NORTHERN TERRITORY OF AUSTRALIA LEGISLA TIVE ASSEMBLY Second Assembly Second Sessjon Parliamentary Record Tuesday 12 February 1980 VVednesday 13 February 1980 Thursday 14 February 1980 Tuesday 19 February 1980 VVednesday 20 February 1980 Thursday 21 February 1980 Part I-Debates Part II-Questions Part III-Minutes 18990.803-1 PART I DEBATES DEBATES - Tuesday 12 February 1980 Mr Speaker MacFarlane took the Chair at 10 am. KATHERINE HOSPITAL ADVISORY BOARD ANNUAL REPORT Mr TUXWORTH (Health): Mr Speaker, I table the Katherine Hospital Advisory Board report for the year ended 30 June 1979. This is tabled pursuant to section 15 of the Hospital Advisory Boards Act. Section 14 of the act requires the board to submit an annual report each July while section 15 requires such a report to be tabled on the first sitting day thereafter. The current report was not received until November and today is the first opportun­ ity to table the report. DRC REPORT and COMMONWEALTH OMBUDSMAN REPORT Mr EVERINGHAM (Chief Minister): Mr Speaker, I table 2 documents. The first one is the final report of the Darwin Reconstruction Commission and the second is a report of the Commonwealth Ombudsman. Section 19(1) of the Ombudsman Act 1976 of the Commonwealth requires the presentation of this report by the Prime Minister in the Legislative Assembly. He was not able to get here because he is on his way back from America and he has asked me to do it for him. PERSONAL EXPLANATION Mr EVERINGHAM (Chief Minister) (by leave): Mr Speaker, in the NT News of Saturday 9 February,an article appeared which, amongst other things, stated that the Chief Minister hit back with 2 points. Most delegates at the Kormilda College voted on the land rights resolution after returning from drinks at the Berrimah Hotel. This report purports to be based on a press conference which I held on the evening of 8 February. I have referred to a tape of the press conference and I have had the tape transcribed. I will quote the only sections of the press conference to which this could possibly relate. I must read this at some length because I want to read exactly what I said at the press conference. The first question put to me was: "The first and obvious question is that the lands councils yesterday, after your request for them to reconsider the motion passed at Kormilda College, were asked to say whether it was a true expression of what Aboriginal people thought. What is your reaction to that statement?" My answer was: "My reaction is to refer to a report on the Kormilda conference by Mr Jack Goodluck, Co-ordinator of Development Studies Nungalinya College Darwin. Nungalinya College is a college pertaining to Aboriginal people. In referring to the conference and to the Land Council Chairman saying that I arrogantly refused to listen to what Aboriginal people said to me, I quote ••. ". I make the point, Mr Speaker, that I am referring to the Land Council Chairman saying that I arrogantly refused to listen to what Aboriginal people said to me. "This conference was a most significant event and, if taken as a precedent, could be the beginning of a new level of commun­ ication, a new style of consultation and a new degree of cooperation between government and the Aboriginal sections of the Northern Territory population". This was written after the conference was over. I was not there when the motion was proposed. I had left after asking if there was anything further that the conference required of me. It has been subsequently alleged that I did not return to the conference after lunch. Indeed, the reverse is the case and I again quote from the report: "When the ministers had gone after spending most of the morning and, in the case of the Chief Minister and 1 or 2 others, part of the afternoon, a general evaluative session was conducted. Thi~ was when several people returned, presumably from the Berrimah Hotel, and began to behave abusively towards the Chairman and, in their absence, the ministers and 2563 DEBATES - Tuesday 12 February 1980 public servants who had come and gone. Two men did nearly all the talking at that time again failing to get a wide vote of support for their hostile 'assault'. Then, almost as an afterthought, one of them pulled a prepared proposed resolution from his pocket and read it to the meeting. It criticised the government's intention since it was opposing Aboriginal land claims". I suggest that you get a copy of that report. I am sure that Mr Goodluck will be happy to provide you with one and I suggest that you read it right through and then decide for yourselves whether the government's holding of these conferences is or is not an attempt at consultation and communication with Aboriginal people. That was the only occasion in the press conference when I mentioned the Berrimah Hotel and it was in the context of a quote from a report by Mr Goodluck. There was no mention of drinking. Later, I was asked a lot of questions and the reporter was obviously trying to make something of the Berrimah Hotel matter. I again quote the question and answer. The question was: "In this case, return to conference after the Berrimah Hotel, it was a prepared resolution put to conference but not all delegates went to the Berrimah Hotel and they approved that resolution overwhelmingly?" My answer was: "Well, I suggest Dick that you read this report before you say things like that because I have not got it all marked here but you will find many of the delegates, almost all, drifted away at lunch- time and when myself and 2 other ministers, I forget who they were, came back afterwards, we had an audience of about 16 where previously we had an audience of about 60. The 16 were soon finished and there was nothing more we could do. We said, 'Is that all you want us for?' and they said, 'Yes thanks', and away we went. Some hours later, apparently, back they came". Mr Speaker, there was no mention of drinking or the Berrimah Hotel by me in that statement. Indeed, Australian and Associated Press and the ABC were at the press conference yet neither of these organisations seemed to draw the extraordinarily long bow that has been drawn by the NT News. MINISTERIAL STATEMENT Land Tenure ReforB Mr PERRON (Treasurer) (by leave): Since the attainment of self-government, the reform of Territory land laws has been a regular topic for discussion in this House. The reform of those laws has been a priority task of the govern­ ment and, over a period, a series of amendments to existing legislation have been introduced. Our complex system of property law is almost without parallel in Australia. I have described it as archaic, frustrating for both the govern­ ment and the governed alike, and a barrier to progress. The Australian Capital Territory has a leasehold system with some similarities but in the states the average citizen who buys a parcel of land does so in the clear knowledge that he is purchasing land with freehold title. Various leasehold tenures are also utilised but the ability to buy land and the security of freehold title can be cited as one of the factors which has assisted early progress and development in the states. As other parts of Australia forged ahead, the Territory was looked upon as a backwater. Progress and development languished and our property laws become more complicated and confusing with the passage of time. On this side of the House, we saw self-government as the opportunity to rectify the situation. Many changes have been instituted such as a scheme for direct grants of vacant crown land at market value and the provision of conversion of business leases to freehold upon completion of development covenants in the same way that residential leases can be converted to freehold. 2564 DEBATES - Tuesday 12 February 1980 Honourable members will be familiar with the report on urban land laws and proposals for their reform prepared by Mr Ron Withnall at the request of the government, which was tabled in this House last September. In his discussion of Territory law relating to the grant of title to urban land, Mr Withnall described the number of laws as "bewildering". He said that the body of law had been "created haphazardly, each new accretion being added, sometimes hastily, in response to the stimulus created by each new circumstance". Those are the government's sentiments exactly. The Withnall report was a painstaking analysis of the problems posed by existing urban land laws and recommended proposals for reform, including draft legislation. The report was tabled and circulated in the community for comment. In light of that consultative exercise, the government is now in a position to indicate its intentions for tenure reform in rural areas as well as the urban centres of the Northern Territory. It is the government's intention to introduce the required legislation in the April session. The government has resolved to legislate to create unconditional free­ hold title to land within the whole of the Northern Territory with the exception of extensive areas held under large pastoral leases and special purpose leases. This statement is designed to indicate to all Territorians that this will be the greatest step forward in the history of the Northern Territory aside from self-government. There will be automatic conversion of existing leases to freehold title without charge and without regard to compliance with lease covenants.