Andrew Murray (WA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I was just getting some advice from the esteemed Senator Boswell, who said that local government need this bill and we must get on with it. I will do that. I move amendments (1) and (2) on sheet 5375 revised 2:

(1)    Schedule 1, page 3 (after line 4), before item 1, insert:

1A  After paragraph 7(1)(fa)

Insert:

            (fb)    to conduct plebiscites in Aboriginal communities and townships in the Northern Territory.

(2)    Schedule 1, item 1, page 4 (after line 5), at the end of the item, add:

     (1H)    To ensure that Aboriginal communities and townships in the Northern Territory in which the Commonwealth is to undertake activities authorised by the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007 have the opportunity to express their views, for the purposes of paragraph 7(1)(fb) a plebiscite must be conducted by the Commission in every Aboriginal community or township in which the activities are to be undertaken to ascertain whether the members of that community or township approve the Commonwealth carrying out those activities.

These amendments from Senator Bartlett arise from the extensive debates that have been had on the emergency intervention in the Northern Territory with respect to Indigenous matters. What I am arguing for here, on behalf of Senator Bartlett, is that, if you accept that it was an emergency and an emergency intervention had to occur, nevertheless there is strong community feeling about this matter. Senator Bartlett has advised me that he sat next to a very senior member of the coalition who advised him that he had visited seven Indigenous communities and all seven were strongly in favour of the government’s intervention. That being the case, of course, a plebiscite such as is being suggested here would not automatically have a negative result; it may well have a positive result. So I do not necessarily presume that a plebiscite would have a negative result—unlike local government plebiscites in Queensland, where I do expect many of them to express a contrary view to what the state government has proposed.

This matter arises really because, if it is the view of the coalition that communities and shires and councils in Queensland are entitled to have their say with respect to a matter which affects their local government, the Democrats think that the same principle should apply with respect to Aboriginal communities and townships in the Northern Territory. It would simply be unacceptable for the principle to apply in one and not the other.

Once again, the government may argue: ‘Yes, a plebiscite could be held. There is nothing in the legislation which prohibits it.’ Again I say that this has been put forward by us deliberately because, unfortunately, the explanatory memorandum only refers to the plebiscites in the context of local government amalgamations. We wish to make it clear that in a matter of high contention, of great drama and of the granting of very considerable powers, we believe that the Aboriginal communities and townships in the Northern Territory should be aware, through legislation, that they can run a non-binding plebiscite with respect to the National Emergency Response Act 2007.