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Bligh's callous land grab

11 April 2009 - Marcia Langton - ON Friday last week, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh effectively announced the gazettal of 13 rivers in Cape York Peninsula under the Wild Rivers Act, restricting the opportunity for local Aborigines to develop river areas for purposes such as farming and tourism, although claiming publicly that only three had been gazetted.

As 13 rivers are involved, the native owners of these areas and the public are liable to be misled by the Premier's press release: "Ms Bligh said the three rivers in Cape York Peninsula had been gazetted following approval by the Governor, Penelope Wesley ... the Archer, Lockhart and Stewart rivers have now been declared as wild river areas."

What appears to be an act in keeping with government commitments to river conservation in fact affects Aboriginal assets extending to 13 rivers in the basins and catchments of the three named rivers, and includes "high preservation zones".

The wild rivers declarations cover 19,000sqkm, mainly indigenous freehold land. In other words, vast areas of land that were not part of the original proposal for these rivers have been added. This sudden announcement was a shock to the Aboriginal owners of these areas.

It is clear that the majority of the submissions from the Aboriginal traditional owners have been ignored and treated with contempt. They were advised by the relevant minister to write to the Wilderness Society for an extension of time to resolve their problems. The Wilderness Society declined.

After denying Cape York people an extension of time to resolve their issues last year, Natural Resources Minister Stephen Robertson said this week that Noel Pearson and his brother Gerhardt should "put their pistols back in the holster" and keep talking to the Labor Government. "It would be a mistake to believe that all traditional owners in Cape York speak with one voice," Robertson said.

"The Pearsons are important voices but they are not the only voices. We have a responsibility to listen to all of them."

In fact, they listened only to the Wilderness Society. Noel Pearson's objection was simple: he believes the Queensland Government has not followed the law in relation to this process.

The gazettal of 13 rivers under the Wild Rivers Act was, I believe, a last-minute, backroom deal between the team lead by Bligh and adviser Mike Kaiser, and the Wilderness Society. The Queensland public has also been misled about this matter. These gazettals could be seen as a pay-off by the Labor Government to the greens who delivered them preferences and seats. For the Wilderness Society's urban-based ideologues, the gazettals are prized acquisitions, easy pickings from the Aborigines.

Gina Castelain, the redoubtable Wik businesswoman whose tourist charter boat plies the Wenlock and Edward rivers in western Cape York Peninsula, appears to have been misled.

She has also been portrayed as an Aborigine who has been consulted, and who agrees with the wild rivers gazettal. Her rivers were not gazetted, however. Castelain has been allowed to believe that the Wild Rivers Act and the gazettal of the Edward River and two others in the peninsula will rid her of the commercial fishermen who plunder the seas and rivers and establish their base camps on Aboriginal land. This is not the case.

The only way she will be rid of them is if Bligh removes their commercial fishing licences. Bligh apparently will not do that. The powerful Queensland Commercial Fishermen's Organisation has the assurance that commercial licences are safe, even though there are classes of licences that should be revoked in order to protect fish stocks and marine and wetland environments. No one who understands the problems would disagree with Castelain's aspirations for the Edward River and her tourist enterprise. But she appears at risk of being a pawn in ALP electoral politics.

Over the past four years, Cape York leaders have tried to intervene in the so-called wild rivers plan at various points - including eliciting commitments from former premier Peter Beattie to ameliorate it - but the scheme has gone from bad to worse in its implications.

The gazettals will not deliver what the public expects: good management of the river basins and protection of biodiversity. On the contrary, these measures will leave these rivers unmanaged and at further risk of degradation. Just as detrimental to the marine and riparian biodiversity of the cape are the recreational fishermen, who are able to enter these vast areas fully equipped with large refrigerated trucks, use dynamite in the rivers, leave waste along the rivers, and who often leave fires alight that turn rapidly into bushfires that burn out thousands of hectares. The Wild Rivers Act and gazettals will do nothing to prevent this environmental destruction.

It has been the case for almost four decades that none of the conservation areas in the cape has been adequately managed by the Queensland government. The National Parks and Wildlife Service would have one or two rangers based at some of the national parks, but their ability to manage these vast areas is severely limited.

Aboriginal management initiatives have been able to address the problems of environmental degradation in the cape where the government has been unable or unwilling to do so. During the past 20 years, Aboriginal ranger programs, pastoral management schemes and river basin management plans have been developed by Aboriginal community councils and the Balkanu Aboriginal Corporation.

Aboriginal traditional owners do not want large-scale environmental destruction in their river basin areas, such as dams, but the wild river gazettals are a terminal threat to their economic future and will deny them the right to the most basic improvements on their land. It is likely that they will not be allowed to build boat ramps. Pearson has made it clear that until the indigenous people of Cape York can largely generate their own incomes, they will be dependent on income transfers, where someone else takes all of the rights and responsibilities to make decisions and take actions on behalf of a relatively powerless people.

In the context of Cape York, some conservationists argue that the only sustainable types of activity are those that preserve the ecological value of the region. This is an extreme interpretation of the concept of sustainability, which in the mainstream usually encompasses three tenets: environment, economy, and equity. These tenets are viewed along a continuum, where meeting the needs of the present does not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (see Brundtland Report, UN, 1987).

At the heart of the equity issue is that mainstream society has had the benefit of developing its economy at significant costs to the environment, but is now seeking increased control over privately held land of conservation value, such as indigenous land on Cape York. The conservation economy will therefore represent nothing more than the residual opportunity for indigenous people after other rights to their land have been weakened or taken away. Perversely, indigenous property rights on Cape York are now being weakened to the point where the potential for indigenous people to benefit from emerging markets for carbon and biodiversity is also negated.

