Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. It is our information that the Queensland government still has not set up machinery for enabling First Australians to own their own land—private, deeded land tenure—a right enjoyed by every other Australian. The Queensland government has now promised this right for three, arguably eight, years. Given the 1966 referendum which gave constitutional powers over First Australians to the federal government, would the minister not agree that it is time now for the federal government to exercise its responsibility and undertake the issuance of such deeds, a function already accepted as federal government responsibility in the Northern Territory? Is the minister aware that throughout the latter 1980s 90 per cent of house-building labour in Queensland’s First Australian communities was local and, very importantly, part CDEP? This, along with local concrete block factories, enabled seven houses to be built for every one that is now being built. Finally, occupancy rates in communities were last year averaging around 15 people per home. Could the minister, in line with stated Rudd government policy, implement such policies now? Otherwise, what is already an emergency will become the most serious of crises.

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