Ms CARTER - 2000-11-29
The Northern Land Council recently lodged a complaint with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in an effort to stop the Territory government processing mineral exploration applications on non-Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory. Can the minister confirm that the NLC yesterday filed an action against the Territory government in the Federal Court of Australia? If so, what is the nature of this action and what are its implications for mining in the Northern Territory?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, indeed I can confirm that the Northern Land Council lawyers yesterday filed in the Federal Court an application for a restraining order against the Northern Territory government. The Northern Land Council seeks to restrain the government from processing applications for exploration and mining in relation to land or waters which are not Aboriginal land under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act. It wants the restraining order to remain in force until the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has made a decision about the Northern Land Council’s complaint to the Commission. The Federal Court in Sydney will hear the restraining order next Wednesday.
So here we are. This is the Commonwealth Native Title Act in action. This is the act the Labor Party, the Democrats and the land councils said was the way to go. This is the act that the Labor Party and the Leader of the Opposition said would resolve the question of mining on land that might be affected by native title. This is the law they all wanted, including the Territory Labor Party spokeswoman, the member for Fannie Bay. Remember what she said: ‘This is the way to go’. They told everyone: ‘You can trust us. We will all work together in good faith to deal with the issues and everything will be fine’.
Members interjecting.
Mr MANZIE: They interject to try and prevent the community being reminded of the way they have behaved on this issue.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! We are getting too much interjection. Just keep it down. You have every opportunity to ask questions. You have lots of opportunities to speak. Now, please keep the interjections to a minimum.
Mr MANZIE: This is all on the record, Mr Speaker. This is available to people in the Hansard.They can look up the website and read the quotes of the member for Fannie Bay, leader of the local Labor Party, on how they treated this issue and how they were champions of this act. Labor rejected our alternative procedure in favour of proceeding down the path provided in the Commonwealth act. They rejected it.
Mr Ah Kit interjecting.
Mr MANZIE: The member for Arnhem now interjects. We have him on the record in this Hansard. Every time this matter is brought up he stands up and says the Commonwealth act is the way to go, we can all work together and this will all solve our problems, time after time. Now he has the audacity to say: ‘I wash my hands of it. It wasn’t me’. He can’t get away with it. His hands are dirtier than anyone else’s in this matter. He is complicit in what is going on in this country.
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Mr Speaker. We will have to turn the microphones down a bit.
Mr SPEAKER: There is no point of order. It is a bit cute for the member for Nhulunbuy to complain about the level of somebody else’s voice.
Mr MANZIE: We knew that the land councils would have trouble dealing with the backlog of applications. So, rather than release them all at once, we started to do so in a very controlled manner. But the NLC has not even attempted to deal with the applications.
They think it is a joke. This is pretty sad. They think it is a joke. They think that Territorians and Australians should have to suffer. They don’t want to hear. I will have to speak a bit louder because of the continual interjections of the Labor members who want to keep this from the community. But this story is going to get out.
Instead of seeking to maximise opportunities for Aboriginal people to benefit from mining, the land council is busy playing politics in conjunction with the Labor Party. The NLC has plenty of time to hold media conferences, to reel out complaints to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, and now waste valuable time and resources in the courts, but it claims not to have enough time to do its job of identifying native title claimants on pastoral land subject to mineral exploration license applications.
The Wik decision of 1996 determined that native title would coexist with pastoral leases. Yet the NLC has apparently been unable - or more likely unwilling - since that time to identify native title holders on pastoral properties in the Northern Territory. Details of exploration applications on pastoral leases have been freely available to the NLC since that time. It has had plenty of time to act on behalf of Aboriginal communities with an interest in their applications. What have they done? They have actively lobbied the Labor Party to reject the Territory government’s alternative procedures for dealing with native title. It is pretty easy to lobby this mob. They will probably in turn find out that they will lobby the NLC to get into it. They did that knowing that it would mean we would have to deal through the Commonwealth process. In other words the NLC and the Labor Party got what it wanted, but now the NLC is complaining that it does not have the time or the resources to do its job.
The NLC’s application to the Federal Court is all-embracing. It affects not only pastoral leases but all non-Aboriginal land and waters, and it will impact not only on onshore exploration and mining but also on offshore oil and gas exploration and development. Yet for all of this, the NLC claims to be concerned about the damage being caused to the mining industry by protracted delays in exploration licence applications. The NLC words are in stark contrast to its actions. They are not acting in the best interests of the mining industry or in the wider interest of the Northern Territory. Worst of all, the NLC is acting against the best interests of the Territory Aboriginal communities it is required to represent. This is the ultimate bad act of faith by the Northern Land Council.