The Wilderness Society would have the Australian public believe that the cape is a wilderness where the Aboriginal population and local graziers are a threat to pristine environments. The photographs they use of the beautiful wetlands, riverways and coastlines are usually on Aboriginal land where Aboriginal rangers patrol to ensure that recreational fishermen, poachers, smugglers and drug dealers, and drug plantation operators do not establish camps and conduct their illegal activities. The rangers have been reporting the activities of such types to the authorities for more than 20 years. Most of these real-life situations on the cape are not part of the Wilderness Society story about the fantasy land they describe as a wilderness.

The Wilderness Society members do not live in the cape. Nor do they depend on the cape for their livelihood, lifestyles and traditions. And they never will. They are playing with thousands of people's lives by remote control.

Pearson is right to accuse Bligh of treating Cape York Aborigines with contempt. She has eliminated from the riverine homelands not only the tribes' native title rights but also their future potential to participate in the only kinds of economic activity that are possible in Cape York. Bringing Aboriginal people out of welfare and into the economy has been the goal of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership, led by Pearson, for the past four years. Great strides have been made; there are voluntary alcohol management plans, the Families Responsibilities Commission involves elders in bringing vulnerable and irresponsible parents to account through case management and income management, and the welfare reform project now working in the cape has resulted in real pathways out of poverty.

Bligh attended the opening of the institute in 2005, but this year she has betrayed the people of Cape York.

It is a white-settler tradition in Queensland to expropriate Aboriginal land and marginalise Aboriginal people.

Bligh continues this tradition, in my view, extinguishing native title rights and economic opportunities for thousands of Aboriginal people, while Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announces Australia's support for the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights and plans to close the gap on Aboriginal life expectancy.

If Bligh persists, then all the good work by Pearson and many others to enable Aboriginal people to participate in the economy and improve their education and health will fail. There are lives at stake in this equation. If Cape York traditional owners blockade the cape, as Michael Ross, Olkolo leader and chairman of the Cape York Land Council, has suggested, the trust and partnership painstakingly built up over the past 20 years will vanish. If Bligh thinks this is acceptable, she too has been severely misled by the so-called greens and the party apparatchiks who would sacrifice all this for their deal.

Marcia Langton is professor of Australian indigenous studies at the University of Melbourne

Source: The Australian

PREMIER ANNOUNCES NEW WILD RIVERS

Ms Bligh said the three rivers in Cape York Peninsula had been gazetted following approval by the Governor Penelope Wesley.

“The Archer, Lockhart and Stewart rivers have now been declared as wild river areas,” she said.

“We have already declared six rivers along the east coast and in the Gulf of Carpentaria as wild rivers as part of our previous commitment to protect 19 northern waterways.

“This brings the current number of wild rivers in Queensland to nine.

“We will continue to roll out this program and fulfil our election promise to extend our protection program to three rivers in the south-west channel country.”

Queensland's unique wild rivers legislation protects pristine and near pristine Queensland rivers for current and future Queenslanders and the world.

Settlement Creek, Morning Inlet, the Gregory River and Staaten River, in the Gulf, and Hinchinbrook and Fraser islands have already been declared wild river areas.

“This year, we will complete the gazettal of Wenlock river and start consultation for the Ducie, Watson, Olive, Pascoe and Jacky Jacky rivers,” said Ms Bligh.

“Then in 2010, we will nominate the Jardine, Holroyd, Coleman and Jeanie river basins for gazettal.

“We will also fulfil our election promise to extend our protection program to the south-west’s Diamantina and Georgina rivers and Cooper Creek.”

Ms Bligh said many of Queensland’s rivers have been affected by urbanisation, industrial development and farming activities.

“That’s why protecting our remaining pristine rivers — our wild rivers, with virtually all of their natural values intact — is even more important,” she said.

The Premier said it was important to note that the declaration of a wild river under the Wild Rivers Act 2005 does not preclude all future development in a wild river area.

“While we want to preserve our wild rivers we also want local communities to continue to prosper,” she said.

“Activities such as mining, grazing, fishing, eco-tourism, outstation development and indigenous cultural activities can all still occur.

“This proposal is about ensuring the natural biodiversity and cultural heritage is protected, and any developments are undertaken responsibly, without detriment to the basin area.”

Details of the three Cape river basins, which cover an area of nearly 19,500 square kilometres, are:

• The Stewart River Basin on Cape York’s east coast includes the catchments of Massy Creek, Breakfast Creek, the Stewart River, Balclutha Creek and Gorge Creek, which flow from the Great Dividing Range into the Coral Sea and Great Barrier Reef Lagoon. Densely forested mountain ranges and extensive floodplains. Diverse topography, climate and soil support significant vegetation communities, including large areas of rainforest in the McIlwraith Range. Land use is grazing and conservation management.

• Also on Cape York’s east coast, Lockhart River Basin includes catchments of the Claudie River, Lockhart River, Nesbit River and Chester River. Region has significant areas of rainforest, eucalypt and paperbark woodlands, and estuarine wetlands. Include the Iron Range National Park and Lloyd Bay Wetlands - extensive and diverse wetlands of national significance. Land use is conservation management, grazing and tourism.

• The Archer River Basin drains into the Gulf of Carpentaria on the west coast of Cape York. Includes catchments of the Archer, Kirke and Love Rivers. Basin estuaries are in a natural state and there are a number of significant wetlands, including the Archer River Aggregation. Also includes the Mungkan Kandju National Park.

Media contact: (07) 3224 4500

Also see:

• Cape York Institute
• Queensland Government Wild Rivers

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