David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

We have our own bill, which will do all of that and more. But the point is this: for generations South Australian politicians have sat on their hands, not even bothering to put their hands up to go to Defence and say, 'Hang on, you can't sterilise about one-sixth of our state.' Now, after two years, Senator Farrell, quite rightly, is agitated by the delay. I am agitated by the delay. But the delay started when the previous Labor government just dillydallied after they had the Hawke report—for two years! Let us be honest about this.

The interests of the Northern Territory government and Northern Territorians in Alice Springs and Darwin are very, very important. There is a vital rail link running right through the middle of this reserve. A waiver to the regulation impact statement was granted for the previous government. The bill's terms are substantially similar to the private member's bill under debate; you virtually copied the previous bill. That is fine; I accept that. I do not criticise you in any way because I have a lot of empathy for the role and position you are taking here. But there are important considerations that are not currently in this bill, as I anticipated there would not be when I assisted in referring it to a committee.

The regulation impact statement will inform any legislative or regulatory changes the government intends to make to the administration of the Woomera Prohibited Area. Bear in mind we are talking about one of the world's premier weapons-testing ranges. There is virtually zero electromagnetic interference on this range. It is a national asset of significant importance. Existing access arrangements to the Woomera Prohibited Area have been in place in their current form since 1989 and are administered under Defence Force Regulations 1952. The bill, as drafted, applies to new users seeking access to that area. New users are users who would not have access permission under the Defence Force Regulations at the time the bill comes into force. Those who have existing access permission under the Defence Force Regulations are referred to as 'existing users'. They include existing pastoralists, Indigenous groups—and I pause to say that South Australia has its own native title regime, which is a very important consideration in this that the previous legislation did not seek to address—the Tarcoola to Darwin railway owner and operators, and the four existing mines. These users will continue to access the protected area under their existing arrangements that include leases, deeds and other permissions provided under the Defence Force Regulations.

Indigenous groups and the railway owner and operators have all raised significant concerns, both with me and more generally, about their existing arrangements and their status under any new legislation. Now what we are talking about is a right for Defence to say that for a period of 70 days, and it is unclear as to whether that is consecutive days or groups of seven days or anything else, the railway line should not operate while testing is underway. That is an unsatisfactory circumstance. Alice Springs and Darwin depend—