look at some of these communities, what this government’s funding and fundamental policy failures have been. Most people, if they had an opportunity to drive to Wadeye or Mutitjulu, would be quite shocked. In fact, I remember meeting James Hird on the night of my birthday this year when he had just come back from Wadeye, having been up there with the Bombers on a bit of a talent camp out in the communities. He spoke to me about how shocked he was at the condition of Wadeye. I mentioned to him that it had been one of the COAG trials, and he said that if that was the best the federal government could do—or words to that effect—he was pretty stunned. So my contribution on this matter was that if this opens up more Aboriginal communities to show some of the funding problems of this government then they may well get quite a surprise.

While I am on my feet, I will take this opportunity to ask the minister a couple of questions about the permit system, and I will try to be very quick. During the dinner break I was advised—and your advice may well be different—that if a traditional owner issues a permit and subsequently dies, it will be impossible for that permit to ever be revoked. I believe land councils have a view that it is a drafting problem in this legislation, since this legislation only allows the issuer of a permit to revoke it. There is a view that this appears to be an unintended consequence of the drafting. I understand that the issuing of the permit does not go to the ownership of the group, it stays with the individual. I wonder if you have had time to clarify that.