Senator MINCHIN (Special Minister of State and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister)(9.19 p.m.) —Discrimination lies in the eyes of the beholder. Essentially, in towns and cities the issue that arises is almost overwhelmingly a matter of compulsorily acquisition. Compulsorily acquisition of areas for developments within towns and cities happens all the time, and government policy is that people in towns and cities should be treated equally.

Any native title claimants or holders on any VCL within a town or city are guaranteed the procedural rights of a freeholder. They generally are, at least, the right to be notified, to be consulted, to object and to be heard. It is not as though they do not have a say; they do. We strongly believe in non-discrimination in relation to those Australians in towns and cities subject to compulsorily acquisition for the purposes that often occur in relation to towns and cities.

If an area is being compulsorily acquired for a purpose—and it may well involve native title holders or claimants on vacant crown land, as well as freeholders right alongside the bit of vacant crown land—then we believe, as a matter of principle, that there should be no discrimination in the treatment of those people. The rights accorded to the freeholders shall be the rights accorded to any native title claimants and holders right next door.

I appreciate where Senator Harradine is coming from. This is one of the issues that is always a problem in relation to discrimination, but in our view it is discriminatory in a town or city to say that, when an area is being acquired for a development of that kind, the freeholder has the freeholding procedural rights that apply, but the native title claimants or holders next door have a different and—almost always, under the right to negotiate—superior right.

As a matter of policy, we think that is inappropriate. Outside towns and cities it is a different question. You are normally dealing with mining there, where, as we have said, on vacant crown land, that will remain, and where the right to negotiate may well be more appropriate. That is the policy. It is not some attempt to deny native title claimants and holders within towns and cities their rights. They have the rights of the freeholders who are right alongside them and who, in many cases, will have their property acquired as well.