Senator CHRIS EVANS (Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) (9:58 AM) —I move opposition amendment (5) on sheet 5008:

The opposition also opposes schedule 1 in the following terms:

I am in the happy position of having already spoken on these matters, so that will facilitate the work of the committee. As I indicated earlier, they try to pick up what was contained in the original agreement between the land councils and the Northern Territory government. Pending some explanation by the government that convinces me otherwise, we think these will improve the bill. They would carry out the original intent of the long negotiations to which Senator Kemp referred and would confirm the advice found in the various reports and inquiries into these matters over that long period of time.