Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for that. The point that I am making, just to make it absolutely clear so that we can proceed, is that the minister only speaks with people who agree with him. He has refused to meet with me on a number of occasions, although I did manage to buttonhole him at Alice Springs airport on one occasion—which was quite a memorable few moments. I have quite a good rapport with one of his advisers, who is here and who has given me the time occasionally to explain the minister's views and the tactics that have been chosen. We agree to disagree on most things. But the minister himself has never chosen to do so and to understand that on probably the most important and central aspect of this I actually agree with him, that this is a formidably difficult public policy challenge and that we stand ready, as we will do later in this debate, to propose a way forward. That way forward effectively cuts the knot and gets everybody in this chamber on the same page so that we can move ahead with an approach that is neither coercive nor anticipates that a vulnerable community that needs a road upgrade and a school will put their hand out for 12 million bucks to host a facility such as this.

The minister yesterday seemed to be hinting that there was no choice between those two options. I beg to differ. I think there is a great deal of ground we could occupy between coercion and some kind of bribe—some tiny amount of money for a politically vulnerable community in a remote part of the country to take this facility, this shed-like structure, in exchange for a cheque that would amount to a few tens of thousand dollars a year for the next several centuries, which is what we are contemplating today.

In relation to undertaking consultations under the land rights act and the processes of gaining consent under the land rights act, if I understand it correctly the minister is seeking advice that we may have consent for this amendment. I am not sure where that would leave Senator Scullion, as he has not spoken on this amendment yet, but we may in fact have at least one small point of agreement through the process of this debate.