Dr LIM - 2000-10-10
My question further goes to the honesty and integrity of the Leader of the Opposition. Last month the Leader of the Opposition issued a press release claiming the Northern Territory government was responsible for the downturn in exploration expenditure in the Northern Territory. Can the minister please advise the House whether this extraordinary assertion can be justified.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it is a good question. It goes to the heart, I suppose, of political debate on native title in Australia. There has indeed been a dramatic and most unfortunate decline in exploration expenditure in the Northern Territory. But the Leader of the Opposition’s release is a knee-jerk reaction to her sudden discovery of something the government and the mining industry have known about and anticipated for over four years. She could have looked more deeply into the figures than she did. But knee-jerk reactions are rarely the best basis for public statements.
National mineral exploration figures show that the downturn is not confined to the Northern Territory. Exploration has fallen in Australia by 30% over the same period and far from being in the worse position, the Northern Territory ranks third in the value of exploration dollars spent in Australia. For example, in Queensland, the Labor state, recently lauded for getting its alternative procedures through the Senate, the value of exploration has fallen from $181m to $82.6m. A fall of 54% in the Labor state which is held up by the Leader of the Opposition as ‘this is how you do it’.
The Opposition Leader’s release, dated 7 September 2000, goes on to state, and I will just quote this: ‘Her condemnation came as the government finally announced it would begin to process exploration applications under the Federal Native Title Act’. The government announced on 22 March that we were going to process exploration and mining titles using the Right to Negotiate Procedures of the Commonwealth’s Native Title Act. That was nearly six months ago and it has taken the Leader of the Opposition this long to catch up with that fact. Six months - I mean that is not bad for her I suppose. At least it was something that we did say was going to happen and she did not make that up. Very unusual.
She does correctly note in her press release that there were over 900 title applications outstanding in the Northern Territory and a little research would indicate that the Northern Territory’s backlog compares very favourably to other jurisdictions. For example, at the end of May this year Queensland – great Labor state doing it the right way - had 1820 titles outstanding. Western Australia which has been using the procedures under the Native Title Act – there are the procedures the Leader of the Opposition says will fix it all if you just run along this way, everything will be hunky dory - Western Australia has been using those procedures ever since the act came into existence. There are 7990 exploration and mining titles held up under the Commonwealth system. Almost 8000 and she says that this is the way we should go. This is the way Labor would go and this is how you will fix it.
Based on these figures it is pretty obvious why the Northern Territory government tried to set up our own alternative procedures. A blind man could see it. In fact, even the opposition could see it because they supported in this parliament those alternative procedures because they knew they were fair and they knew they would work. But what happened? Their Canberra masters got hold of it, got on the phone and said ‘Whoops, made a blue here Clare, not following the old Labor Party rules here’. It does not matter if it is good for the Territory. ‘Oh no Clare, don’t you do anything good. You just follow our rules’ and so she just rolled over and then suddenly sings about the Commonwealth system. Disgraceful! Absolutely disgraceful – and then to stand up here and criticise the Territory government, what a hypocritical act!
The Territory Labor Party conspired with their masters in Canberra. They torpedoed our legislative alternative procedures and they sent us down a route which they know has not worked in other jurisdictions. But we will continue to work in good faith with land councils and the mining industry to achieve greater outcomes for all stakeholders. But we reject, utterly, the Leader of the Opposition’s pathetic attempts to rewrite history and history has shown that she, her Northern Territory and federal cronies, sold the mining industry. They sold them out for political gain and it is only for political gain, and all the press releases in the world and all the pious claims will not change that.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it is a good question. It goes to the heart, I suppose, of political debate on native title in Australia. There has indeed been a dramatic and most unfortunate decline in exploration expenditure in the Northern Territory. But the Leader of the Opposition’s release is a knee-jerk reaction to her sudden discovery of something the government and the mining industry have known about and anticipated for over four years. She could have looked more deeply into the figures than she did. But knee-jerk reactions are rarely the best basis for public statements.
National mineral exploration figures show that the downturn is not confined to the Northern Territory. Exploration has fallen in Australia by 30% over the same period and far from being in the worse position, the Northern Territory ranks third in the value of exploration dollars spent in Australia. For example, in Queensland, the Labor state, recently lauded for getting its alternative procedures through the Senate, the value of exploration has fallen from $181m to $82.6m. A fall of 54% in the Labor state which is held up by the Leader of the Opposition as ‘this is how you do it’.
The Opposition Leader’s release, dated 7 September 2000, goes on to state, and I will just quote this: ‘Her condemnation came as the government finally announced it would begin to process exploration applications under the Federal Native Title Act’. The government announced on 22 March that we were going to process exploration and mining titles using the Right to Negotiate Procedures of the Commonwealth’s Native Title Act. That was nearly six months ago and it has taken the Leader of the Opposition this long to catch up with that fact. Six months - I mean that is not bad for her I suppose. At least it was something that we did say was going to happen and she did not make that up. Very unusual.
She does correctly note in her press release that there were over 900 title applications outstanding in the Northern Territory and a little research would indicate that the Northern Territory’s backlog compares very favourably to other jurisdictions. For example, at the end of May this year Queensland – great Labor state doing it the right way - had 1820 titles outstanding. Western Australia which has been using the procedures under the Native Title Act – there are the procedures the Leader of the Opposition says will fix it all if you just run along this way, everything will be hunky dory - Western Australia has been using those procedures ever since the act came into existence. There are 7990 exploration and mining titles held up under the Commonwealth system. Almost 8000 and she says that this is the way we should go. This is the way Labor would go and this is how you will fix it.
Based on these figures it is pretty obvious why the Northern Territory government tried to set up our own alternative procedures. A blind man could see it. In fact, even the opposition could see it because they supported in this parliament those alternative procedures because they knew they were fair and they knew they would work. But what happened? Their Canberra masters got hold of it, got on the phone and said ‘Whoops, made a blue here Clare, not following the old Labor Party rules here’. It does not matter if it is good for the Territory. ‘Oh no Clare, don’t you do anything good. You just follow our rules’ and so she just rolled over and then suddenly sings about the Commonwealth system. Disgraceful! Absolutely disgraceful – and then to stand up here and criticise the Territory government, what a hypocritical act!
The Territory Labor Party conspired with their masters in Canberra. They torpedoed our legislative alternative procedures and they sent us down a route which they know has not worked in other jurisdictions. But we will continue to work in good faith with land councils and the mining industry to achieve greater outcomes for all stakeholders. But we reject, utterly, the Leader of the Opposition’s pathetic attempts to rewrite history and history has shown that she, her Northern Territory and federal cronies, sold the mining industry. They sold them out for political gain and it is only for political gain, and all the press releases in the world and all the pious claims will not change that.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016