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

I have not named individuals. At every single committee meeting I held there were unanimous decisions made and the record of that will stand. Let me go to the conduct of this inquiry in the 2½ minutes I have remaining. There is no explanatory memorandum with this piece of legislation, so from the very beginning our committee was not aware of what it was that the author of this piece of legislation intended to achieve. It makes it particularly difficult. I might add that this matter was mentioned by the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills. They highlighted the fact that there was no explanatory memorandum with this piece of legislation.

I also add for the record that the Queensland parliament passed a Queensland act for the purpose of preserving the natural values of rivers that have all, or almost all, of their natural values intact. It was not the job of my committee to inquire into the piece of legislation that the Queensland government enacted. My committee’s role was to look at the piece of legislation that was before it, and I do not believe that a number of witnesses clearly understood that point during the conduct of the inquiry. We got 38 submissions—15 supporting the bill, eight disagreeing with the bill, with four being from Indigenous parties. There were 10 submissions that were critical of the Wild Rivers Act but were not supportive of the legislation that I as chair had before me. Therefore, we had 18 of the 38 submissions against this piece of legislation, not one way or the other, and 15 for it. So you cannot say that the majority of those who made submissions to this inquiry were in favour of this piece of legislation.

This bill raises significant legal issues and would substantially increase red tape, including for Aboriginal entrepreneurs and developers. It is inconsistent with the Native Title Act and I urge people to read the committee’s view in the Senate report. The last chapter goes to the explanation as to why we believe it is inconsistent with the Native Title Act. This is not in fact a future act under the Native Title Act and we go into the reasons why. This bill is poorly drafted, it is unclear and it could not be responsibly supported by any Australian government. A broad range of views was expressed at the Senate committee inquiry. (Time expired)