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

Senator, I have to say I had some difficulty understanding all of that. I understand what you are saying, but there are some quite complicated aspects and I do not have the Aboriginal land rights act in front of me. I will say a couple of things. The permit system, in terms of whether somebody is behaving or not, at the end of it, should not be an alternative to the law. If, for example, a traditional owner has said or the group have said, ‘You can come on country,’ it is up to the police to pass information about bad behaviour back to the permit holder if it is just inappropriate behaviour; if it is unlawful behaviour, the police should act. Whether they have a permit to be there or not is really immaterial. We often hear of people saying, ‘What we have got in the permit system really helps us provide law and order.’ It probably has in the past because the shield of law and order simply has not been present.

I am advised in a more technical sense that land trusts are in fact not trusts for the purpose of the land rights act; they are shells for the purpose of holding land.