By Stephen Robson
Greens (WA) senators Christabel Chamarette and Dee Margetts are pressing the Labor government to amend its Indigenous Land Corporation and Land Acquisition bill. They have indicated that if substantial amendments are not made, they will oppose the bill.
The votes of the Greens, combined with those of the National and Liberal parties, could well defeat the bill.
When the federal government enacted the Native Title Bill in 1993, it also agreed to fund land acquisition for those Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders who, because they had been dispossessed of their land, were unlikely to benefit from the Mabo decision.
Now the bill to do this is being debated in federal parliament. The Liberal and National parties have indicated they will oppose the bill. The Australian Democrats will support it.
On October 12 the Greens proposed 60 amendments.
The bill would set up a trust fund with an initial $200 million. After 10 years, this fund is expected to grow to about $1.35 billion.
Land acquisition is expected to be funded from the proceeds of various commercial investments of the trust fund.
It is expected that only about $45 million will be available for land acquisition each year — about $124 for each Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person.
As the amount of land acquired increases, so will the amount of money needed to manage the land, leaving a smaller and smaller amount available for land purchase.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) currently spends $9 million per year on management out of $21 million allocated for land use.
It is already estimated that $12 million of the $45 million will be spent on administration and land management in 1994-95.
Senator Chamarette describes the bill as "fundamentally paternalistic" and asks, "Where is the historical justice for Aboriginal people?".
She told the Senate on October 18 that the Greens (WA) were "concerned that the fund will not be sufficient to meet the land ownership needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people".
Senator Margetts compared the amount allocated to Aboriginal needs with defence expenditure: "The government will find over $10 billion for the Australian Defence Force this year or over 8% of entire government outlays, yet they can only find it in their hearts to spend $200 million, or 0.24% of outlays, on our indigenous people."
The Greens have proposed an amendment to place 1% of total Commonwealth government revenues in the land fund each year for 10 years. This would amount to $1.12 billion/year at present.
The trust fund will be managed, not by Aboriginal people, but by the minister of finance. The money allocated for land acquisition and other responsibilities will be managed by the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC), a federal government-appointed body composed of seven directors.
Aside from responsibility for land acquisition, the ILC will also manage the land, and develop both national and regional indigenous land strategies.
There is precedent for the trust funds themselves to be managed by Aboriginal people, as Chamarette points out: "The level of self-determination for Aboriginal people provided for in this bill falls well short of what the Fraser government pursued in 1976 for the Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory. The New South Wales parliament passed legislation in the mid-1980s which allowed the New South Wales Land Council to manage a fund which will eventually be worth nearly $500 million."
That the ILC should be allowed to place any terms and conditions on grants to Aboriginal people, the Greens senators say, "is the most dangerous clause in the bill because it can be used to manipulate indigenous people".
They want to open the possibility for land acquired under the bill to be claimable under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act of 1976 and will move amendments to make this possible.
On October 19, following the second reading in the Senate, the government agreed to negotiate for the first time on amendments to the bill by the Democrats and the Greens.
Democrat amendments agreed to by both the Greens and the government on October 19 will guarantee that the land fund will be topped up even if the fund investments don't meet economic projections.