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

I rise to provide some commentary on and response to some of the comments that Senator Scullion made, because I think it is important that there be a response to this element of the debate. I am glad, Senator Xenophon, that you are in the chamber, and I must say publicly that I welcome your willingness to go to the Northern Territory and to look at and talk to a number of communities. However, it is unfortunate that you did not get to some of the communities in the Top End and get a more balanced view about what people think about the permit system in the Northern Territory. I am aware that you went out with Adam Giles, a candidate for the seat of Lingiari in the last federal election, who is quite clearly not in this parliament because of the outstanding result that Warren Snowdon got, which was based on a platform of, amongst other things, listening to Indigenous people and ensuring them that we would reinstate the permit system as they had asked us to do. They voted for us to do that. Outside the two or three communities that you went to in the Northern Territory, you would find that there is a much, much broader, stronger and more prominent view about why Indigenous people want to keep the permit system and had asked us to do that. Our position following the last federal election clearly shows that the member for Lingiari, Warren Snowdon, was re-endorsed and put back into this parliament to represent those people, as well he does. The reason he does an outstandingly magnificent job is that he listens and talks to Indigenous people. He is one of the best members of the House of Representatives that I know in terms of representing his constituents.

I talk about the places we went to during the election. Senator Scullion and I were actually at one place together on the same day. We were both at Galiwinku, on Elcho Island, and people there were lined up 100 deep every hour for nearly eight hours of the day. I can tell you now that, when they were given a how-to-vote card for the Country Liberal Party, they squashed it up, screwed it up and threw it on the ground. So they not only were keen to vote for the Labor Party because of our policies but also physically showed to everyone at that polling booth exactly what they thought of the policies of the then government.

Senator Scullion talks about closed communities. It is a furphy. There are no closed communities. They are not closed communities. It is simply a term that Senator Scullion and the coalition use to try and justify their position. Hermannsburg is not a closed community; it has a tourist outlet. On Groote Eylandt there is now a tourist resort. Titjikala has tourist operations happening. Look at communities that have allowed mining to occur in and around their communities. To say that the permit system is a barrier to economic development is an excuse and an argument that is used to justify the position that is given by those who quite clearly want to see—let us get to the bottom line here—the abolition of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act. That is what this argument from the previous coalition government is about. Getting rid of the permit system is the thin end of the wedge. They would probably then hand the land rights act over to the Northern Territory government and make any other changes they possibly could to chip away at the rights of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory.

Land that is acquired under the land rights act is different to any other land in this country. It is land that is owned by those Indigenous people and they have the title to that land. Why do people like the permit system? Because it protects their culture, their sacred sites, their language and to some extent their way of life. This is a culture that has survived for 40,000 years. So who are we in Canberra to act, I will say here, in quite a racist way? This is a white people’s policy. We go into a community, and we probably spend fewer than three hours there—if we are lucky, we might sleep there overnight—and suddenly we come away with a view that they are a closed community and that permits are actually a barrier to economic development. We do not really understand why they want the permit system, but somehow we think that getting rid of it is going to be one way to start to solve some of the problems, rather than looking at it in a positive way and seeing that keeping the permit system is one way of recognising these people’s culture. One way of building bridges in our relationship in this country and handing out a token of reconciliation would be to say to Indigenous people in this country: ‘Yes, you have a permit system. You got that because of the land rights act. You got that because a Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, with Vincent Lingiari, decided that this legislation would give you the title to this land forever.’ I might say that that legislation was finally put through this parliament by Malcolm Fraser. So these are rights that have finally been hard won by Indigenous people. There are reasons that they want the permit system in place.

In my speech on the second reading of this bill, I demonstrated that there are in the Northern Land Council region alone 22,000 permits given out per year. There are very few examples of permits being rejected. There was a case where one particular journalist breached the permit system—and quite rightly was taken to task about that. But, by and large, I have not seen examples of people in communities rejecting an application for a permit. In other words, I think there is demonstrable evidence to prove that the permit system is not a barrier to economic development on Indigenous land. In fact, if anything, it enhances the cultural rights of Indigenous people in those communities.

