Division Description Changes — Matters of Urgency — Native Title — 24th Jun 2024

Change	Division
senate vote 2024-06-24#1 Edited by mackay staff on 2024-07-03 15:41:12	Title ~~Matters of Urgency — Native Title~~ Matters of Urgency - Native Title - Great Keppel Island Description ~~<p class="speaker">Helen Polley</p>~~ ~~<p>I inform the Senate that Senator Roberts has submitted a proposal under standing order 75, shown at item 16 of today's Order of Business:</p>~~ The majority voted against a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2024-06-24.123.2) introduced by Queensland Senator [Malcolm Roberts](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/senate/queensland/malcolm_roberts) (One Nation) ### Motion text > That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency: > *> The Native Title system in Australia is critically flaw*ed and perpetuates discrimination. A new claim has been lodged by the Woppaburra people for exclusive use over an additional 2,249 acres of Great Keppel Island, despite a prior Federal Court ruling extinguishing Native Title over significant portions of the island, with the effect of potentially closing Great Keppel Island to non-Aboriginal Australians. This situation exemplifies why there is urgent need for a thorough overhaul of Native Title laws to prevent misuse and ensure equal treatment for all Australians regardless of race <p class="italic">The Native Title system in Australia is critically flawed and perpetuates discrimination. A new claim has been lodged by the Woppaburra people for exclusive use over an additional 2,249 acres of Great Keppel Island, despite a prior Federal Court ruling extinguishing Native Title over significant portions of the island, with the effect of potentially closing Great Keppel Island to non-Aboriginal Australians. This situation exemplifies why there is urgent need for a thorough overhaul of Native Title laws to prevent misuse and ensure equal treatment for all Australians regardless of race</p> ~~<p>Is the proposal supported?</p>~~ ~~<p class="italic"> <i>More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—</i></p>~~ ~~<p class="speaker">Malcolm Roberts</p>~~ ~~<p>I move:</p>~~ ~~<p class="italic">That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:</p>~~ <p class="italic">The Native Title system in Australia is critically flawed and perpetuates discrimination. A new claim has been lodged by the Woppaburra people for exclusive use over an additional 2,249 acres of Great Keppel Island, despite a prior Federal Court ruling extinguishing Native Title over significant portions of the island, with the effect of potentially closing Great Keppel Island to non-Aboriginal Australians. This situation exemplifies why there is urgent need for a thorough overhaul of Native Title laws to prevent misuse and ensure equal treatment for all Australians regardless of race</p> <p>I rise to speak about the racial divisions that continue to be perpetrated by the Liberal-Labor uniparty and their toxic native title system. One Nation 's candidate for the Queensland seat of Keppel, James Ashby, is doing a wonderful job holding the Miles Labor government accountable for its failure to meet $30 million worth of commitments to Great Keppel Island. Further, James Ashby deserves credit for exposing the latest native title claim on the island on the weekend. This claim, if successful, would mean that 84 per cent of Great Keppel Island would be excluded from non-indigenous Australians. One of the jewels of Central Queensland and an Australian tourism icon could effectively be closed off for all time from the Australian people, from local businesses and from international visitors.</p> <p>This isn't the first time an Indigenous group has tried to close off Great Keppel Island from the rest of us by using a divisive native title claim. In 2021 the Federal Court denied a native title claim over the Great Keppel Island leases held by Tower Holdings because of pre-existing infrastructure of commercial value. One Nation calls on this latest claim to be thrown out, too, and for the Miles Labor government to honour its $30 million promise to clean up and restore Great Keppel Island. Yet we must go much further than that. We're calling for a comprehensive review of the entire native title system and a sunset clause on native title claims, because it's getting out of hand and it's excluding from any consultation on these processes the most important stakeholders of all: the Australian people.</p> <p>More than 50 per cent of Australia is now under native title claim, yet fewer than three per cent of Australians have had any say in it. The rest of us are excluded from the process. While state governments, councils and the Federal Court get a say, they almost never represent community views, because they don't ask us for our views. We're not asked, because they don't want to hear our views. This is what happened in the lead-up to the Voice referendum. There was a lot of consultation, costing a lot of taxpayer money, but only with Indigenous groups. There was none for the rest of Australia. It's one of the main reasons it was such a spectacular $450 million failure, a flop. Consultation was undertaken in an echo chamber where dissent was absent, where dissent was chastised, where dissent was suppressed. Native title claims are resolved in this sort of bubble as well—a bubble from which most Australians are always excluded, deliberately. Even those people who are specifically intended to benefit from native title are excluded from those benefits.