Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to begin by thanking the member for Isaacs for his brevity. It is always good to get his views on the record, particularly on a matter as important as this. In my former role, I spent time working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, including my good friend the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda, particularly around the challenges facing the use of land under native title for economic development. Having convened round tables in Broome and Sydney on some of the challenges that are faced in this space to realise the economic potential of land, this bill is very welcome because not just prescribed body corporates but also Indigenous land corporations play an important part of the infrastructure that sits around the use of native title lands and the legacy of the Mabo decision—and, of course, state based regimes as well as the particular issues around title in the Northern Territory.

What we actually want is an environment where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are able to fully realise their ambitions and their dreams based on the assets that are available to them. And what we have in some of the ILCs is an acquisition program of land of up to $2 billion which enables it to be used for an effective purpose to advance the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who live with the consequences and injustice of displacement that came as a consequence of European settlement. We cannot undo the legacy of the past. What we can do is choose a better future for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. But, more critically, it doesn't actually matter what we, being the people who are in this place right now in this chamber or in the Senate, think, because the pathway for success for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is not for what we can impose on them or do to them. The pathway to success for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is what we can do to empower and support them to realise their own ambitions and their own dreams.

What we want, I would have thought, is for more people to take ownership, for people to feel like they are in control of their future and for them to be able to take that control—that sense of ownership—and translate it into better outcomes not just for themselves but also for generations yet to come. I say that because, when it comes to generations yet to come, what we have to do is break the cycle of what has occurred in the past—where many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have felt that this country has not served them and where this country has simply, in its modern form, sought to alienate, isolate or displace their traditions, their culture, their language and, of course, their land.

Yesterday I spoke in this place on another bill related to some of the housing measures that this government is investing in as part of a framework working with the states. I made the point at the time that, despite how we sometimes think about the transactional nature of housing—and it's an important part of it; we have a market in housing that needs to be supported and a private market that works successfully for the most part but doesn't meet everybody's needs because of people's economic circumstances and sometimes the constraints we place on it which make it beyond the reach of many people who would otherwise seek to rely upon it—without a house, but more critically without a home, as the bedrock of stability in people's lives, there are huge consequences for how people then go on to live their lives. It's a truism and a statement of the bleeding obvious, but in practice we take it for granted. If people don't have that bedrock of their life—that foundational stone of a home—they can't then go on and achieve so much of what is frankly the habit of life.

We all have lived experience when we come into this parliament. It's not reserved for me, those on the other side, those on this side or even yourself, Mr Speaker. It is the lived experience. Part of the reason why we stand here is because we have succeeded in harnessing the potential that's available to us, and that's off the back of routine and stability and then the capacity to use that to leverage to a more successful life, including, frankly, the confidence to put yourself out into the public and have your ideas, your values and your confidence tested against a community and, ultimately, the scrutiny of the Australian people. The story is no different for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. When you sever a connection between a people and the place they call home, particularly when the connection is more than just a transactional relationship around what is owned at a time but a relationship around what is seen as being an enduring custodianship as connected directly to a place, a home, a culture and a language that in people's mindsets brings them a sense of safety, the consequences are quite severe.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are not alone in this. There are many other cultures around the world who have similar journeys and similar challenges and countries that continue to face the consequences of that. That's why taking simple and practical measures to redress the legacy of that severed connection is so critical as part of rebuilding that sense of place.

As I said, this bill is designed to enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders' land account, which funds the ILCs, to be used for as constructive a purpose as possible, because—while we might capitalise the basis of that ownership and that heritage in financial resources, to be able to go on and do things into the future—we have to make sure that it's sustainable and that no money is wasted. So part of the very pragmatic reform of this government is to recognise that the place for such funds is with the Future Fund—not because we wish to control it but simply because of the capacity to deliver returns—so as to provide that basis for a sustainable future for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and the ILCs, so they are able to secure the funding that they need.

We've done exactly the same thing—and this is where I think it's important to draw the parallel—for superannuation liabilities for public servants under the Future Fund, for this place and this modern structure. In doing so, we're setting a standard against which we're able to hold ourselves but also others. The ambition now for the Future Fund should be not just to hold the capital that's available to them—to be able to do what is right and meet the expectations and obligations set out in their charter and their course—but also to generate income and potential so that we can help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people thrive.

It's on that basis—a very simple, pragmatic basis—that I support this piece of legislation. It follows, as the Attorney-General and shadow Attorney-General have outlined, a long process of consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, so that we are working with them and designing laws and regulations that meet their needs; but, more critically, so that there is a trust being built between those who are custodians of this wealth and, of course, the people who seek to govern it, so that we may have a better future and a shared future together.

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