Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to say a few words in talking to the motion before the chair to note this particular report. This was a report in which the committee members looked into the issues with some care and dedication and I think the report is well worth reading and in fact adopting where appropriate recommendations are made. But I want to mention an issue that came up in this report, although there was a separate committee looking at this other issue at the same time as this particular committee was in Cape York. It was mentioned in relation to this committee, and it is the Wild Rivers legislation of the Queensland government.

To recapitulate very briefly, the Queensland Labor government has introduced the so-called Wild Rivers legislation, I always say, which effectively curtails activity in wild rivers areas. I know that the Queensland ministers have said, ‘Oh, it does not really curtail investment in these areas,’ but the evidence before both this and the other committee that I referred to clearly showed that some Indigenous people were indeed led to a conclusion that their rights to their land would be impacted upon. When someone said, ‘You can always apply for permission and consent,’ the response of one of the witnesses was, ‘Well, who is going to pay for it? We don’t have the money to engage teams of lawyers and accountants to go through and try and get some permission under the Wild Rivers legislation.’

As a result of that, Mr Abbott, in the other place, and Senator Scullion, here, have moved a bill that was in fact passed by the Senate prior to the election and which sought to overturn the Queensland legislation insofar as certain aspects of the Wild Rivers legislation were concerned. What Mr Abbott’s bill does, in short—and I paraphrase—is it says that you cannot declare a wild river in this area without the permission of the traditional owners. A lot of misconception and untruthfulness is being promoted about what Mr Abbott’s bill actually says, but that is the guts of Mr Abbott’s bill—that you cannot have a wild rivers regime in these areas unless the traditional owners agree.