</p> <p>I often visit remote communities in Cape York and the Northern Territory, and the No. 1 complaint from Aboriginal Australians right across Cape York and the communities I visited in the Northern Territory is the inability of Aboriginals to get land title while unaccountable land councils act as robber barons building fiefdoms. This was expressed to me again by Aboriginal elders who'd heard I was visiting Maryborough and Gympie last week and came to see me and attended a forum I hosted. There's another agenda going on in the background. The Native Title Act's preamble is littered with references to the United Nations policy and declarations. Why is this so? It fits with the UN agenda of attacking private land ownership and locking the land away from use. Unfortunately for local Aboriginals, they're denied the opportunity of actually owning their piece of Australia by buying it to live on, to invest, to build, to develop, to farm or to use as collateral for a business loan to set up a business.</p> <p>Native title holds Aboriginals back from doing what all other Australians can do with land. It works to maintain the gap, not close it. When British colonists arrived there was no form of landownership on the mainland. There was no recognition of individual landownership, security or passing the land onto heirs. Land title existed only in limited form, in some Torres Strait Islands. The Mabo decision was based on this distinction. It was the Labor native title legislation that extended this to the mainland of Australia—incorrectly. Native title perpetuates racial discrimination in Australia by creating rights based on race. This is wrong and must be reversed. The whole concept is consistent with Labor's policy of waste and arrogance and disdain for Aboriginals and all Australians as part of a global agenda.</p> <p>Labor is one part of the uniparty. The Liberals and Nationals have done nothing to review this act to fix things for all Australians. Democratic government is supposed to work for the people and serve the people. Instead, in recent decades the uniparty governments have worked to control the people. They push a global agenda to control people and steal property and transfer wealth to the party's corporate globalist masters. We need a comprehensive review of native title urgently so that we can get back to helping Aboriginals get some land.</p> ~~<p class="speaker">Nita Green</p>~~ <p>I'm very pleased to rise and talk about a beautiful part of Queensland, Great Keppel Island. It's a wonderful place and worthy of the visitation and tourism that it receives. I have had the pleasure of visiting Great Keppel Island. I know it's a very proud jewel in the crown for people in Central Queensland. Obviously, this motion that's being debated today and put forward by the One Nation party is all about a state campaign happening near Great Keppel Island in Yeppoon and more broadly in Queensland. It is a culture war designed to get the name of the candidate from the One Nation party in the headlines. It doesn't involve any consideration of community views and it's peddling mistruths about what is actually happening on Great Keppel Island. I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to set the record straight and for the record of the Miles government and the federal government to be recorded.</p> <p>To be very clear: there have not been any plans, and there will not be plans, to change the name of Great Keppel Island, despite what Mr Ashby says in the community. Despite what Mr Ashby says in the community, there are no plans for the Queensland government to support the current native title claim that has been reported over the weekend for exclusive use of parts of Great Keppel Island. What there is, though, is a plan from the Miles government and particularly led by Brittany Lauga, the state member in Yeppoon, to work with the local community to deliver a $30 million master plan to revitalise tourism on Great Keppel Island, working with traditional owners and tourism operators. That is the work that is underway. Despite the culture wars and misinformation from One Nation and the LNP in Queensland, that is the work that is ongoing. It is being led by a fantastic local member in Brittany Lauga. She is a fantastic local member.</p> <p>We're going to hear today arguments about the fact that this proposed native title claim will prevent economic development, prevent tourism and stop people from travelling to Great Keppel Island. There will be claims that apparently tourism jobs will be put at risk. I'm not going to stand here and let people from One Nation make those claims, whether they are a state candidate or a member of the Senate or members of the LNP, who will get up here today and rave about the fact that tourism jobs are at risk on Great Keppel Island while they currently have a plan to defer climate action and not do anything to help. What tourism operators actually need all along the coast of the Great Barrier Reef is an energy plan on climate change delivering renewables. It is absolutely hypocritical for those opposite to come in here and argue that they are standing up for jobs on the Great Barrier Reef, like Great Keppel Island, without having a credible plan for how they're going to take action on climate change.