Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens will support this amendment, although I am not convinced that it is going to address some of the issues that Senator Bartlett outlined, because it merely requires consultation. Even if they say, ‘We think this idea isn’t a very good idea,’ there is no requirement for those comments to be taken on board. The benefit is, however, that the government or the trust will be forced to explain their reasoning to an Indigenous body and, hopefully, they will put a brake on some of the government’s potentially more outrageous attempts to lease land against the wishes of the community. The amendment will require them to explain what they are doing and also give them the opportunity to hear what people from the Indigenous community think about it. Given the strong concerns we have about this whole legislation package, I am a bit pessimistic about what impact the amendment will have. It is, at least, a mechanism that will provide a level of consultation that is otherwise noticeably absent from this legislation. The Greens will be supporting this amendment.