Senator MINCHIN (Special Minister of State and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister)(9.25 p.m.) —I do just want to respond to that, because you are dealing with an entirely different situation in towns and cities than you are outside towns and cities that Senator Harradine talks about. There is a lot more pressure in terms of development in growing towns and cities. They have to be able to expand.

What is happening in Western Australia is a very significant problem. Because the right to negotiate does not work as some people think it does, where you can have it all done in eight months, that does not happen. There are right to negotiate processes in Western Australia that are still taking three years. These things do not happen in eight months. Because of the complexity of the right to negotiate process, the avenues for legal opportunities to delay the process are enormous.

We are finding in places like Kalgoorlie that there has been no new land released for residential or industrial purposes since March 1995 because of native title claims. The people in Karratha, Western Australia, are experiencing land price hikes of up to 300 per cent due to a shortage of land for development, because of native title claims in and around the city and the impossibility of working through them and getting resolution of these issues.

It is a very major problem particularly in towns and cities in Western Australia but in other parts of Australia as well. It is causing considerable concern and social unrest in places like Kalgoorlie and Karratha. We believe this is the only way through this process. We have done this for genuine policy reasons that are a consequence of the problems that are being experienced on the ground in those sorts of towns.

You are getting social unrest because of the intractability of the native title claims, the incapacity to work your way through them because of current problems in the act. Because you have all these multiple claimants, you cannot get agreements; so people are resorting to court to break the process down. That is why you are getting these sorts of manifest problems in places like Kalgoorlie and Karratha.

We believe that what we are proposing is absolutely fair, equitable and non-discriminatory because it is treating everyone in town and city boundaries exactly the same. They will all have the rights of freeholders in relation to any requirement for development of suburbs and growth of towns and cities, which is something all Australians should want. One of the problems we have is the contraction in Australia. We want our rural and regional towns and cities to develop. We do not want the social tension that is being caused as a result of problems like those in Kalgoorlie and Karratha. We think this is a very sensible, fair and equitable amendment. We ask the chamber to support it.