</p> <p>Just down the road from Great Keppel Island is Gladstone. I'm sure you have visited from time to time, Acting Deputy President Polley. This is where one of the supposed nuclear reactors from Peter Dutton and the Liberals and Nationals will go. They want to put nuclear power just down the road from Great Keppel Island.</p> ~~<p class="speaker">Matthew Canavan</p>~~ ~~<p>You're a joke!</p>~~ ~~<p class="speaker">Nita Green</p>~~ <p>I can tell you that those tourism operators on Great Keppel Island are incredibly concerned not only because of the proposed nuclear reactors going just down the road from Great Keppel Island but because they know that this plan, led by Senator Canavan and other Nationals members of the Liberal National Party, does nothing to protect the reef against climate change, does nothing to prevent climate change and doesn't do anything to protect the Great Barrier Reef.</p> <p>Senator Canavan continues to shout at me. He can do that, and he can shout at members of the community about what he believes, but what our government is doing is listening to people about what they want. We listen to tourism operators around the Great Barrier Reef, and they're not interested in debates about culture wars and scare campaigns from over there. What they're interested in is real-time real action on climate change, and that's what our government is delivering. It is really disappointing to see another culture war fought from those opposite, but we'll see this from time to time. Whether it is completely disbelieving that climate change is real and needs action or making up claims about the Queensland government supporting a native title claim, we're going to hear it all today.</p> ~~<p class='motion-notice motion-notice-truncated'>Long debate text truncated.</p>~~

~~Helen Polley~~
~~I inform the Senate that Senator Roberts has submitted a proposal under standing order 75, shown at item 16 of today's Order of Business:~~
The majority voted against a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2024-06-24.123.2) introduced by Queensland Senator [Malcolm Roberts](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/senate/queensland/malcolm_roberts) (One Nation)
### Motion text
> *That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:*
>
> *The Native Title system in Australia is critically flawed and perpetuates discrimination. A new claim has been lodged by the Woppaburra people for exclusive use over an additional 2,249 acres of Great Keppel Island, despite a prior Federal Court ruling extinguishing Native Title over significant portions of the island, with the effect of potentially closing Great Keppel Island to non-Aboriginal Australians. This situation exemplifies why there is urgent need for a thorough overhaul of Native Title laws to prevent misuse and ensure equal treatment for all Australians regardless of race*
The Native Title system in Australia is critically flawed and perpetuates discrimination. A new claim has been lodged by the Woppaburra people for exclusive use over an additional 2,249 acres of Great Keppel Island, despite a prior Federal Court ruling extinguishing Native Title over significant portions of the island, with the effect of potentially closing Great Keppel Island to non-Aboriginal Australians. This situation exemplifies why there is urgent need for a thorough overhaul of Native Title laws to prevent misuse and ensure equal treatment for all Australians regardless of race
~~Is the proposal supported?~~
~~ More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—~~
~~Malcolm Roberts~~
~~I move:~~
~~That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:~~
The Native Title system in Australia is critically flawed and perpetuates discrimination. A new claim has been lodged by the Woppaburra people for exclusive use over an additional 2,249 acres of Great Keppel Island, despite a prior Federal Court ruling extinguishing Native Title over significant portions of the island, with the effect of potentially closing Great Keppel Island to non-Aboriginal Australians. This situation exemplifies why there is urgent need for a thorough overhaul of Native Title laws to prevent misuse and ensure equal treatment for all Australians regardless of race
I rise to speak about the racial divisions that continue to be perpetrated by the Liberal-Labor uniparty and their toxic native title system. One Nation 's candidate for the Queensland seat of Keppel, James Ashby, is doing a wonderful job holding the Miles Labor government accountable for its failure to meet $30 million worth of commitments to Great Keppel Island. Further, James Ashby deserves credit for exposing the latest native title claim on the island on the weekend. This claim, if successful, would mean that 84 per cent of Great Keppel Island would be excluded from non-indigenous Australians. One of the jewels of Central Queensland and an Australian tourism icon could effectively be closed off for all time from the Australian people, from local businesses and from international visitors.
