Aboriginal Land Rights Amendment (Gandangara Estate) Bill 2004
Reverend the Hon. Dr GORDON MOYES [3.22 p.m.]: The Christian Democratic Party supports the passing of the Aboriginal Land Rights Amendment (Gandangara Estate) Bill. The object of the bill is to amend the Aboriginal Land Rights Act to validate the subdivision of the local Aboriginal land council on the area of land at Barden Ridge at Menai. Because of non-compliance by the Aboriginal land council, a number of difficulties have been created both for the vendors and for the purchasers. This bill is retrospective, and normally we do not like retrospectivity in such bills but it validates the subdivision and subsequent sales. However, it raises the question of where were the council planning officers and when were they alerted to this problem? Why did those who had the oversight of the subdivision and the sale of the land lots not raise the issue before? Likewise with the Registrar-General? However, knowing that some innocent parties are being disadvantaged, we believe that the right thing to do is to make this amendment to the original land purchase Act. Therefore, the Christian Democratic Party supports the bill.