Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very interested in this question and the suggestion that someone else might have been the First Peoples of Australia other than Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It's certainly the first I have heard of it. As I think is pretty well recorded, Senator Cash, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have occupied the Australian continent for over 60,000 years and represent the oldest continuous living cultures in human history. As is made clear in section 129, when we are talking about the First Peoples of Australia, we are talking about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.