This isn't the first time an Indigenous group has tried to close off Great Keppel Island from the rest of us by using a divisive native title claim. In 2021 the Federal Court denied a native title claim over the Great Keppel Island leases held by Tower Holdings because of pre-existing infrastructure of commercial value. One Nation calls on this latest claim to be thrown out, too, and for the Miles Labor government to honour its $30 million promise to clean up and restore Great Keppel Island. Yet we must go much further than that. We're calling for a comprehensive review of the entire native title system and a sunset clause on native title claims, because it's getting out of hand and it's excluding from any consultation on these processes the most important stakeholders of all: the Australian people.
More than 50 per cent of Australia is now under native title claim, yet fewer than three per cent of Australians have had any say in it. The rest of us are excluded from the process. While state governments, councils and the Federal Court get a say, they almost never represent community views, because they don't ask us for our views. We're not asked, because they don't want to hear our views. This is what happened in the lead-up to the Voice referendum. There was a lot of consultation, costing a lot of taxpayer money, but only with Indigenous groups. There was none for the rest of Australia. It's one of the main reasons it was such a spectacular $450 million failure, a flop. Consultation was undertaken in an echo chamber where dissent was absent, where dissent was chastised, where dissent was suppressed. Native title claims are resolved in this sort of bubble as well—a bubble from which most Australians are always excluded, deliberately. Even those people who are specifically intended to benefit from native title are excluded from those benefits.
I often visit remote communities in Cape York and the Northern Territory, and the No. 1 complaint from Aboriginal Australians right across Cape York and the communities I visited in the Northern Territory is the inability of Aboriginals to get land title while unaccountable land councils act as robber barons building fiefdoms. This was expressed to me again by Aboriginal elders who'd heard I was visiting Maryborough and Gympie last week and came to see me and attended a forum I hosted. There's another agenda going on in the background. The Native Title Act's preamble is littered with references to the United Nations policy and declarations. Why is this so? It fits with the UN agenda of attacking private land ownership and locking the land away from use. Unfortunately for local Aboriginals, they're denied the opportunity of actually owning their piece of Australia by buying it to live on, to invest, to build, to develop, to farm or to use as collateral for a business loan to set up a business.
Native title holds Aboriginals back from doing what all other Australians can do with land. It works to maintain the gap, not close it. When British colonists arrived there was no form of landownership on the mainland. There was no recognition of individual landownership, security or passing the land onto heirs. Land title existed only in limited form, in some Torres Strait Islands. The Mabo decision was based on this distinction. It was the Labor native title legislation that extended this to the mainland of Australia—incorrectly. Native title perpetuates racial discrimination in Australia by creating rights based on race. This is wrong and must be reversed. The whole concept is consistent with Labor's policy of waste and arrogance and disdain for Aboriginals and all Australians as part of a global agenda.