On behalf of all Territorians, the government will certainly be defending this outrageous NLC action in court, and we will also make sure those actions are looked at very closely by the Commonwealth, which administers the legislation that established the NLC in the first place.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, indeed I can confirm that the Northern Land Council lawyers yesterday filed in the Federal Court an application for a restraining order against the Northern Territory government. The Northern Land Council seeks to restrain the government from processing applications for exploration and mining in relation to land or waters which are not Aboriginal land under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act. It wants the restraining order to remain in force until the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has made a decision about the Northern Land Council’s complaint to the Commission. The Federal Court in Sydney will hear the restraining order next Wednesday.
So here we are. This is the Commonwealth Native Title Act in action. This is the act the Labor Party, the Democrats and the land councils said was the way to go. This is the act that the Labor Party and the Leader of the Opposition said would resolve the question of mining on land that might be affected by native title. This is the law they all wanted, including the Territory Labor Party spokeswoman, the member for Fannie Bay. Remember what she said: ‘This is the way to go’. They told everyone: ‘You can trust us. We will all work together in good faith to deal with the issues and everything will be fine’.
Members interjecting.
Mr MANZIE: They interject to try and prevent the community being reminded of the way they have behaved on this issue.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! We are getting too much interjection. Just keep it down. You have every opportunity to ask questions. You have lots of opportunities to speak. Now, please keep the interjections to a minimum.
Mr MANZIE: This is all on the record, Mr Speaker. This is available to people in the Hansard.They can look up the website and read the quotes of the member for Fannie Bay, leader of the local Labor Party, on how they treated this issue and how they were champions of this act. Labor rejected our alternative procedure in favour of proceeding down the path provided in the Commonwealth act. They rejected it.
Mr Ah Kit interjecting.
Mr MANZIE: The member for Arnhem now interjects. We have him on the record in this Hansard. Every time this matter is brought up he stands up and says the Commonwealth act is the way to go, we can all work together and this will all solve our problems, time after time. Now he has the audacity to say: ‘I wash my hands of it. It wasn’t me’. He can’t get away with it. His hands are dirtier than anyone else’s in this matter. He is complicit in what is going on in this country.
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Mr Speaker. We will have to turn the microphones down a bit.
Mr SPEAKER: There is no point of order. It is a bit cute for the member for Nhulunbuy to complain about the level of somebody else’s voice.
Mr MANZIE: We knew that the land councils would have trouble dealing with the backlog of applications. So, rather than release them all at once, we started to do so in a very controlled manner. But the NLC has not even attempted to deal with the applications.
They think it is a joke. This is pretty sad. They think it is a joke. They think that Territorians and Australians should have to suffer. They don’t want to hear. I will have to speak a bit louder because of the continual interjections of the Labor members who want to keep this from the community. But this story is going to get out.
Instead of seeking to maximise opportunities for Aboriginal people to benefit from mining, the land council is busy playing politics in conjunction with the Labor Party. The NLC has plenty of time to hold media conferences, to reel out complaints to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, and now waste valuable time and resources in the courts, but it claims not to have enough time to do its job of identifying native title claimants on pastoral land subject to mineral exploration license applications.
The Wik decision of 1996 determined that native title would coexist with pastoral leases. Yet the NLC has apparently been unable - or more likely unwilling - since that time to identify native title holders on pastoral properties in the Northern Territory. Details of exploration applications on pastoral leases have been freely available to the NLC since that time. It has had plenty of time to act on behalf of Aboriginal communities with an interest in their applications. What have they done? They have actively lobbied the Labor Party to reject the Territory government’s alternative procedures for dealing with native title. It is pretty easy to lobby this mob. They will probably in turn find out that they will lobby the NLC to get into it. They did that knowing that it would mean we would have to deal through the Commonwealth process. In other words the NLC and the Labor Party got what it wanted, but now the NLC is complaining that it does not have the time or the resources to do its job.
The NLC’s application to the Federal Court is all-embracing. It affects not only pastoral leases but all non-Aboriginal land and waters, and it will impact not only on onshore exploration and mining but also on offshore oil and gas exploration and development. Yet for all of this, the NLC claims to be concerned about the damage being caused to the mining industry by protracted delays in exploration licence applications. The NLC words are in stark contrast to its actions. They are not acting in the best interests of the mining industry or in the wider interest of the Northern Territory. Worst of all, the NLC is acting against the best interests of the Territory Aboriginal communities it is required to represent. This is the ultimate bad act of faith by the Northern Land Council.
On behalf of all Territorians, the government will certainly be defending this outrageous NLC action in court, and we will also make sure those actions are looked at very closely by the Commonwealth, which administers the legislation that established the NLC in the first place.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016