Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion. The Greens will not be supporting the motion brought by the coalition—no surprises there. This is an attempt to, I suppose, whitewash Aboriginal cultural heritage in this country through the claims that have been made again and again and again about the EDO and activism and how it's all wrapped up in this conspiracy. I wish there were some days that the people on that side would listen to themselves—play themselves back. Play your tapes back and listen to what you've actually said. It is absolutely conspiracy theory, because your views are not shared by other First Nations people across the country.

I've said this before, standing here. The northern Australia committee's First Nations cultural heritage report called A way forwardhow about you go have a look at that? How about you go and read up on the journey that we took to listen to traditional owners across the country talking about the destruction of their rock shelters? I know that there are coalition people sitting here in this chamber—we don't have to agree on everything; we don't have to agree on that. But the connection to country, whether you want to deny it or not, is about identity, and our connection to that country is about the ngurra where that stands—the ngurra that shows people that we have been here for 65,000 years. You might not want to hear the truth-telling that is at the heart of that. You can whitewash that all you want. You can try and do that. We already see that in the education system, in schools where kids are still being taught about 1788 and that Captain Cook discovered it. Well, terra nullius disproved that. Eddie Mabo disproved that through two High Court challenges.

Still we see people bring motions into this place to try and do that—to ensure that we just open the floodgates to development and the destruction of this land, this water, this country and our connection to it. As long as I'm here in the Senate, for the next three years, that's not going to happen, because I will keep fighting. You may label that as activism. I don't care. But we are going to stand on the front line and put our bodies on the line, like we've been doing for many, many generations. Our old people are the giants whose shoulders we stand on, who have been fighting for land rights all of these years and fighting for country.

I want to go to the heart of some of the points that Senator Nampijinpa Price made in her speech just a minute ago about the investors and how they can be ripped away at the last minute. Wow. I wonder how much Regis Resources and other investors around the country are paying for those comments.