Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Urban Development) Share this | Hansard source

All I would like to say is that I understand that the minister is concerned to try his best to defend what is a pretty weak government position. He was in a position to know something of these matters, and I have no doubt that, if he had been allowed to fulfil the potential that he had in this area, he would have done a much better job than the current minister. That is what really worries me about this particular legislation. I need to express our deep reservations about the current minister being up to the task of administering this legislation. This is a grossly inadequate piece of legislation. It is a piece of legislation that has failed to live up to its potential in terms of what could have been done.

The Evatt report provided the basis for the government to take determined action to improve the cultural heritage of Indigenous people in this country and to enrich the nation as a whole as a consequence. Unfortunately, the government has sought to use the administration of Indigenous cultural matters—as it has with the natural heritage question—in a most partisan and most directly political manner. It has sought to advantage what it sees as its support base to garner votes on the most spurious of grounds over a range of issues. But it has failed to use the powers available to it to genuinely protect the national estate and to genuinely take up its responsibilities and its international obligations, for fear of offending powerful interests who support the Liberal Party.

We have seen a repeated pattern of the corrosion of proper administrative practice. I know there is some language that concerns some of the members on this question, but it strikes at the heart of the problem of public administration with this minister. That is why I say this is a missed opportunity. While we are supporting the legislation, we do so in the context of knowing just how grossly inadequate it is and what the circumstances could have been if there had been proper consultation and if the government had a bit of gumption with which to pursue these important cultural issues. What you have is a situation in which this government has been dragging the chain.

It is now 10 long years since the Evatt report provided the basis for substantive legislative reform, and it is a tragedy that the government has missed this opportunity so comprehensively. It concerns me that the government’s neglect and its base politicisation of these questions have meant that, as a consequence, we as a nation are so much the poorer. National heritage is an important matter, and you would hope that the Prime Minister would take heed of the overriding concerns that are now being expressed about the administration of this portfolio by Senator Campbell.