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

Thank you, Acting Deputy—black—President. Aboriginal land and our people were stolen, and we want our land back. Not joint management—joint management is not our land back; it's mission management. 'Land back' means exactly what it says—land back. Widjabul Wiyabal mob have been fighting for their sacred Banyam Baigham site to be handed back. Last year, Lismore City councillors voted 7-1 to hand land back. Shame on that one single councillor trying to stop handing land back to its rightful owners!

Elders are sick of justifying and debating their very existence. Land is part of our health and wellbeing as First People. Thanks, Lismore City Council, for truth and justice and real action. My message to Lismore City Council is simple: your allyship is appreciated and welcomed.

I want to pay my respects to all our old people and our warriors of the resistance who have been fighting to get our land back for over 200 years, particularly Uncle Mickey in Lismore. Uncle Mickey has made it very, very clear that the only way for the site to be protected is to return the land. Returning land to it rightful owners is the right thing to do. After all, it's stolen land. We just want our land back. So give it back!