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

Today I would like to speak about land theft and how it continues to this very day. The ongoing theft and exploitation of our land should worry everyone who believes in justice and self-determination for First Peoples. Connecting to and protecting country is our birthright and a cultural responsibility for us as First Peoples.

Right now, the Albanese government is preparing to sell off Defence land—land that was already stolen from First Peoples to meet so-called current and future capability needs. Long before our lands became military bases and training grounds, they were places of ceremony, connection, song, dance and culture for over 500 clan groups with over 250 languages and dialects, with their own law and governance, spiritual beliefs and kinship systems. Defence is calculating its profit from this defence estate sale to be $1.8 billion and is planning to put this profit into ADF capability. Our land is being stolen all over again, with the profits intended to feed the war machine. We do not consent.

In this whole process, consultation with traditional owners is being bypassed or is, at best, a procedural tick-a-box. There is no free, prior and informed consent. Even when the government goes out there to conduct so-called consultation, there is no final say for our people over what happens next to their land. This is the opposite of self-determination, Labor. And—no surprise here—not once was consideration given to land back. Not once was it considered that the land stolen from us should be given back to us or at least be used to benefit our people. This is the continuation of dispossession and oppression of our people and of the genocide and ecocide occurring on these lands.