Patrick Dodson (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Reconciliation) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to acknowledge the late Ian Tuxworth, whose recent passing has been mourned in the Northern Territory with a state funeral. Ian, of course, had been a chief minister of the Northern Territory. Tuxy, as he was known—and most people called him by that name—was a Territorian who came from Tennant Creek.

I first met him in the mid-1980s over a lunch at the motel his family ran in Tennant Creek. The invitation to lunch was a fine gesture, but it occurred during a period of leadership change in the Country Liberal Party, which had ruled the Territory since self-government in 1978. Tuxy was being lobbied during the course of the meal. Of course, it mattered little to me—I was not a member of the CLP—but I thought someone like Tuxy would bring a Territorian view as to how the Northern Territory ought to function under self-government. He went on to be the second Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, so our dealings became more political rather than social from that time on. Over the period of his chief ministership, there were numerous debates over land rights, statehood for the Territory and a better economy that was less dependent on the Canberra dollar.

It was the result of the High Court ruling in Mabo that saw a retired Ian Tuxworth play a very different and constructive role—a role probably not known to many who've known him. Very few people would know how important and central Ian's role was in helping to guide a very diverse group of people to come together in good faith and goodwill to try and find a practical solution to the challenges which the country faced back then, given that native title was a reality in the common law of Australia. This group of conservative politicians and high-profile First Nations leaders came together with the assistance of Ian Tuxworth and the late Mr Ron Castan QC. We called ourselves the Bennelong group, not to be confused with the Bennelong Society, the conservative think tank. We kept our meetings secret and beyond the scrutiny of the public and the news media. The Mabo decision was generating tension, fear and hostility, and we wanted to find common ground amongst ourselves and to get a common position before our group became known to the public.

Native title was not seen as some narrow impost upon the land administration acts or property laws. It was seen as something that had been created in the political environment, which really was about the question: could Indigenous peoples and the settlers agree on a new relationship? Mabo appeared to recognise the sovereign position of the First Nations, yet the enjoyment of their position was still somehow subject to the Australian Crown. It offered a chance for a better relationship to be established and to get beyond the classic 'Captain Cook dispossession' debilitating arguments.

We in the Bennelong group were prepared to bring an open mind to settling the legacy issues of colonisation and settlement. In good faith, we wanted to find a contemporary response to big questions like sovereign risk, land regulation and governance. These were complex matters that had to do also with questions like compensation, treaty, governance and wealth sharing into the future. Our group explored these complex matters collectively but within our own comfort levels, which meant some never went very far. Ian Tuxworth, of course, was always very optimistic we could break through, but I think that was founded more on hope than on his usual pragmatic political insights.

The recognition of First Peoples was not a problem. At one stage, it was thought that, if the First Nations traded away their right to negotiate whilst achieving acceptable concessions, this might be the basis for resolving native title as an issue that seemed to impact on development with the regularisation of land use, as well as the need for compensation on a project-by-project basis. The burden of exploring such propositions with the industry groups and the government fell to Mr Don McDonald and me. You'll get an idea of the diversity of the Bennelong group when I tell you that Don was a former Queensland president of the National Party. His daughter, Sue, joined us in the Senate last year. It wasn't a new perspective for me to be told by powerful people to get on my bike, but then to find the leader of the National Party riding alongside me was something else.

Settlement by way of treaty will come one day, and reconciliation will have a meaning for all who labour in the hope of it. The role of Ian Tuxworth and Mr Castan in this nation-building process should not be forgotten. They strove to achieve a different reality from the 10-point plan and even the first legislative response to native title. It's good and deserved that the Northern Territory government, under the Chief Minister, Mr Gunner, has honoured Ian Tuxworth and his family with a state funeral for his known deeds and for his courage in trying to achieve a better and fairer place for us all. Vale Tuxy.