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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 3 Hansard (25 March) . . Page.. 819 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

provisions are intended to reflect the common-law position, and their content was examined in detail in the Senate. They reflect the considered views of the senators and members of the Commonwealth Parliament and their legal advisers about the common-law position.

These new Commonwealth provisions can be applied to State and Territory acts if the States and Territories pass complementary legislation. I am advised that the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria have already passed such legislation and that the remaining jurisdictions are in the process of doing so.

In 1994 this Assembly took the opportunity provided by the Commonwealth Native Title Act 1993 to confirm the validity of certain acts, known as "past acts", which may have been invalid because of native title. While it was thought unlikely that the Territory had done any acts which would require validation, the Legislative Assembly expressed the view in the Preamble to the Native Title Act 1994 that it "intends to participate in the national scheme enacted by the Commonwealth Parliament".

The principal benefit of confirmation and validation legislation is that it provides certainty to all sides about the validity and effects on native title of particular types of acts, which in turn reduces the need to litigate these issues on a case-by-case basis. Such litigation can be both lengthy and expensive for everyone involved.

The Native Title (Amendment) Bill 1999 will enable the ACT to participate in the national scheme for validation and confirmation established under the Commonwealth legislation and will enable the ACT and its residents to enjoy the benefit of certainty provided by that scheme. I urge members of this Assembly to support the Bill.

Members may be aware that the Government is interested in making an agreement with indigenous people in the ACT region. The Government's view is that, although the available historical and genealogical material suggest it is extremely unlikely that native title continues to exist in much, if any, of the ACT, the absence of native title does not preclude the Territory from asking for an agreement with Aboriginal people who have an historic association with the Territory.

Such an agreement would be made in the spirit of reconciliation and in recognition of the dispossession and dislocation that many indigenous Australians have suffered. An agreement of this type would not, of course, be a native title agreement either under native title legislation or otherwise. The agreement would have as its basis an appreciation of the historical fact that, prior to colonial settlement of this region early last century, Aboriginal Australians had an historic association with the region, perhaps for many thousands of years, which has been constrained in the last two centuries to the detriment of Aboriginal people.

The adverse impact of settlement on Aboriginal Australians in this part of the continent has been extensive. While we cannot change the fact of dispossession, the Government can seek to be inclusive of local Aboriginal voices and recognise the cultural concerns of the Territory's Aboriginal population. The Government is conscious of the disadvantage

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