Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Water. How is the Albanese Labor government drawing on Indigenous knowledge and expertise to manage and restore Australia's environment, and what lessons can we learn from these programs?

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Lingiari for showing me a really good time in the Northern Territory last week. I travelled up and met with her to announce our government's commitment to adding 10 new Indigenous protected areas to our national estate. This will add millions of hectares to the land that will be protected for nature as part of our national estate.

I was with the member for Lingiari at the Katiti-Petermann protected area, next to the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in the beautiful red heart of our country. It is such a treat to be able to spend a day on country with Indigenous rangers on an Indigenous protected area—people who know their land like no-one else does, people who are better prepared to care for that land than anyone else is. We heard about the cultural burning work that the rangers are doing to reduce the intensity of bushfires. We heard about their work on feral species management—in particular, cats and camels, which are causing so much destruction in the centre—and their work in dealing with invasive plants like buffel grass, which competes with native grasses, destroys the habitat of the animals that live in the area and, of course, burns very hot, contributing to very destructive wildfires.

IPAs are a terrific homegrown success story. They already cover 87 million hectares of land and five million hectares of sea. But what is important about them is how they are managed. We spoke to rangers there, listened to their expertise, listened to their love of country. They also made the very good point that where you have Indigenous protected areas managed by Indigenous rangers you get better environmental outcomes and you also get better economic outcomes. I had one of the rangers say to me: 'Look, it just makes no sense. We had young people here sitting around being paid unemployment benefits. Instead they're now earning more. At the same time they're contributing more economically to their local community, they're also contributing more to environmental protections around their local community.'

I'm also delighted to be announcing this week, with the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, the doubling of the number of Indigenous ranger positions that this government will support. This is an important environmental measure; it's an important economic measure as well. It just shows that when we talk to people about the things that are important in their lives and important in their communities we get better decisions. That's what the Voice is all about. It's about acknowledgement and it's about listening, for better results. (Time expired)