We might talk about the fact that crimes are committed in these communities and argue that perhaps without the permit system these crimes suddenly will not exist or these people will not go to these communities. The reality is that none of that is going to change. Crimes will continue to exist in these communities whether people do or do not have a permit. And most times they probably do not have a permit. We were able to hear directly from police officers in north-east Arnhem communities, who clearly said to us: ‘One of the reasons I can stop a car is because I can ask them whether they have a permit. If you take that ability away from us, you lessen our policing role.’ We have had evidence from the Northern Territory Police Association and the Federal Police Association that that is one tool they use. The new laws in the Northern Territory with respect to alcohol are another tool that they can use.

Do Aboriginal people need permits to go in and out of each other’s communities? Predominantly, no, they do not. If I live at Yirrkala and I am down at Hermannsburg, I do not need a permit. And, if you have a look at the crimes that are being committed against children and women in those communities, it is predominantly Aboriginal people committing those crimes. The police are out there on top of, arresting people for and tackling those crimes. So it is an excuse and a fabricated reason for why the permit system has to be abolished. We do not have closed communities in the Northern Territory. Indigenous people do not consider them closed; I do not consider them closed. I simply ring up, I ask and I am welcome to go there. Evidence from the CLC and the NLC during the community affairs inquiry showed that that is predominantly the case: where there have been permits refused, there have been good reasons given.

We do have people coming in and out of these communities without permits. We know that there are carpetbaggers going in and out, trading in the arts industry. That is one of the reasons I would have thought you would keep this kind of permit system. It is a bit of a track for Indigenous people, as to who can come in and who can come out. Has it been successful in the past? By and large, I say, yes, it has been. It gives Indigenous people a reason to ask people to leave their community. If you remove the permit system, then you have no means by which you can ask people to leave the community, other than to go through a court process and an unwieldy process of issuing a common law trespass notice. But Aboriginal people do not want that; they want a system that they have liked, that they have designed, that they are committed to and that they want retained. The Labor Party was elected at last year’s election on a platform to not abolish the permit system and to protect the permit system. Warren Snowdon represents Lingiari. All of the people affected by this legislation live in that seat—not the seat of Solomon. Every single Indigenous person affected by this legislation in this country only lives in the seat of Lingiari. We got a 94 per cent return in the polls up there.

I put to you that we have a mandate to ensure the permit system is protected and retained. I put to you that if we are true about reconciliation in this country, about building genuine relationships with this country, we will drop this mantra of ‘Canberra knows best’, of ‘non-Indigenous knows best’, we will start to work with these people and we will start to make changes to their lives and listen to what they say. One of the things they have clearly said to us—loud and strong, last year and for many years—is that they want the permit system retained. I put to you that I do not think any changes should be made to the permit system unless there are discussions, consultations and agreement with people. Do some communities want some aspects changed? Yes, they do. I know of some communities that are quite happy to have no permits in their community but I know of others who want the permit system retained. The current act does not allow for opting in or opting out. So let us just talk to people about what future changes might be. But the way the previous government moved on those communities last year and simply decided to ensure that the permit system was restricted and now hold to that view, despite the outcomes of last year’s federal election, shows they are not listening to Indigenous people in the Northern Territory.

In fact, Senator Scullion, I am embarrassed to think that you would want to represent those Indigenous people right across those 70 or more communities when they quite clearly would have said to you, as they have said to me thousands and thousands of times: ‘We want the permit system retained. We want you to go to Canberra and represent us, and that representation means standing up for our permit system, standing up for our culture and standing up for protecting, maintaining and strengthening the Land Rights Act.’ So I put to this chamber today that, if you really want to build bridges with Indigenous people and start to turn the corner in our relationship with Indigenous people—particularly in the Northern Territory, given the last 18 months—you will listen to them, to all of them, not just to two or three communities but to all of the communities around the Territory, who resoundingly voted for the Labor Party at last year’s election because we stood on a platform of protecting and maintaining their permit system.