Ludlam, Sen Scott

Senator LUDLAM (Western Australia) (01:43): by leave—I move Greens amendments (2) to (6) on sheet 7222 together: (2) Schedule 2, page 12 (after line 7), after item 8, insert: 8A Subsections 70(2BA) to (2BD) Repeal the subsections. (3) Schedule 2, page 12 (after line 30), after item 10, insert: 10A Subsections 70(2D) and (2E) Repeal the subsections. (4) Schedule 2, items 13 to 18, page 13 (lines 2 to 13), omit the items, substitute: 13 Sections 70A to 70H Repeal the sections. (5) Schedule 2, page 13 (after line 17), after item 20, insert: 20A Paragraph 73(1)(ba) Repeal the paragraph. 20B Section 74AA Repeal the section. (6) Schedule 2, page 13 (after line 19), at the end of the Schedule, add: 22 Schedule 7 Repeal the Schedule. These amendments repeal elements of the changes to the permit system put in place by the Howard government's Northern Territory intervention and kept in place by the Rudd and Gillard governments. These amendments are based on the 2008 bill proposed by the government to restore aspects of the permit system that they never went ahead with, so it is with a sense of irony that we are putting forward these amendments for the chamber's consideration tonight. During the committee inquiry, many Aboriginal people expressed dismay that they were not in control of who had access to their land. These amendments attempt to address that by removing some of the NTER laws which impacted on the permit system. These include removing ministerial authority to grant people access to land, removing the ability to gain access to land with the permission of the occupier rather than the owner and removing a list of seven grounds on which you can enter Aboriginal land. It is extremely disappointing to the Greens that these bills do not address changes made to the permit system as part of the intervention. Clearly, at some stage, the government had a will to move ahead with these reforms. When the intervention legislation was introduced to parliament in 2007, the former government went to great lengths to imply a relationship between the permit system and child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities without presenting either any concrete evidence linking the permit system to cases of child abuse or any other aspects of Aboriginal disadvantage. Neither did they put forward a logical argument on how the permit system might facilitate child abuse. They did not demonstrate either correlation or causation. I think that was one of the nastiest instances of the logic not merely being lazy but being offensive and deeply insulting to Aboriginal people. The Greens believe that Aboriginal people should have the power to regulate access to their land. We share the concerns of the Aboriginal Peak Organisations NT. The permit system has been an important part of respecting the rights of Aboriginal people and their communities. This government, in keeping shameful Howard-era restrictions on the permit system, is again demonstrating contempt for Aboriginal people and their communities. We urge the government to support these amendments, which reflect their own amendments from 2008. I commend these amendments to the chamber.