Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

Labor supports this bill, and we support the bills which are to follow: the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land and Sea Future Fund Bill 2018 and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land and Sea Future Fund (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2018. My colleague, the member for Barton, will speak to the latter two bills. I'm proposing to address some comments to the first of these bills. I think it's useful for the parliament, in considering these bills, to put them in their historical context, which really does start with the Mabo judgement—a landmark decision of the High Court of Australia handed down on 3 June 1992, which, of course, as we all know, overturned the long-held assumption of Australia's settlement, that the land belonged to no-one, and recognised the continuing title of First Nations people to land. The judgement recognised in Australian common law that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's traditional title to land, or native title, had survived the British settlement of the continent, and the judgement found that native title had been extinguished by many of the titles granted to other Australians by successive Australian governments.

Shortly after the Mabo judgements were handed down, the federal government, led by Prime Minister Keating, sought to codify native title in legislation through a process of negotiation with Indigenous leaders. The first part of the settlement was the Native Title Act 1993, which passed through this parliament in December 1993. The Native Title Act codifies the definition of native title and establishes a process for its recognition where there has not been extinguishment.

The land fund, now officially known as the Land Account, was the second part of the settlement with the First Nations people of this continent. At the time, government and Indigenous leaders were conscious that many Indigenous Australians had seen their traditional country overlay with the land titles of other Australians. The Land Account therefore provides a mechanism for some compensation for the dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples since 1788. The Land Account was established with legislated appropriations over 10 years to build a capital base, after which the account's own income would support the operations of a new statutory authority created at the same time as the Land Account, the Indigenous Land Corporation.

Since that time, the ILC has used the land account to purchase property for the use and enjoyment of the Indigenous Australians whose native title has been extinguished. After 20 years, the ILC began to initiate a review into its functions. From early July to the beginning of September 2017 the ILC undertook a series of consultations to gain community feedback on legislative changes to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Act 2005, the ATSI Act, on two key issues—the first being the financial sustainability of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Amendment land account and the second being the ILC's remit to include fresh and salt water based activities. Sixteen consultations took place around the country involving more than 75 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations.

According to the report that was produced on the consultation, 75 per cent of the consultation sessions provided consensus support for both areas of proposed reform. More than 85 per cent of sessions provided consensus support to the reform of management and governance arrangements for the land account. There was unanimous support for reform to the investment mandate of the land account expressed in the written submissions that dealt with that issue and, of the 17 submissions that addressed both issues, 77 per cent gave support to both with only eight per cent indicating they did not support the reform relating to water.

On 28 March 2018 the government introduced two substantive pieces of legislation, and one piece of consequential legislation, to alter the functions and governance of the Indigenous Land Corporation, the ILC, and the Indigenous land account. As I've said, my colleague the member for Barton will be addressing the latter two bills. I'm addressing the first bill, which deals with the Indigenous Land Corporation. What this bill does is to enable the ILC to perform functions in relation to waters, including ground and surface water, where the Commonwealth or the states and territories have sovereign rights—that is, in water or waters within the outer limits of the exclusive economic zone of Australia, including internal waters of Australia.

The bill amends the ATSI Act to give the ILC functions in relation to water related rights. These additional functions are to be consistent with the ILC's functions in relation to land. They include: the acquisition of water related rights and divestment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations; the provision of assistance in the form of grants, loans or loan guarantees to Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander corporations to acquire water based rights; the carrying on of management activities in relation to Indigenous waters; and the provision of assistance grants, loans or loan guarantees for the purpose of carrying on management activities in relation to Indigenous waters. The bill does not create any new rights and does not authorise the ILC to exercise its functions in a manner that is inconsistent with the rights and interests of other persons or international law such as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The bill alters the name of the ILC to the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation to reflect the expansion of the ILC's functions to water. As I've said, Labor supports this bill. It's an appropriate response to the consultation that was conducted by the ILC. I commend the bill to the House.

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