Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank senators for their contribution to this debate on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Amendment (Indigenous Land Corporation) Bill 2018. This bill represents a significant step forward in Australia's land rights journey. I'm immensely proud that the government has brought forward this legislation. The Indigenous Land Corporation was established as part of the government's response to the High Court's decision in Mabo No. 2. The Indigenous Land Corporation was established to assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations to acquire land and manage Indigenous-held land to provide economic, environmental, social and cultural benefits for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This is in recognition that many Indigenous people will be unable to benefit under the Native Title Act 1993, principally through dispossession not allowing them to be able to demonstrate continued connection with country.

Developments in native title case law following the establishment of the Indigenous Land Corporation have clarified that common law is capable of recognising native title rights in relation to water. These developments in the law acknowledged that, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, land and water are inseparable parts of country. Whenever I was able to be with Aboriginal people, wherever I was, there was a notion, from my very earliest connection, of sea country or saltwater country and saltwater people. That very strong connection wasn't reflected in a Westminster approach to the sea or the ocean particularly. The Westminster system said that it ended at the high-water mark and whatever was seaward of that was common property, or some notion of the like.

This bill amends the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Act 2005 to extend the functions of the Indigenous Land Corporation to include all of those water related rights. It allows the Indigenous Land Corporation to acquire and divest water related rights to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations in the same way that it currently is able to acquire and divest land. The bill also enables the Indigenous Land Corporation to carry out management activities in relation to Indigenous water or waters in which the Indigenous Land Corporation has water related rights.

The bill further enables the Indigenous Land Corporation to provide assistance in the form of grants, loans and guarantees for the purpose of management activities in relation to Indigenous waters. In the same way as the ILC can acquire a property—invariably because that property could never be acquired through the native title process, because of dispossession—it can also acquire and take interest in, for example, fishing rights. If you're going to use a pastoral lease, you need to keep the cows in one place, so you need infrastructure like fences or yards. In the same way, if you want to manage, utilise or harvest fish, you need jetties, boats and those sorts of things.

The bill also renames the Indigenous Land Corporation the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation to reflect the expansion of its remit now to include saltwater and freshwater country. These reforms follow extensive consultation with Indigenous stakeholders. A clear majority of stakeholders support these changes to expand the remit to include freshwater and saltwater country. We've listened and we've acted. By expanding the roles of the Indigenous Land Corporation, this government is realising its commitment to improving the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. I thank senators for their contributions and for their assistance in formulating this bill. I commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.