Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (NT, Country Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

By making this declaration under section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act and effectively stopping this mining project, Minister Plibersek has done what no member who is truly working for all Australians should do. The declaration must be disallowed by this chamber, and that is why I rise to speak today.

Minister Plibersek's declaration is reflective of the antidevelopment approach of this Albanese government. This project was estimated to have provided around 870 full-time jobs to the region. The Greens might suggest that this is about protecting 'a nice bit of our country', but they disregard the fact that 870 full-time jobs, especially in a cost-of-living crisis, for the people of the region, including Indigenous people, is what the minister has effectively shut down, as well as millions of dollars in royalties and even more to the Australian economy broadly.

Taxes and rates in future years have absolutely been trashed, simply with the stroke of a pen. And why? Because of the objections of a select group of around 17 people who were not members of the local Aboriginal land council. If they were traditional owners, why, then, wouldn't they be part of the local Aboriginal land council which deals directly with land instead of simply being a registered charity? It is, in fact, the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council who have authority to speak about Indigenous cultural heritage in the area of this project, despite suggestions by others in this chamber.

The Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council did not oppose this project and believed any impacts on heritage items would have been manageable. But the views of the land council were disregarded in favour of a smaller group of opponents. Why was this small group chosen by Minister Plibersek? Because they were convenient. They were an easy group of people to use for the purposes of shutting down this project.

This declaration by Minister Plibersek is a prime example of Indigenous people and cultural heritage and connection to land being weaponised. The Greens love weaponising Indigenous people in this way in this country, because they're completely and utterly anti-development. 'Anti-development' means anti improving the lives of Indigenous Australians. We know the EDO, which no doubt are good friends of the Greens, had their hands all over this case. They helped to get legal representation for those that opposed the mining project. As we know from past experience, like in the case of the Barossa gas project, the EDO are more than happy to use Indigenous people to achieve their own ends and to block projects that don't align with their ideology. Make no mistake: this is about aligning with their ideology, not about improving the lives of Indigenous Australians or Australians in general.

Labor is all too happy to go along with this green ideology at the expense of economic development. You see, Anthony Albanese claims to be all about economic independence—or at least he claims to be about this since his speech at the Garma festival this year. But don't be fooled by his comments, because his actions speak louder than his words. His Labor government refuses to defund the EDO—who we know exploit Indigenous people—even though, as this case in Blayney demonstrates, the EDO actively work against economic development on Indigenous land. If Anthony Albanese was serious when he made those comments at Garma, he would defund the EDO and would step in when his ministers make decisions like this which have the opposite effect of what he claims. But he won't defund the EDO, and he won't step in when his ministers do things like this, because he doesn't genuinely care about the economic independence of Indigenous Australians.

In fact, I would strongly suggest that his comments at Garma were simply a way for him to spruik his renewables-only energy policy.

You see, this is an example of Indigenous Australians agreeing to the development of their land and maximising all the potential that it has to offer but the Albanese government blatantly stopping them from doing so. Too regularly, we are seeing the desire of traditional owners to become economically independent on their land being stymied in the name of activist ideology. The problem with our current system is that it allows a government that is anti development, like this Albanese government, to swoop in at the last second and stop these projects in the name of cultural heritage protection. We are left with a system that disincentivises investors from coming anywhere near us.

Why would investors want anything to do with a location where a project could pass the approval of the state-level independent planning commission, pass the approval of the environment minister's own department and have the consent of the Aboriginal organisation who has the authority to speak on matters of cultural heritage, only to be sent back to the drawing board, staring down the barrel of another five to 10 years, with tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars down the drain? How the Prime Minister can possibly claim to encourage economic development on Indigenous land when he allows a system like this to operate makes absolutely no sense—no sense whatsoever.

Some of the evidence that was initially included in the application, such as camp ovens and scar trees, were found, upon survey by an expert engaged by the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council, to be inauthentic—inauthenticity. That is why we have these organisations—to determine who is making things up and who is legitimate. There are also suggestions by the former chair of the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council that some of the evidence was in fact added over time—that, when the ovens were found to be inauthentic, suddenly songlines about the blue-banded bee appeared.

Then we have the minister's own explanation of her decision. While the declaration was made under section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act, Minister Plibersek is now saying that her decision was also related to objections raised by sheep farmers and beekeepers who were concerned about the project affecting the quality of water they used. The minister is so obviously getting desperate to justify the declaration she has made, she's now scrambling to bolster her case and save face before the Australian public. You've got the Greens who will defend those who make inauthentic claims in this place, because it suits their anti-development Green obsession, and this is who the minister would prefer to listen to. She finds herself in this position because the pressure is quite rightly mounting on her to ensure that she provides a true response, a reason that we can all agree with, only we can't—not when those who are representative of the traditional owners, the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council and the former NSWALC chair are stating otherwise.

They want a way out of disadvantage. They want jobs. They want opportunity. But it's falling on deaf ears with this government.

The minister knows that Australians can see right through her culturally sensitive explanations to the heart of her ideological pursuit. The reality is that this declaration must be disallowed, because the evidence that it was all just an ideological ploy is too strong to ignore. I for one will not let Indigenous Australians be taken advantage of. I will not let them be used as weapons to further the agenda of this Albanese government. If this declaration is allowed to remain in place, then that is exactly what we will be left with. As the shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, I won't stand for it. The coalition will not stand for it. Anyone who truly cares about advancing the rights and interests of Indigenous Australians should not either.

It is now time; the failures of Closing the Gap have come about because Indigenous Australians are more dependent on welfare than any other group of Australians in this country. The way out of this is opportunity, employment and economic development. This Albanese government is ensuring that economic development will never eventuate under their leadership. That is utterly shameful. They're in partnership with the Greens, who prefer to see Indigenous Australians as spiritual beings hovering above the earth and to romanticise our culture just as if they lived it themselves. They don't want to see Indigenous Australians become anything more than the noble savage that they view Indigenous Australians as—the museum piece to be ogled at and not Australian citizens, with the same rights, responsibilities and opportunities to make the most of what this wonderful country has to offer.