Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Oh, it was not you? I apologise. I could have sworn that you said those words or words along those lines. Many people have accused the minister of involving himself in a land grab, but that is simply not the truth. Yet the likes of those who have spoken before me continue to promote that type of misconception. Obviously, access to Indigenous lands has been an issue—and Senator Bartlett, in his speech, would have you think that the system has been completely abolished. You might like to know, Senator Bartlett, that 99.8 per cent of Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory will have the permit system left in place. Can I repeat that for you: 99.8 per cent of Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory will have the permit system in place. But in the larger public towns and the road corridors that connect them, permits will no longer be required. Why? Because closed towns mean less public scrutiny, so the situation has been allowed to get worse and worse. Normally, where situations come to light that are terrible—things like the child abuse that is occurring in the Northern Territory—solutions are pursued relentlessly by the media. But closed towns have made it easier for abuse and dysfunction to stay hidden. Closed towns also prevent the free flow of visitors and tourists that can help to stimulate economic opportunities and job creation. We do not hear from the Democrats or the Greens any solutions on how to create jobs and economic opportunities in these communities.

The living conditions in some of these communities are just appalling. Senator Bartlett says he has been to the Northern Territory—as if that is something unusual and great that needs to be talked about. Most of us on this side of the chamber have been going to Aboriginal communities for a great number of years and we have seen some of the poor conditions. Mind you, we have seen some communities that are very well managed, but the living conditions in many of them are just appalling. We cannot allow the improvements that have to occur to the physical state of these places to be delayed by more red tape, more discussions, more committees, more meetings and people with vested interests who want to keep things as they are. This is an emergency, and I am delighted that the government has taken action.

While we are talking about visiting Indigenous communities, I heard the Leader of the Opposition in this place berating Senator Heffernan earlier. Senator Heffernan does not need me to defend him, but he is one of the senators in this place who has a deep, serious and ongoing concern for the welfare of children generally and Indigenous children in particular. I have the privilege of being on the Northern Australia Land and Water Taskforce, which is chaired very well by Senator Heffernan. In just the last couple of weeks we have visited Indigenous communities to see what we might be able to do in the long term—looking out 40 or 50 years—to improve opportunities in Northern Australia generally. We recognise that most of the land in Northern Australia is owned by Indigenous people and, quite clearly, Indigenous people have to be part of the solutions that we have there. On this task force there are three Indigenous leaders, all of whom are doing a fabulous job on the task force and in their communities as well.

Senator Heffernan has a deep, abiding and sometimes overwhelming interest in the welfare of young people and particularly of Indigenous young people. We have been to Mataranka and Elsie Station, where we have seen an Indigenous group considering how to create those opportunities and how to make their land available not just to Indigenous people but to non-Indigenous Australians who might need finance to have a mortgage. This Indigenous community is doing that—still held up a bit by Northern Territory laws—but we want to see ways in which we can assist them. I want to reject out of hand the diatribe from Senator Evans on Senator Heffernan’s determination to see a solution to this and many other problems that confront young people. The problems are well known to us; we have to do something about them.

When it comes to a choice between a person’s right to drink and a child’s right to be safe there should be no question about which path we take, and the government has no uncertainty as to what is right. We must dry up the lethal rivers of grog, and this series of bills will enable the government to introduce a general ban on people having, selling, transporting and drinking alcohol in prescribed areas. At the same time our measures will apply tougher penalties to people who are benefiting from supplying and selling alcohol to these communities. This bill will require people across the Northern Territory to show photographic identification, have their addresses recorded and be required to declare where the alcohol is going to be consumed if they want to buy a substantial amount of takeaway alcohol. This requirement is an impost but it is a small impost on Territorians during the emergency period and it will be their contribution to solving this long-running problem.

In addition, these bills allow for a requirement to undertake regular audits of publicly funded computers and to provide the results of those audits to the Australian Crime Commission. Failure to undertake the audits will be an offence, and the Australian Crime Commission will be able to use the results of an audit or may pass them on to a relevant law enforcement agency where investigations show a possible criminal offence of pornography or distribution of pornography exists.

These bills also provide for the Australian government to acquire five-year leases over townships on land rights act land—they are five-year leases, for Senator Bartlett’s information—and also over community living areas and certain other areas. These leases will give the government the unconditional access to land and assets required to facilitate the early repair of buildings and infrastructure. The area of land for the five-year leases is minuscule compared with the amount of Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory. It is less than 0.1 per cent—I will repeat that for Senator Bartlett: less than 0.1 per cent—and there are no prospects for mining in any of the locations where leases are taken. This is not a ‘land grab’ as some have tried to portray it. It is only a temporary lease, and just compensation will be paid for the period. We are not after a commercial windfall because there is none to be had. It must be stressed as well that any native title in respect of the leased land is suspended but is not extinguished, and that is very important.

The Australian government will be able to exercise the powers of the Northern Territory government to forfeit or resume certain leases known as town camps during the five-year period. The poor living conditions in these camps have made many of them places of despair and tragedy, and Alice Springs has been described as the ‘murder capital of Australia’. It is the Australian government’s policy that these camps should be treated as normal suburbs: they should have the same level of infrastructure and level of service that all other Australians expect. Second best is no longer good enough, and, with respect to the Northern Territory government, these camps have been treated as second best for a long time. The Northern Territory government have said that they are not going to resume or forfeit the town camp leases; they have again walked away from their responsibilities for Indigenous citizens of the Territory. That is why these bills provide the Australian government with the ability to do what the Northern Territory government have quite shamefully refused to do.

The bills provide for government business managers, provide new rules for bail and sentencing and provide a rather innovative approach to community stores so that providing poor quality food, which is a major contributor to poor health in Indigenous communities, can no longer occur—there are quite serious provisions about that.

In the income management welfare reform the Australian government is going to change the way welfare payments are made to people living in prescribed communities in the Northern Territory. Under the changes 50 per cent of income support payments and family assistance payments will be quarantined to ensure priority needs such as food and housing are met. The reforms will help stem the flow of cash going towards substance abuse and gambling and ensure that moneys meant for the children’s welfare are actually used for that purpose—and who could complain about that?

After 30 years of inactivity we as Australians are at last doing something concrete and positive to address a problem we have all known about but we have never had the fortitude to deal with because we have always been accused of bullyboy stuff and of land grabs. We have been accused of not consulting enough. Heavens, we have been consulting for the last 10 years and nothing has happened, and yet the Democrats and the Greens would want us to consult for another 10 years. It is time for action, and I am delighted to say these bills do that. The bills will be scrutinised by the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs and this chamber, and I certainly endorse them and urge their adoption.