Senator BOSWELL (Queensland) (10:50): I came to the intent of this par­ticular bill in about 1985-86 when millions of hectares were given to Aboriginal people under DOGIT, deed of grant in trust. That land was supposed to be allocated to the communities under the Local Government Act and anyone who wanted some land to do something would be allocated that land, whether it was 20 acres to grow tomatoes, land for a cattle station or a sawmill, or whatever it was, and that land was allocated to those particular Aboriginal people and then they made their own decisions. That was around 1985-87. I had a bit to do with it. As people would know, I was close to the Premier at the time. In fact, I went around some of these communities with Bob Katter and the Premier. We worked together to give this land to them for what they wanted to do with it. Then that land was taken away from the local communities and put under an act. Aboriginal people walked down George Street, protesting that the Labor government had taken their land away and calling for Bob Katter to come back as the minister. That was the start of it. Now we come to the Wild Rivers Act. This merely is an act that would allow people to be involved in their own communities to make a living out of the land. Not all of it but a lot of it was given under the deed of grant in trust.

So that is the history of this. Then the Labor government tried to come in over the top of a previous government and take that land away. Not only that, what they intended to do and were literally caught in the act doing was to keep that land and put it into World Heritage. It was only Warren Truss who got up in the other House and demanded of the Aboriginal minister at the time that the minister not do it unless they had the consent of the Aboriginal people. Two or three weeks ago, the then minister said, 'I've pushed the pause button and we won't go ahead with it, because we do not have the consent of the Aboriginal people.' That is the main game. That is the commitment to the Wilderness Society that this eventually would be turned into wild rivers. Wild rivers would be the first step, and then it would go into World Heritage. When the minister made his commitment that he would pause, the Wilderness Society said, 'We'll still campaign for this.'

Senator Furner got up and did not know what he was saying—and you should forgive those who do not understand these things, but I would have expected better from Senator McLucas. 'What is there to be ar­guing about,' Senator Furner says. 'You can hunt. You can shoot a pig. You can have your traditional dances. You can go out in the river. You can do all the things that native title gives you.' And that is right. You can do all those things. No-one is arguing that. But we want to go the next step. We want to say to the Aboriginal community and the Pearsons of the world: 'You have got a right to live in the 21st century. You have got a right to go out there and put a farm down that will grow vegetables and then sell those vegetables in the local community.' You cannot do that. You can grow veget­ables, sure. You can grow for your own use, but you cannot commercially put down a farm in what you would call a catchment area.

The Bligh government initially talked about how the impact would only be on a handful of pristine rivers. It turns out that they actually meant to see entire river catchments and basins and, in fact, 80 per cent of Cape York would be subject to yet another layer of regulations, effectively frustrating opportunities for Indigenous people. It captures 80 per cent of the land so you cannot do anything other than have an obscure native title right where you can hunt, fish and have ceremonies. It does not allow any way that you can commercially use that land to provide fruit, vegetables and healthy things in life; go out and have a cattle farm; or go out and do something that will be productive and commercial. Therefore, you are locking these thousands of people—there are 14,000 people who live on the cape—out of any commercial event. You are locking them out of lifting themselves out of poverty.

It is a terrible shame that the Labor Party are doing this. Because Senator Xenophon in his excellent speech quoted another traditional owner, I will quote Senator Pearson—Mr Pearson. One day he might be a senator—and what a wonderful addition he would be to this house.

The exercise of traditional rights and traditional activities is important but that will never lift our people out of poverty and misery. We have to be able to undertake land use that generates economic return for the people who live there. We are not going to be serious about closing the gap as to Indigenous disadvantage if we have this view that all that Aboriginal people should be happy with and all that they should be entitled to is to stand on one leg in the sunset picking berries. Fundamentally this is a racist expectation on the part of governments and other stakeholders to expect Aboriginal people to live in some frozen past.

There is someone who is speaking up for the Aboriginal community. Sure, he does not speak for every one of them; but he speaks for most of them. I would say he speaks for 90 per cent of them.

Senator Siewert: No he doesn't!

Senator BOSWELL: Yes, he does. And I have been up there many times. Balkanu, Pearson—those people speak for most of the people who want to lift themselves out of poverty, who want to lift their kids out of poverty. They do not want to be condemned to an everlasting life of social welfare, and that is what you are condemning them to: an everlasting life of social welfare where they and their kids will never be able to have a job and all that entails. Senator Brandis made a comment about the United Nations. He spoke very well—and so he should; he is a QC. But he put it very succinctly. He said that the Prime Minister at the time signed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. And what has the present Prime Minister, Ms Gillard, said? Commenting on the Closing the gap report, she called on the Indigenous people:

… to take a job when you find one; to create a safe environment; to send your kids to school, pay your rent, save up for a home; to respect good social norms and to respect the law; and to reach out to other Australians.

But in Cape York the Labor government is shutting down avenues for jobs and reaching out for Greens preferences on wild rivers.

What have the Aboriginals of Cape York received from this government? Sure, it signed the United Nations treaty. They were told to get a job. And we did have a 'welcome to country' put in this parliament, which no-one objects to—but that does not pay the rent. That does not give anyone a job. That does not lift people out of poverty. So what they got is tokenism—beads and mirrors. That is what this government has given the Aboriginal community: beads and mirrors. Nothing that says, 'Your kids can get a job.' Your kids cannot get a job; there are no jobs up there. And there will not be jobs up there unless you let the Aboriginals use the land that was given to them by previous state governments and that you have taken away.

Isn't it ironic that a party that has always been painted by the Labor Party as being against Aboriginals gave them millions of acres of land and put the first Aboriginal member of parliament into state parliament? I have been out campaigning with at least two—it was two or three—other Indigenous candidates when I tried to get them into parliament. It is ironic that the Labor Party that claim to be the friends and natural allies of the Indigenous people are stealing their land off them, and for Greens preferences. Senator Furner says, 'Hang on a minute, they can develop anything they like and there have been 113 developments applications,' and Senator McLucas says, 'Of course, if they want an application it will be passed.'

Let me just say that out of the 113 development applications 79 were for exploration permits. Of the 35 remaining 'development approvals', 17 were issued to government entities for activities such as fencing and gravel extraction; eight riverine protection permits and one environmentally related activity permit appears to relate to the Century Mine project, which is an existing development; three riverine protection permits are for the Stanbroke Pastoral Co., possibly for a fence; two vegetation clearing applications, for the Strathmore and Barr Creek holding, are presumably for clearing for a fence; and one approval was for Adels Grove camping park, which is an existing development. There have been none appr­oved. Yes, you can hide, you can run, you can misrepresent people, but they are the facts.

We heard—and you were there, Senator McLucas, in Cairns—when one particular community, I just forget which one, said that after the wild rivers declaration they cannot actually get their gravel out of a pit and they have to drive 20 or 30 miles there and back. They cannot even take gravel out of a gravel pit for the roads around the Aboriginal community. That is what you have done to these people.

Senator Fielding will be leaving this place in three or four weeks time and I want to give him this message. Senator, you have come in on a church vote; let me give you this message. What does it profit a man if he gets something but loses his soul? Take that with you when you leave this place.