Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill and to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER AMENDMENT (A STRONGER LAND ACCOUNT) BILL 2014

I am pleased to introduce this Bill to strengthen the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land Account. Land is central to the spiritual, economic, social, cultural and environmental wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The Land Account and the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC) were part of the ‘grand bargain’ that followed the High Court’s recognition of native title in the Mabo judgment in 1992. This was a watershed moment in the history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ struggle towards recognition in this nation.

In 1993, after intense negotiations, the Keating Government legislated the Native Title Act – the first part of this bargain. This provided a process for claiming native title. It was an historic moment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

At the time, then Prime Minister Paul Keating noted that despite its historic significance, the Mabo decision would “give little more than a sense of justice to those Aboriginal communities whose native title has been extinguished or lost ... their dispossession being total, their loss complete. While these communities remain dispossessed of land, their economic marginalisation and their sense of injury continue.”

So the Land Account was established to provide recognition and partial compensation for the fact that most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were unlikely to benefit from the Native Title Act. For those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the Land Account provided them with an opportunity to be—at least in part—compensated for what had been taken from them.

The ILC was set up with the Land Account for one purpose: ‘to enable Indigenous people to acquire land and maintain it in a sustainable way to provide economic, social and cultural benefits for themselves and for future generations of their people’. But it wasn’t just Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were to benefit from this bargain. Through these negotiations, Aboriginal people gave up significant rights in order to give non-Indigenous Australians certainty over their land title, and the Land Account recognised this fact.

The deal that was brokered after Mabo must go on being respected and the Land Account must be protected.

This Bill makes it clear that it is the Commonwealth’s responsibility to manage the Land Account for the sole benefit of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It reinforces the nature and purpose of the Land Account as being partial acknowledgement for the dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders’ lands. It gives Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders an assurance that the Land Account will be protected for the benefit of future generations.

The Bill prevents Land Account funds from being utilised for any purpose other than the original intended purpose of acquiring and managing land for the environmental, social, cultural and economic benefit of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The Bill also includes provisions to enable the Land Account to grow over time, to ensure that future generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can continue to benefit from the opportunities it provides to strengthen their links to the land.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Amendment (A Stronger Land Account) Bill 2014 emphasises the importance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of having an independent and Indigenous controlled ILC Board to manage the way Land Account funds are used. It strengthens appointment processes to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have input into who runs the ILC and makes decisions about the way Land Account funds are used on their behalf. It strengthens the provisions that are currently in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Act which prevent the Minister from directing the ILC and reinforces the ILC’s independence. The Bill also implements very strong corporate governance and transparency measures to give Australians, and especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the confidence that the ILC and Land Account funds are being managed in accordance with the highest standards.

The Minister for Indigenous Affairs has indicated he is considering a ‘major overhaul’ of both the ILC and Indigenous Business Australia. It is unclear why Government would consider significant change that has the potential to weaken the ILC and put the Land Account at risk.

On 2 December 2013, the Minister for Indigenous Affairs initiated a review of the ILC and Indigenous Business Australia by Ernst & Young. The terms of reference asked the reviewers to consider an amalgamation of the two agencies, under greater ministerial control. The Minister publicly released the report on 4 May 2014. While this report recommended that the ILC and IBA remain separate organisations, the Government’s Commission of Audit report released on 3 May 2014 recommended a merger of the two agencies. The Government has not yet indicated if it will be acting on the recommendations of either report.

Any new arrangement proposed for the ILC comes with a risk that funds from the Land Account will be diverted to non-land commercial purposes. The beneficial owners of the Land Account are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The intention of the first legislation setting up the Land Account and the ILC was that the government of the day would always ensure Land Account funds were used for their original purpose: to provide land acquisition and management assistance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Australia.

Rather than weakening Indigenous rights, there is a need to strengthen legislative recognition of the unique status of the Land Account, to prohibit ministerial or departmental involvement in re-allocating funds derived from the Land Account and to increase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ involvement in land management.

This Prime Minister needs to demonstrate that his rhetoric before taking office that he would “place Aboriginal people at the heart” of his new Government, in “word and deed”, is not just that – rhetoric.

As we move towards another watershed moment in the history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ struggle for recognition in this nation – the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Constitution – we must ensure that we build on what has already been achieved.

That is what this Bill does.

I commend this Bill to the Senate.

Debate adjourned.