Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I oppose this motion, as does the Labor government. As the Chair of the Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee of the Senate, where we already have a role in oversight of these agencies, including through the estimates process, I know the Senate and the committee have worked hard to support the very organisations that you seek to bring into your purview to attack in a references inquiry. We have supported them in their education and training to be accountable to the Senate and therefore to the broader community, and we have asked questions. I have to say I have seen some of these small native title organisations having to travel, at great expense, from remote places in Australia to attend estimates—and rightly they should—to only have a few short, very politically motivated questions directed at them and, indeed, to be dismissed by other senators without further questioning. I also think the timing of this inquiry is highly politically motivated in the context of work that's happening in the broader community to support a 'yes' vote in the upcoming referendum.

Those opposite will laugh and snicker, but it proves my point in the context of this debate, that this is a diversion by those opposite that I think, frankly, diverts the resources of community organisations who want to serve their communities and, indeed, raise the voices of people they represent inside those organisations. Whether they be land councils, prescribed body corporates or other registered organisations under the registry of Aboriginal controlled organisations there's a great diversity of work going on in all of these Aboriginal led organisations. They need to have clear air and space to do that work, and also to participate in the referendum, to get their message to wider Australia about why Indigenous led and controlled organisations—and those organisations having clear rights and powers and autonomy of their own—is important to our nation and to the wellbeing and empowerment of First Nations people right around Australia.

In that context, I want to highlight that in addition to this parliament these organisations are scrutinised by the Australian National Audit Office, which has finalised and released performance audits into three of the Northern Territory land councils this year. They are robust and rigorous audits. You can look at those reports anytime you like.

The ANAO looked at the Central Land Council over a whole year. They interviewed staff, observed records, looked at their council. The audit found the arrangements were largely appropriate and that the land council is working on each of the ANAO's recommendations. It was not an expectation that these organisations would be perfect, but a clear audit and support that enables them to engage with their members, lift their standards and get on with the work that they are mandated by law to do, rather than your politically motivated attacks, is how our democracy and oversight is supposed to work. The Central Land Council is, for example, publishing six-monthly updates on progress and the implementation of the report.

We have a National Anti-Corruption Commission, a Commonwealth Ombudsman. The organisations are also subject to the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013. Many of these organisations are also governed by state legislation. And I have to say some of the difficulty that organisations can find—look, you could create terms of reference that look at how we can better support and empower organisations by getting red tape out of their way, but that is not what you propose to do in this diversionary reference that you have got before us.

Really importantly, organisations registered under the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act, the C(ATSI) Act, are regulated by the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations. And you can see from the robust work that that organisation does with organisations, and there are many thousands of them, that they play a key capability and auditing role. We heard from the regulator about how they move unregistered organisations that might not have met their registration requirements out and deregister them. We heard how they really look to make sure that people meet their accountability and appropriateness for registration. Essentially this means that in order to be registered you need to have met the management and corporations and democratic or underlying principles within the governance documents of each organisation.

We know ORIC to be an effective organisation in registering Indigenous groups that want to incorporate or transfer their registration to operate under the C(ATSI) Act. I've seen the work that they do in supporting organisations to run properly according to their own rules and culture while maintaining consistency with both state and Commonwealth laws. It's not an easy thing to do, I imagine, in terms of how you incorporate cultural law and practice from a particular mob into the tenets of an organisation as well as operating within state and Commonwealth law, not to mention, of course, the Corporations Act, which in turn would see all of these organisations regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

So if those opposite have specific concerns about these organisations, I call on them to bring them to the attention of the relevant authority immediately. Take it to ORIC. Take it to the ANAO. Take it to the crime and corruption commission.