George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Well, I have not actually raised that. This is what I said about section 31, Senator McCarthy—and let me read it to you again:

One further matter raised by the committee which I want to comment on is the status of what are known as section 31 agreements under the Native Title Act following the McGlade decision. Section 31 agreements are another way that agreements can be made under the act through the right to negotiate procedure. While the McGlade decision did not involve these types of agreements, stakeholders have raised concerns about the potential that these agreements could be challenged. However, as agreements made under the right to negotiate procedure have different requirements to ILUAs, the government will consider these matters further and will consider the ramification of McGlade on the right to negotiate procedure more closely with stakeholders before making amendments to the law.

That is what I said. So, Senator McCarthy, far from saying what you have attributed to me, I actually said the opposite: that the right to negotiate issue under section 31 are not the subject of this bill but will be the subject of consideration when the government reviews in a more holistic way the Native Title Act, as we have foreshadowed we will do.