Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move amendments (1) and (2) on sheet 1510 together.

Leave granted.

I move:

(1) Clause 2, page 2 (table item 4), omit the table item.

We also oppose schedule 2 in the following terms:

(2) Schedule 2, page 47 (line 1) to page 60 (line 6), to be opposed.

I seek the Senate's support for my amendment which would remove the streamlining for mining destruction on country in schedule 2. The Australian Greens can't support the bill unless schedule 2 is taken out. The Australian Greens will not act against the interests of traditional owners, of land and water defenders, of our environment, of country, land, water and sky. Schedule 2 gives land councils too much decision-making power and flexibility. We will not do it. We have not seen any evidence of free, prior and informed consent. The land councils are not representative of all traditional owners. In fact, in some instances, the land councils are only representatives of themselves. Listen to the people.

I stood outside this place this morning with Ms Burney, the Labor member for Barton. We stood side by side, supporting traditional owners and their fight to protect our heritage. I thank Ms Burney for being there this morning and for her staunch words about protecting culture and First Nations heritage. She said: 'What's absolutely fundamental is free, prior and informed consent.' And I have to say that this is a priority for Labor. Cultural heritage is a living thing; it's not static. And Labor will enter into a proper consultation process. I agree with the member for Barton: free, prior and informed consent is what we need. I could not have said it better. Labor saying one thing on the lawns to the media and voting a completely different way in this chamber is why people don't trust them. We can do the right thing. We can do it today, right here right now. Vote in here like you said out there you were going to vote. Do the right thing by the people.

Yingiya 'Mark' Guyula, the member for Mulka in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, wrote a submission to the inquiry into this bill. He wrote:

I have now spoken widely to elders and leaders in my electorate and they do not know about any changes to the ALRA. I have also spoken to members of the Land Councils from my own electorate and more broadly across the regions, and they have advised that they do not know the detail of the Bill.

The Australian Human Rights Commission asked the committee looking into this bill for more time and said:

Our key recommendation is that the Committee should request a significantly longer time frame for the Inquiry in order to properly consider the Bill and ensure that the amendments have the genuine free prior and informed consent (FPIC) of the Aboriginal Territorians who will be impacted, including but not limited to Traditional Owners.

Staunch defender of country Rikki Dank wrote in her submission:

Thanks, but NO THANKS!

The proposed amendments to the Aboriginal Land Right Act do nothing more than to further erode the already meagre rights of First Nations in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia. They masquerade as 'progressive' legislation when, in fact, they represent a reincarnation of successive waves of colonial policy initiatives designed to usurp Our rights and transfer them to the Settlers.

Do you know who wants this bill? The Minerals Council of Australia. Do you know why? So they can extract and steal even more profit while destroying country, culture and songlines. That should tell you everything you need to know about who this bill is really meant to serve.

The Australian Greens cannot support the bill unless schedule 2 is removed. It's as simple as that. Please think about free, prior and informed consent every time you look at your dot paintings and every time you come to a rally and scream out 'black lives matter'. Thank you.