Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Native Title Amendment (Indigenous Land Use Agreements) Bill 2017, which is also known as the bill to ram through the Adani coalmine against the wishes of the local Wangan and Jagalingou people. It is known as the bill to give certainty to big miners whilst subjugating the rights of our First Australians.

First, I go to the process. As we know, this bill was rushed through the House of Representatives about five seconds after the court case found that many of these ILUAs are invalid because not all of the native title claimants and registered claimants have ticked off on them. That was an eminently sensible decision by one of our courts. Of course, this government does not like the fact that that casts some doubt on the ability of the big miners to ride roughshod over not just our land but the rights of Indigenous people whose land it was and still is.

We have concerns about the time frame and the fact that this was rushed through not only the House but then a very hasty Senate committee process. As the record will show, we Greens sought to extend out the report date for inquiry but, sadly, we were not supported by the Senate to do that. The upshot of that was that submitters did not have enough time to prepare their submissions and we only had one hearing. Everyone would accept that native title as a body of law is incredibly complicated. It is also an issue where it is incredibly important that we get it right. We have a legacy in this country of abominable decisions when it comes to recognising and respecting our First Australians. This native title bill is regularly criticised for being a poor construct which ill fits with the rights that still exist and should be legally recognised as still existing. So to be rushing through a bodgied up amendment at the last minute to an already complex area of law is bad practice, but to do that to favour a big mining company to open up one of the biggest coalmines in the world to further trash the climate and the Reef is utterly unforgivable. Those are our concerns with the process.

There is a lot of opinion about this bill. Clearly, Aboriginal people do not speak with one voice and, clearly, we should not seek to speak for them, which is another matter I will go into. But the other issue we have is that there has not been enough consultation on the effect of these proposed changes. I have personally met with traditional owners particularly from that Wangan and Jagalingou group who are deeply opposed to ramming through these changes to our native title laws. Adrian Burragubba and his niece Murrawah Johnson have been campaigning for reforms to the native title system, as have many other traditional owners in Queensland I have had occasion to meet with. They have been campaigning for their rights to be properly respected. Instead, there has been a litany of frankly dodgy practice around the signing of this ILUA. I have had lengthy briefings with Adrian where he has explained to me how the mining company has bussed up people who are not even from the local area to stack the meetings.

Senator Canavan interjecting —

Can I ask that you call the minister to order, please, Mr Acting Deputy President Gallacher.