Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Lands Acquisition Amendment (Public Purpose) Bill 2017, which has been presented to the Senate by Pauline Hanson's One Nation. As Senator O'Sullivan just said, we understand why this bill has been put forward for consideration by the party. It's a reaction to the events that occurred earlier this year surrounding the Department of Defence's flawed process to acquire land to enable the expansion of two training areas in North Queensland—the Townsville Field Training Area and the Shoalwater Bay Training Area.

The department wrote letters to property owners outlining Defence's needs for land and how acquisition of their property, properly compensated, would assist in meeting these needs. The community was of course outraged, as you would understand, Acting Deputy President Williams. Prime agricultural land was being eyed off for military training use, forcing families to leave their land, which, in some cases, had been held by them for generations. After enough pressure from Labor, the Minister for Defence finally stepped in. I think it would be worthwhile commenting on the role of shadow minister Fitzgibbon in this area, because he did some terrific work on behalf of property owners in Queensland to bring the issue into the public arena and put that pressure on the Minister for Defence.

Finally, a statement was made that there would be no compulsory acquisition of properties surrounding the existing training areas. When asked about Defence's processes for land acquisition at estimates in February, the minister's response to a question on notice was:

Compulsory land acquisition was considered as one option during initial planning. It was always the preference to purchase land from willing sellers off the open market, and as announced in February 2017 land will only be purchased from willing sellers.

That was question No. 60 from April 2017. The minister eventually made a decision in this case regarding land acquisition to only acquire land from willing sellers. That avoids the need to consider compulsory acquisition and the public purpose test. It is not clear how the proposed changes to the definition of 'public purpose' would assist in these types of considerations where ministers are required to consider the overall public benefit and purpose in every decision they make.

Senator Hanson, while the defence minister certainly made a mess of the acquisition of land, we do not believe at this stage that the implications of this bill have been thought through. It was introduced yesterday afternoon, and we understand there has not been consultation at this stage with the Australian Government Solicitor and, of course, with a broad range of stakeholders and a broad section of landholders across this country. We are of the belief at this point that those are the sorts of things that ought to occur before a full consideration of this legislation.

There are significant judicial precedents regarding land acquisition. The act that Senator Hanson is seeking to amend is almost 30 years old, and there are a number of precedents of Commonwealth over-reach that have been successfully challenged in the courts. Labor believe we need to be conscious of those precedents which allow the Commonwealth to acquire land where it is necessary and to provide appropriate compensation. This bill would complicate all of those former precedents and, for that reason, at this stage, the Labor Party cannot support this legislation.

Question negatived.