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

The coalition requires that this bill be sent to the Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee for consideration. We all agree in this chamber that proper consultation is an important part of our democratic process. The proper consultation process is all that we are asking for with regard to this bill. Quite frankly, I'm surprised that the Albanese government does not want to support one of those most fundamental tenants of our democratic system.

While there is a need for land claims to be determined in a timely manner, that must not come at the expense of being thorough and making decisions that are properly considered. We as the coalition are not satisfied as things currently stand—that there has been the appropriate level of consultation to support this bill. As such, we are not willing to support it until we are satisfied that there has been the chance for the relevant stakeholders to appear before the committee, the chance for them to be heard and listened to.

It's important to bear in mind that this piece of land is already subject to exploratory licences for petroleum and minerals. That means that there are people and companies who have potential interests already in the relevant sections of this land. It means there is potential for economic activity to be undertaken on this land. These matters need to be properly considered before this land is added to the act. A real consultation process would exist if this matter were referred to a committee and allowed for that consultation process to occur. Not only does the committee allow for the relevant people to be heard on the matter but it is also an incredibly important opportunity for a wider examination with respect to handing land to land councils in a more general sense.

What is blaringly obvious is that the current process isn't working. Significant amounts of land are being added to the land rights act and coming under the control of the relevant land councils, yet the condition and the quality of life for Indigenous Australians in these communities is not in fact improving. In this case, there are exploratory licences already in place on this land. We know that there is the opportunity for traditional owners to engage with those licence holders for the purpose of creating wealth and economic development on their own land.

It is becoming evident that those large amounts of land that are being added to the act are then being managed by land councils, which are proving to be dysfunctional. They are bodies that I've certainly lost faith in, and many Indigenous Australians that I speak to, Territorians in particular, have lost faith in their ability to protect and advocate for the interests of traditional owners.

As I've been trying to tell these Albanese government for such a long time now, including the traditional owners who were in just this week, something is seriously wrong with the system of adding land to the Land Rights Act when the bodies that oversee it are not fit for purpose and, instead of protecting the interests of traditional owners, are exploiting them. We have situations where pastoralists are being charged by land councils who are offering backburn on the land of traditional owners—pastoralists who are trying to be helpful, to mitigate dangers of fire, to protect the land and do something that would benefit traditional owners. Yet the land council simply says: 'Give us some money. If not, then no; go away.'

It is not good enough. This is using the interests of traditional owners, who are supposed to represent this land, to do nothing more than rent seek. This kind of behaviour by land councils is why we cannot make decisions like the one being proposed by this bill lightly. We must be convinced that proper time and thought have been given to adding land to land councils. Referring this matter to the committee would of course allow this to happen. The Labor government must not try to ram these things through at the expense of proper process and very possibly at the expense of the interests of what actually benefits Indigenous Australians the most.

So, for the sake of democracy and for the sake of encouraging economic development and independence for our most marginalised Australians, the coalition will not rush into supporting this bill. And if the Labor government took a minute to think about it, well, they shouldn't either.