Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great sadness that I rise in this chamber today to contribute to what I think is a divisive and hurtful argument. In 1996 I had the honour of being a member of the Cape York Regional Advis­ory Group, an organisation that was established to work with Indigenous pe­ople—with landowners, with the graziers of the cape and with the environmental groups of Cape York Peninsula. That started in 1996. That produced a document called the Cape York Peninsula land use strategy. It had three objectives: to promote the econ­omic values of Cape York; to improve the social outcomes for people who live on Cape York Peninsula; and to protect the environment of Cape York Peninsula. It was a fine document. It is a document that everyone who worked on that document was extremely proud of—and it has gone nowhere. It has gone nowhere and the people of Cape York are the victims of what happens in chambers like this, what happens around the place when people do not consider the outcomes of what people want on Cape York Peninsula, when politicians get involved in what people really want. What do people really want in Cape York? They want jobs, they want an economic outcome, they want a social outcome, they want to have control over their lands. What is happening here today does nothing to change that objective. In fact, what this bill does is increase the complexity and delay the outcome even more. I think every speaker in this argument today—this discussion in the committee stage today—has talked about complexity. Of course it is complex to deal with the issues that we deal with on a day-to-day basis in Cape York Peninsula, but this bill does nothing to improve those outcomes. In my view, it in fact puts us back.

I do go to the comments of Senator Brandis. Senator Brandis talked a lot about the law. Can I suggest that we will end up talking in courts and in places outside Cape York Peninsula for a very long time if this piece of legislation is progressed, because there will be debate about the consti­tutionality of this legislation, about whether or not it can affect the Queensland legislation and about whether or not it does improve outcomes for people who live on Cape York Peninsula. Why is it that we want to play with the lives of people who live on Cape York over and over?

There were fine words from Senator Scullion in talking about aspirations. I agree with most of what you said, Senator Scullion, except that your way of getting there should not be through a flimsy piece of legislation that in my view is about division. This is not about pulling people together. This is not about finding a way forward. The wild rivers legislation, we all know, had some very difficult consultation beginnings. We know that. That is a fact. Queensland knows that it could have done a better job of consulting with people. It has remedied that, and I acknowledge the work of Senator Fielding in ensuring that that process has been improved. But we know we have to work with people on the ground. This will provide division. Rivers traverse large numbers of traditionally owned lands. You know that, Senator Scullion, and you know that this will divide traditional owners and pit them against one another. This will pit traditional owners against one another. This is not about bringing groups of people together; this is division, and this will mean that we entrench that division that has been delivered by this discussion already.

We have talked about the different points of view that are held by people on Cape York, and there are totally different points of view. But that is why we have to get down to some facts. I think that the whole wild rivers debate has been characterised by a lot of conjecture. It is about argument making and, in many cases, it can be described as being hyperbole.