Labor is one part of the uniparty. The Liberals and Nationals have done nothing to review this act to fix things for all Australians. Democratic government is supposed to work for the people and serve the people. Instead, in recent decades the uniparty governments have worked to control the people. They push a global agenda to control people and steal property and transfer wealth to the party's corporate globalist masters. We need a comprehensive review of native title urgently so that we can get back to helping Aboriginals get some land.
~~Nita Green~~
I'm very pleased to rise and talk about a beautiful part of Queensland, Great Keppel Island. It's a wonderful place and worthy of the visitation and tourism that it receives. I have had the pleasure of visiting Great Keppel Island. I know it's a very proud jewel in the crown for people in Central Queensland. Obviously, this motion that's being debated today and put forward by the One Nation party is all about a state campaign happening near Great Keppel Island in Yeppoon and more broadly in Queensland. It is a culture war designed to get the name of the candidate from the One Nation party in the headlines. It doesn't involve any consideration of community views and it's peddling mistruths about what is actually happening on Great Keppel Island. I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to set the record straight and for the record of the Miles government and the federal government to be recorded.
To be very clear: there have not been any plans, and there will not be plans, to change the name of Great Keppel Island, despite what Mr Ashby says in the community. Despite what Mr Ashby says in the community, there are no plans for the Queensland government to support the current native title claim that has been reported over the weekend for exclusive use of parts of Great Keppel Island. What there is, though, is a plan from the Miles government and particularly led by Brittany Lauga, the state member in Yeppoon, to work with the local community to deliver a $30 million master plan to revitalise tourism on Great Keppel Island, working with traditional owners and tourism operators. That is the work that is underway. Despite the culture wars and misinformation from One Nation and the LNP in Queensland, that is the work that is ongoing. It is being led by a fantastic local member in Brittany Lauga. She is a fantastic local member.
We're going to hear today arguments about the fact that this proposed native title claim will prevent economic development, prevent tourism and stop people from travelling to Great Keppel Island. There will be claims that apparently tourism jobs will be put at risk. I'm not going to stand here and let people from One Nation make those claims, whether they are a state candidate or a member of the Senate or members of the LNP, who will get up here today and rave about the fact that tourism jobs are at risk on Great Keppel Island while they currently have a plan to defer climate action and not do anything to help. What tourism operators actually need all along the coast of the Great Barrier Reef is an energy plan on climate change delivering renewables. It is absolutely hypocritical for those opposite to come in here and argue that they are standing up for jobs on the Great Barrier Reef, like Great Keppel Island, without having a credible plan for how they're going to take action on climate change.
Just down the road from Great Keppel Island is Gladstone. I'm sure you have visited from time to time, Acting Deputy President Polley. This is where one of the supposed nuclear reactors from Peter Dutton and the Liberals and Nationals will go. They want to put nuclear power just down the road from Great Keppel Island.
~~Matthew Canavan~~
~~You're a joke!~~
~~Nita Green~~
I can tell you that those tourism operators on Great Keppel Island are incredibly concerned not only because of the proposed nuclear reactors going just down the road from Great Keppel Island but because they know that this plan, led by Senator Canavan and other Nationals members of the Liberal National Party, does nothing to protect the reef against climate change, does nothing to prevent climate change and doesn't do anything to protect the Great Barrier Reef.
Senator Canavan continues to shout at me. He can do that, and he can shout at members of the community about what he believes, but what our government is doing is listening to people about what they want. We listen to tourism operators around the Great Barrier Reef, and they're not interested in debates about culture wars and scare campaigns from over there. What they're interested in is real-time real action on climate change, and that's what our government is delivering. It is really disappointing to see another culture war fought from those opposite, but we'll see this from time to time. Whether it is completely disbelieving that climate change is real and needs action or making up claims about the Queensland government supporting a native title claim, we're going to hear it all today.
~~Long debate text truncated.~~