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Federal Government aiming to steamroll controversial changes to Land Rights laws through the Senate this coming Tuesday!!

!! Urgent Action Alert !! from Senator Bartlett (Australian Democrats)

4 August 2006 - All parties, including the federal government, recognise that the Land Rights laws for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory are of fundamental importance. They were introduced in the early years of the Fraser government and have received broad cross-party support since that time.

However, legislation making major changes to the Land Rights Act, which was only unveiled at the end of May, is scheduled to be pushed through the Senate when it resumes this coming Tuesday, August 8th.

The government allowed only an extremely rushed Senate Committee Inquiry. Even the Government Senators on the Committee described the time made available for the Inquiry as "totally inadequate".

However, even this very truncated process showed there are clearly very serious concerns and misgivings about some of the changes amongst Traditional Owners and some of the Territory Land Councils.

 While there are also some changes within the legislation that have broad support, all non-government submissions provided to the Senate Inquiry identified areas of major concern, including the submission from the Australian Mining Council.

The submission of the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner expressed very strong concerns about the lack of consultation with the Indigenous people who will be directly affected by the changes, as well as with the likely impact of some of the changes.

Evidence provided to the Inquiry on the single day public hearings were able to be held also made it very clear that there has been no meaningful consultation with the people whose land ownership rights will be directly affected by many of the changes.

An attempt will be made in the Senate to split the legislation to allow the non-contentious changes aimed at improving the workability of the existing Land Rights law to be passed straight away; while deferring the contentious aspects so consultation and negotiation with affected parties, including traditional owners, can take place.

If you share my view that the contentious changes proposed to this critical area of law must not proceed without genuine consultation and informed consent from Traditional Owners and Land Councils, please urgently contact your Liberal and National Senators, asking them to support efforts to allow proper consultation with Indigenous people to take place on the contentious aspects of this legislation before they are passed into law.

My most serious concern is the lack of consultation with the people who will be directly affected by the changes, and the total lack of respect shown by this approach. If it the changes had the informed consent of traditional owners, I would support the legislation even if I had personal misgivings.

However, some of the specific components of the legislation itself which do concern me include:

• the potential for governments to be able pressure Aboriginal people to sign over their land to the government on 99 year leases;

• the fact that the rent payments on such leases will come straight out of the Aboriginal Benefits Account, meaning in effect that money that was already going to be spent for the benefit of local Aboriginal people will now be used on paying the rent on Aboriginal land;

• greater powers for the federal Minister to override Land Council decisions, reduce funding to Land Councils and to enable smaller Land Councils to be set up even when a significant proportion of traditional owners may be opposed to this happening;

• the automatic wiping out of a number of current land claims, (and the potential economic opportunities that go with them), that cover intertidal zones not contiguous with Aboriginal land - including a number which have already been recommend for granting by the Land Commissioner who assesses claims.

You can read the legislation and related information by clicking here. All of the submissions to the Inquiry can be viewed here, and the transcript of the hearings can be found here. The full report is available here. My own comments in the Senate Committee report can be read here.

Senator Andrew Bartlett

Please urgently join the camapign

Don't let the sun set on Indigenous land rights

related links :

• Postpone the passage of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act Bill
  11 August 2006 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma has grave concerns about the amendments to the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (Northern Territory) 1976, which is currently being debated in the Senate.
• Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Committee Inquiry into the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment Bill 2006

Further information: native title issues page - includes news index and external links