Senator MINCHIN (Special Minister of State and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister)(9.20 p.m.) —I repeat: the current situation with regard to the right to negotiate is that it applies to mining and compulsory acquisitions for third parties. Those are the circumstances or activities that trigger the right to negotiate. That is the current arrangement. So it does not apply when a government compulsorily acquires land for its own purposes. Under the current act, if a government is building a dam, the right to negotiate does not apply. That is simply a statement of what occurs at the moment.

In terms of rights over the seas, we are talking here about management, not extinguishment. We would argue strongly that, if native title exists offshore, it can only amount to a coexisting right, given the authority of governments over the seas to manage them on behalf of all of us. We do not believe it is possible to assert a claim for exclusive possession over the seas, but certainly it may be. In relation to the question of whether native title can exist offshore, we do not know yet but, if it can, it could not possibly amount to more than a coexisting right.

So the law in relation to this matter must take that into account. In that sense, we believe it essential that governments can continue their proper responsibility on behalf of all of us to issue statutory rights to fish, whether it is to Aboriginal people or to others, in their management of the resource on behalf of all of us, but it must be in a way that does not amount to the extinguishment of common law rights.

It is quite clear as a matter of common law that governments under Mabo and Wik have the right to issue statutory rights. We are saying that, where they do so, in accordance with Mabo and Wik the statutory rights prevail. But, unlike Mabo and Wik, in the future those statutory rights will not extinguish native title. That is the case with the management of water. You cannot effect an extinguishment except by compulsory acquisition. You cannot do it by the issue of other rights as such.

I simply repeat that this is a critically important issue for us. We do think that the potential for the fishing industry is enormous. It provides enormous opportunities for Aboriginal people themselves and for the nation as a whole. We are setting down here an appropriate regime for the management of those resources and of water itself into the future which we believe is a deficiency in the current act.