National Native Title Council calls for Adam Bandt not to use Native Title Act act in Adani debate
Updated
The National Native Title Council (NNTC) has said it did not want the native title act being used as a political football by the Greens.
Key points:
- NNTC says legislation must be passed quickly to safeguard Aboriginal people's rights
- Perth Federal Court rules $1.3bn agreement cannot be registered
- Adam Bandt wants to go back to communities and talk about what is in this bill
Greens MP Adam Bandt today accused the Government of rushing through changes to the act to benefit the Adani coal mine in Queensland.
But the NNTC's Glen Kelly said the legislation must be passed quickly to safeguard Aboriginal people's rights.
"The judgement a couple of weeks ago in the Federal Court has invalidated almost 150 ILUAs [Indigenous Land Use Agreements]," he said.
"Now, a lot of these land use agreements have really very significant benefits packages which have been negotiated by traditional owners."
A fortnight ago the Federal Court in Perth ruled a $1.3 billion agreement, struck by the West Australian Government and WA's Noongar people, could not be registered.
It has effectively put a question mark over the validity of dozens of similar agreements signed by traditional owners, mining companies and pastoralists around the country.
Both the mining industry and the NNTC said the ruling had left them in limbo and wanted the legislation amended as soon as possible.
But the Member for Melbourne, Adam Bandt, has accused the Government of riding roughshod over the Parliament by trying to rush it through.
"This is an outrageous way to conduct this Parliament about such an important piece of legislation," he said.
"There are 150 people sitting in this chamber and 150 people who have diverse communities and many of those communities have different interests.
"We deserve the time to be able to go back and talk to those communities about what is in this bill."
'Land rights, not mining rights'
Mr Bandt claimed the real reason the Government is pushing the bill through was to secure the future of the Adani coal mine in Queensland.
Mr Kelly said the native title act should not be treated as a political plaything.
"We're a bit uncomfortable being caught in the crossfire of the Adani debate," he said.
"From our point of view, it's about the almost 150 ILUAs that have been invalidated and making sure that agreement-making processes are functional and workable for traditional owner groups across Australia.
"They include land, they include monies which get used to support cultural programs, community development, employment, business opportunities.
"All of these, or around 150 of them, are now invalidated and these traditional owner groups are massively disadvantaged."
The bill has now passed the house and will be considered by a senate committee which is expected to file a report by mid March.
A group of Canberra university students, including Aboriginal woman Vanessa Farrelly, interrupted Question Time in the House of Representatives today to protest against the speed at which the legislation was going through.
The group chanted, "land rights, not mining rights," while holding an Aboriginal flag.
Topics: government-and-politics, federal-government, indigenous-policy, community-and-society, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, perth-6000
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