Page 3258 - Week 11 - Thursday, 12 September 1991
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public servants to attend to advise her. No assembly in the country or, indeed, in the Commonwealth system allows opposition backbenchers to direct public servants to attend to advise them in, as Ms Maher says, their official capacity. However, in respect of one officer in the Law Office who Ms Maher requested, in his private capacity, to give her advice in relation to these issues, it was raised with me and I said to the officer, "As long as it is done outside official time I have no difficulty with you advising Ms Maher". That was done.
For Ms Maher to assume that she can set up government advisory committees and direct public servants to her beck and call is bizarre, to say the least. It seems to have escaped Ms Maher's notice that there was a change of government. Had Mr Collaery wanted to know what was going on about enforcement of domestic violence orders, he could have not just asked me - I know that it would have been a bit much for him to ask me - but also listened to my answer. He was clearly only interested in grandstanding. He is not interested in the subject. He wants to make cheap political points.
Aboriginal Land Rights
MR JENSEN: Chief Minister, in view of your Government's decision to ensure that Grevillea Park and the facilities there are accessible at all times to all members of the community, thus displacing the recent Aboriginal occupants, do you acknowledge that the ACT is the only governing entity in Australia which does not have a policy of land rights in one form or another? Do you agree that an appropriate space should be made available in Canberra for survivors of the Ngunnawal tribe, and will you have your Environment, Land and Planning Minister examine the availability of a suitable site for the establishment of an Aboriginal keeping place, including a lease over sufficient area for meetings and traditional activities?
MR WOOD: Ms Follett has passed that to me. Mr Jensen, you would be aware that the ACT land tenure system is that of leasehold. Therefore, the provision of land rights is really a matter for the Federal Government, which may, at some time or other, decide to amend its legislation and provide for some measure of land rights. It is a matter that the Labor Government is not unsympathetic to. Historically the Labor Party has been to the forefront of providing land rights to Aboriginal groups.
It is true that there are no provisions in the ACT, for the reason I mentioned. I would point out that there is a quite significant area of land in the ACT - an extensive park at Narrabundah - that is leased to the Aboriginal community. We have been very pleased to do that. It is a measure of government support. Frankly, I do not know which government made that lease available.
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