Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

I seek to speak on the Native Title Amendment (Infrastructure and Public Facilities) Bill 2020. Labor does not support the amendment being proposed. When Labor introduced these measures back in 2010, we did so with great care, following extensive consultations with First Nations communities. While the provisions have been used sparingly over the decade, they have been in force. They have been a useful means to help facilitate the building of necessary facilities on land subject to native title. We support their extension for a further ten years.

That being said, we in Labor share some of the concerns raised about the way in which facilities built on Indigenous lands are managed. These were outlined by the shadow assistant minister for reconciliation in his speech in the second reading debate on the bill. In particular, it is essential that proper good-faith consultations take place with affected communities. The legal framework contains a number of safeguards outlined to ensure this occurs. This includes requiring consultation to take place at the request of affected parties. It also includes granting the Attorney-General the ability to prescribe how consultations with native title parties should occur and put in place specific requirements that can be tailored to a particular community. These provisions for consultation are an essential part of Labor's original design for subdivision JA. It's important that this subdivision continues to be used only when strictly necessary to facilitate urgent construction.

I take this opportunity to reiterate our calls for the government to ensure that, at all times, it deals with First Nations communities in a consultative manner so as to ensure that any facilities built under subdivision JA of the Native Title Act are managed in a manner that is appropriate and respectful to those communities before, during and after construction.