Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Conroy and his colleagues over there obviously do not believe Indigenous people are capable of looking after their own land. They have to have the big heavy hand of the government and the Greens and the Wilderness Society to tell Indigenous people what is good for them. Indigenous people reject that. They are offended by it, as most fair-minded Australians would be. It is about time the Labor Party and the Greens realised that Indigenous people are capable of looking after their own land. Good heavens, they have done it for hundreds of thousands of years! Why do you need the Queensland government and the Greens and the Wilderness Society to come in over the top and tell Indigenous people what is good for them? I urge the Senate to adopt this bill.