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

Perhaps it will not even save it, but the Labor Party in Queensland are pretty desperate. That is why Senator McLucas and Senator Furner, two Queensland senators, are here in this chamber trying to knock off this bill so that the preference deal in Queensland can go through. I highlight again that this is all about Greens preferences. It does nothing for protection of the land that could not be done by other pieces of state and federal legislation. As Senator Xenophon rightly pointed out, those of us who have been to the cape and the Gulf Country with open eyes, without a preconceived position, can feel, see and count that most Indigenous people are totally opposed to the Queensland wild rivers legislation as it exists. They want to have some say in their own land. This bill gives them that say, and I think any genuine legislator—anyone in this chamber who has the real interests of Indigenous people at heart—should support this bill.