Tuesday 21 December
The Senate of the Australian Parliament tonight (about
midnight) passed the Native Title Bill, after deals between
the Government, Democrats and Greens in the morning enabled
the legislation to be treated as urgent.
The many last minute amendments were then guillotined through
the Senate.
Pressure had been applied by an extended sitting of the
Senate, with sessions lasting until after midnight and well
into the pre-Christmas week. The Prime Minister had said that
the Senate would continue sitting until the Bill was passed,
coming back on Boxing Day if necessary.
The Leader of the Democrats, Cheryl Kernot, explained her
concern for the staff of Parliamant House as a key reason for
abandoning full debate of the Bill. The needs of First Peoples
on remote cattle empires were less pressing for the Democrats.
During the limited debate, Senator Chamarette (The Greens WA))
said that they had been unable to shift pastoral leases into
Category B of the Bill. This means that pastoral leases
remain in Category A, which extinguishes native title
irrespective of the degree of inconsistency between the two
forms of title.
The Greens apparently moved from a principled position in
return for the lesser concession of Government and Democrat
support for an amendment (14c) which preserves rights of
Aboriginal people from being dispossessed or removed from
cattle stations as a result of the extinguishment of native
title rights by the Government's Bill. Extinguishment will not
confer with it any right to remove people.
The Bill will go to the House of Representatives tomorrow
(wednesday) morning for acceptance of it in its amended form.
The House commences at 8:30 am and the Bill is expected to be
passed by 9:15am.
The question of when it would be assented to was raised during
the Senate debate, since the regulations which must accompany
the Bill have not been finalised. It is possible that
different parts of the Bill will be assented to at different
times.
Opposition spokespeople have foreshadowed that they will
continue to oppose the Native Title Bill and make it the major
issue leading into the next election.