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

If Senator Macdonald would let me speak uninterrupted that would be appreciated. At the same time we also do not offer unthinking support to anyone claiming to speak on behalf of Aboriginal rights or the interests of all Aboriginal people, but we do not believe this is the right way to go when you look at the details of the bill. This bill is different from the first one that went through this place not so long ago.

This week we have been hearing calls for a new intervention in Alice Springs. We have deep concerns that this sends a particular message about the way that certain members of the coalition and, unfortunately, the government still want to take top-down approaches to the way we deal with Aboriginal issues—that is, not including them, taking a new paternalistic approach, not adequately consulting and believing that, for example, just sending in more police will fix a particular problem. In other words, I am not convinced that the coalition has changed its approach to the way it addresses Aboriginal issues. I am concerned that the discussion implies that this is about free, prior and informed consent; it does not in fact do justice to free, prior and informed consent and is giving it to a certain group of people over limited decision making.

If you look at the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, you see that it very clearly intends to describe and invoke universal rights that necessarily apply to all Indigenous peoples, not a particular group of Indigenous people, which is what, unfortunately, this bill does. It gives a particular group of Indigenous people some right of veto over a particular declaration, but not over all developments of their land. Our reading of it is that it also means it gives a group of people the right of veto over a declaration in a particular area. If there is more development they cannot exercise that right. It also then overrides the rights of other people, for example, further down the catchment area, who have their traditional lands. Once the group has made a decision, the next group cannot make a decision. In other words, that group’s rights have been overtaken. That is our reading of the bill. There are very concerning aspects in this bill in that it does not coincide with the requirements under the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to which I am very pleased to say Australia is a signatory.

These are the issues we believe need to be looked at because we believe there are significant problems in this bill, including that it fails to differentiate between the rights of different groups of traditional owners in relation to decision making concerning a river basin or floodplain and, as I said, that it impacts on other groups. We believe this bill has very major problems. We also believe that it needs to be sent to a committee so we will be supporting the second reading amendment. We believe these issues need to be looked at. They are new issues that have come up since the bill last went through this place. (Time expired)