Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

ator CHISHOLM (—Assistant Minister for Education, Assistant Minister for Regional Development and Deputy Manager of Government Business in the Senate) (): I move:

That these bills be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speeches read as follows—

ABORIGINAL LAND GRANT (JERVIS BAY TERRITORY) AMENDMENT (STRENGTHENING LAND AND GOVERNANCE PROVISIONS) BILL 2022

The Australian Government has worked with the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community Council and the broader Wreck Bay community over a number of years to co-design the Aboriginal Land Grant (Jervis Bay Territory) Amendment (Strengthening Land and Governance Provisions) Bill 2022, with the most recent consultations on the detail of the Bill in August this year. The Bill will:

The Wreck Bay community is located in the Jervis Bay Territory, on the southern New South Wales coast, 126 kilometres east of Canberra. The Jervis Bay Territory was formally established in 1915, on the land of the Bherwerre Peninsula, through the enactment of the Jervis Bay Territory Acceptance Act 1915. Of course, First Nations people had been living in the area since long before that time, and never agreed to the surrender of these lands. Middens on the Bherwerre Peninsula provide evidence of thousands of generations of First Nations occupation of the area.

During the 1960s and 1970s, members of the community advocated for the recognition of their connection to their land in Australian law. This advocacy culminated in the enactment of the Aboriginal Land Grant (Jervis Bay Territory) Act 1986. The Act established the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community Council to hold title to Aboriginal Land in the Jervis Bay Territory, to manage that land for the benefit of the community, and to advocate for and serve the community more generally. There have been three declarations of Aboriginal Land since 1987. Today, more than 90 per cent of the land in the Jervis Bay Territory is Aboriginal Land owned and managed by the Council. Much of that land is Booderee National Park, which is leased back to the Director of National Parks and is jointly managed by the Council and the Director of National Parks.

This Bill ensures that the Council is well positioned to hold and manage this land for the benefit of the Council's members for generations to come.

The Bill enhances local control over decision making by increasing the amount the Council can agree to spend under a contract without obtaining Ministerial approval. This amount will increase from $100,000 to $1 million, empowering the Council to pursue commercial ventures without having to navigate unnecessary red tape.

The Bill assists the Council to issue home ownership style leases to individuals in the community. If community members wish to do so, they will be able to take out a home ownership style lease. This will simplify arrangements for long-term leasing and provide opportunity for community members to enjoy the intergenerational benefits of home ownership.

The Bill strengthens the Council's governance structures, aligning them more closely with those of comparable corporate Commonwealth entities. The powers of the Council will be vested in the Board; until now, the Council's members have had to delegate powers to the Board, creating uncertainty within the Council. The Board and the Chief Executive Officer will be explicitly empowered to delegate functions and powers so the Council can function effectively. The Bill also ensures only fit and proper persons may serve on the Board, and changes quorum requirements from set numbers to percentages of overall members, ensuring responsiveness to changes in overall membership numbers.

Importantly, the Bill updates the title of the Act to the "Aboriginal Land and Waters (Jervis Bay Territory) Act 1986". This name reflects the Council's ownership of an area of the waters of Jervis Bay, as well as freshwater sources across the Jervis Bay Territory. It recognises the community's strong connection to waters as well as land, and the importance of the Act in supporting that enduring connection into the future.

The Government's Closing the Gap commitment to shared decision-making has guided the development of these reforms. Targeted co-design sessions were held in 2020 and 2021, including with the Council's Board, men's and women's groups, subcommittees, elders, youth, and the broader membership. Some reforms were proposed by the community, others were suggested by Government, and every reform in this Bill has been explicitly endorsed by the Board.

I acknowledge the work that occurred under the former Minister for Indigenous Australians, the Honourable Ken Wyatt, in progressing this important work with the Wreck Bay community.

The Government sincerely thanks the Council for its work in the co-design of this Bill. In particular, we acknowledge the leadership of Annette Brown and Julie Moore, who have chaired the Council during the co-design process.

