Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Yesterday the Senate marked 40 years since the return of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park to the Anangu people. The joint management of the park since then has strengthened custodianship and recognised the Anangu people's relationship with the land. It has embedded cultural knowledge in decisions, it's enabled an end to the destructive climb that ignored cultural values, and it's helped First Nations led tourism to thrive. It demonstrates how traditional owners managing land and sea country leads to better outcomes for culture, community and the environment, which brings me to this bill, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Board of Management Functions) Bill.

This bill fixes a technical issue that would have interrupted First Nations management. Without this amendment, the board of management of a jointly managed national park would lose decision-making powers when a management plan expires. Decisions would revert to the Director of National Parks until a new plan is in place. The management plans for Kakadu National Park and Booderee National Park will expire in the next few months. New management plans are being developed, but they won't be ready before the current plans expire. The Greens support the changes enacted by this bill to allow the boards of Kakadu and Booderee to continue their management roles while the plans are finalised.

Several submitters to the inquiry into the bill were concerned that extending the operation of an expired management plan could mean that decisions did not reflect the best environment or climate science or Indigenous knowledge. It is important that management decisions are informed by the best available information, and I acknowledge the legitimate concerns of those submitters but note that the bill confirms that the board and the director must try to ensure that there is a current plan at all times.

The success of Indigenous protected areas across Australia shows how traditional owners and Indigenous rangers understand and respond to the needs of country. However, developing rigorous and culturally appropriate management strategies takes time, and implementing them takes money. This will only be achieved if the government dedicates sufficient, long-term funding to enable management plans to be developed, implemented and reviewed and for training and support for rangers.

Beyond this bill, much more must be done to enable First Nations custodianship of land and sea country. The shameful destruction of Juukan Gorge by Rio Tinto in 2020 made clear that Australia's laws are failing to protect Aboriginal cultural heritage, and they're not supporting the self-determination of traditional owners. That destruction was all the more shocking because it was entirely legal, and it wasn't an isolated event. First Nations cultural heritage is being destroyed, damaged, degraded and displaced every day across this country. Across the country many sacred First Nations sites are currently under threat, including sacred rock art at Murujuga and in Darwin, sacred forests in the Pilliga, caves along the Great Australian Bight and burial grounds and songlines in the Tiwi Islands. Rio Tinto was widely condemned after it was legally allowed to blow up the 46,000-year-old caves at Juukan Gorge under WA's outdated Aboriginal Heritage Act. The Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura peoples were left devastated while Rio Tinto tried to save face by overhauling its executive team and admitting that it breached traditional owners' trust.

The inquiry that followed on from that incident set out a pathway for a way forward. That inquiry report called on the government to legislate new national cultural heritage laws with proper protection and a process of co-design with First Nations people. It called for minimum legislative standards and approaches to negotiation that are based on principles of self-determination and importantly of free, prior and informed consent. Australia is unceded Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land, and traditional owners must be able to decide what happens on country without interference and with access to the best available information. Australia has yet to ratify the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, but that must not stop us from adopting free, prior and informed consent. First Nations people must be able to withhold consent to the destruction of their cultural heritage and to determine how their land is managed. But it's not happening.

This morning I joined a delegation of First Nations and Pasifika delegates sharing their experiences of how the climate crisis is impacting their countries and their heartbreak at decisions being made to approve fossil fuel projects against their wishes. Most of the recommendations of the Juukan Gorge report have not been implemented. There's been no progress on new cultural heritage laws to protect tangible and intangible heritage. The government has retreated from its earlier support of a makarrata commission and resumed that money. The national environmental standards promised for First Nations consultation and engagement will not be released before the EPBC reforms are introduced. It's just not good enough. I'm moving a second reading amendment to this bill to acknowledge that.

This bill is a welcome step to address a technical issue and to allow uninterrupted First Nations management of Commonwealth reserves, but, if this government is actually committed to managing land, sea and cultural heritage in partnership with First Nations people, it must implement all the recommendations of the Juukan Gorge inquiry report. It must urgently progress cultural heritage laws. It must include robust First Nations engagement and decision-making processes into the EPBC Act consistent with the principles of free, prior and informed consent. It must support First Nations led co-design for all management plans, and it must provide adequate long-term funding for ranger programs and Indigenous protected areas.

As the Minister for Indigenous Australians said yesterday, the formal return of Uluru Kata Tjuta came after more than a century of disposition and four decades of campaigning by the Anangu. Across Australia, First Nations communities continue to fight for country. Let's not make them wait any longer. I move:

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate notes:

(a) the importance of Traditional Owner participation in, and control over, management of land and sea Country; and

(b) that the Albanese Government has not progressed cultural heritage legislation or many recommendations set out in A Way Forward: the final report of the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia's inquiry into the destruction of Indigenous heritage sites at Juukan Gorge, including implementing principles of free, prior and informed consent".