Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The whole point of consultation is that communities should be well enough informed so that they can make a judgment before they consent to certain measures. Yes, parliament makes laws that govern the country; but, when you go to issues of Indigenous rights and the right to self-determination, you are effectively saying that communities have not been properly consulted—that the principle of free, prior and informed consent has been set aside and that this parliament is going to legislate to impose upon Indigenous communities a set of governance rules which are going to dominate them for the next 10 years against their free, prior and informed consent.