The Council's work honours the longstanding tradition of community service and representation in Wreck Bay. Those who advocated for land rights in the late twentieth century paved the way for the present generation to maintain their deep connection to their land and waters. This Bill ensures that the Wreck Bay community will continue to live their culture through this enduring connection for generations to come.

I commend this Bill to the chamber.

ANIMAL HEALTH AUSTRALIA AND PLANT HEALTH AUSTRALIA FUNDING LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL 2022

Maintaining Australia's strong biosecurity status ensures our food security and protects agricultural trade.

This can only be achieved through a strong government-industry partnership.

One of the many ways this partnership takes effect is through the work of Animal Health Australia and Plant Health Australia.

Through these bodies, the Australian Government partners with state and territory governments and a number of livestock and plant industry bodies to further our shared biosecurity interests and ensure Australia's world class produce remains in high demand.

Incursions of exotic animal diseases or plant pests into Australia are relatively rare, but they do have serious potential impacts.

Detections of foot and mouth disease and lumpy skin disease in one of our nearest neighbouring nations has had the government and livestock industries on high alert.

The government has taken immediate action to prevent these diseases from entering Australia, implementing the strongest biosecurity response in our nation's history.

This includes our three-pronged approach of supporting Indonesia's response to both diseases with animal vaccinations and technical support, stronger measures at the border and increased preparedness here at home.

Because, the risk of incursion cannot be entirely mitigated.

This is why governments and industry bodies partner as signatories to the Emergency Animal Disease Response Agreement and Emergency Plant Pest Response Deed.

If the worst should happen and an exotic animal disease or plant pest should make its way into Australia, emergency eradication responses are mounted and cost-shared under these deeds to give the best possible chance of eradication.

Government and industry investment can avoid significant pest or disease management cost to our producers in the long run.

Over the past few years, under these emergency response arrangements, we have been able to eradicate citrus canker and three strains of avian influenza.

Varroa jacobsoni—a bee parasite—was also eradicated and we are now working to achieve the same outcome for its more problematic cousin, varroa destructor.

Four kinds of biosecurity levies provide an equitable way for all producers to contribute to the cost of the biosecurity activities and eradication responses that benefit their industry.

Animal Health Australia and Plant Health Australia levies fund activities such as biosecurity education, planning and surveillance, as well as AHA and PHA membership.

Emergency Animal Disease Response and Emergency Plant Pest Response levies primarily fund industry contributions to eradication responses.

They can also be spent on other biosecurity activities once these financial obligations are met.

An issue for Plant Health Australia member industries is that for the EPPR levy this alternative use is limited to purposes related to emergency plant pests under the plant response deed.

Increasing the flexibility in how these levies can be spent to include all plant health and biosecurity activities will increase their effectiveness.

The Bill will achieve this by broadening the range of permissible uses for these levies.

Plant industries have welcomed this change, as it will allow them to focus available funds on their industry's most pressing biosecurity needs, whether for exotic or established plant pests.

However, meeting response costs remains crucial—it is the main purpose for emergency response levies—and the Bill will not change that.

This Bill will also modernise and streamline the AHA and PHA funding legislation, including by removing redundant or duplicative provisions.

For example, a complex provision for funding biosecurity-related research and development activities through PHA levies will be removed in favour of using PHA's more straightforward industry planning processes.

The Bill will also simplify the process by which the relevant PHA industry member for a specific biosecurity levy is determined.

This will reduce regulatory and administrative burden.

Honey bees provide valuable pollination services to a myriad of plant industries and the honey industry's biosecurity activities are now characterised as plant biosecurity.

Therefore, references to honey in the AHA Act can now be removed.

The Bill will also allow the AHA Act to facilitate the levy arrangements that are likely to be needed if other response deeds are agreed.

Each of these changes will make the AHA and PHA funding legislation more effective, efficient and fit for purpose.

This will strengthen the ability of industries to invest meaningfully in biosecurity and help maintain Australia's enviable position as a world-class agricultural producer and exporter.

Debate adjourned.

Ordered that the bills be listed on the Notice Paper as separate orders of the day.