Australian Financial Review http://www.afr.com.au/content/990527/news/news1.html May 27, 1999 Harradine scuttles Wik By Lenore Taylor State leaders claim that the Wik deal reached by the Prime Minister last year now amounts to nothing, after Independent Senator Brian Harradine indicated he would today veto the first State native-title system to seek the required approval of the Senate. When the Wik deal was struck between Mr John Howard and Senator Harradine last year, Aboriginal leaders decried it as a sellout. Senator Harradine's latest bombshell means that indigenous groups have achieved a back-door victory and will be able to effect a veto of any Wik regime proposed by the States. Mining and industry groups yesterday condemned the lack of progress on the Wik issue since last year's controversial deal. After learning of Senator Harradine's intentions last night, a disappointed Northern Territory Chief Minister, Mr Denis Burke, said: "Australians should be very clear that native title has not moved one foot forward since the Wik High Court decision. "I think the wrath of Australians will return when they realise that a cloud of uncertainty still hangs over all our land-use decisions." Senator Harradine will give notice that he will move to disallow the Northern Territory's native-title regime, the first to be scrutinised by the Senate and the only one that could be approved before the balance of power shifts to the ALP, the Australian Democrats and the Greens in July. Senator Harradine sees his move as a "formality" because the territory Government is poised to propose new legislation after agreeing to significant concessions during secret talks sponsored by Senator Harradine with the Northern and Central land councils. The West Australian Premier, Mr Richard Court, whose native title plans are stalled in the State Parliament, said that after almost a year "the Wik 10-point plan is not in operation anywhere in Australia" and the "Keating Government's" right to negotiate remained. "This corruption of land and resource management is delivering a regime where only the rich or big business can get titles, by buying their way through the system," he said. The Northern Territory Government had hoped to save its law by engaging in the secret talks, which are continuing and are understood to have resulted in quite substantial agreement between the parties. Any resolution is likely to be voted on in the Senate after June 30 unless the territory can clinch the deal, rush new laws through its own Parliament, and get them back to the Senate before the cut-off date. Senator Harradine believes the talks are "historic" and says that had he not moved to disallow the territory law, another Senate party would have. The foreshadowed disallowance of the territory law, and the fact that Aboriginal consent will now, in effect, be required for any State law to pass the Senate, have exacerbated extreme concerns in industry groups that the new Wik laws have failed to make native title more workable. "We are very disappointed at the progress since July 1998," the executive director of the Minerals Council of Australia, Mr Dick Wells said. "The State processes are bogged down ... the review of all existing native title claims has been delayed ... and overlapping claims over the same mining project are still being accepted.". The executive director of the National Farmers Federation, Dr Wendy Craik, said the new laws "have not worked out nearly as smoothly as we had hoped". New State processes to regulate development on land subject both to pastoral lease and native title claims were the centrepiece of Mr Howard's 10-point Wik plan. Senator Harradine eventually agreed to handing these powers over to those States that wanted them, as long as they met tough federal benchmarks for the State laws. The hardest-fought of these benchmarks were the provisions to replace the federal legislation's "right to negotiate". The outcome on the right to negotiate was attacked by Aboriginal groups, the ALP, the Australian Democrats and the Australian Greens for being too weak and for not sufficiently protecting Aboriginal rights. Now all new State laws will have to run the gauntlet of a Senate controlled by the ALP, the Australian Democrats and the Australian Greens. With the Democrats and the Greens demanding even higher benchmarks, the ALP is now in the box seat to determine the fate of the State laws. The Shadow Cabinet has said the ALP would approve only those laws agreed to by local Aboriginal groups. If no State regime is approved by the Senate, then under the Howard/Harradine agreement, the law automatically reverts to the federal full-blown right to negotiate. c This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
