Media release – Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania (ALCT). 7 June 2022
BUDGET ESTIMATES: PREMIER, PLEASE DON’T HIDE BEHIND YOUR OWN DRAWN-OUT REVIEW FOR A LACK OF ACTION ON LAND RETURN
The Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania (ALCT) looks forward to the attention of the Premier being focused on an 18-month-old formal land claim for the establishment of an Aboriginal-owned kooparoona niara National Park in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
In response to questions from Member for Nelson Meg Webb, Premier Rockliff demonstrated a level of ignorance on the longstanding land claim, originally made in response to Premier Gutwein’s 2021 State of the State invitation to ‘receive and consider proposals for further land return’. ALCT has twice written to Premier Gutwein, and once to Premier Rockliff to make the claim, with no formal response to date. On Thursday last, proclamations were tabled in Parliament to create low-grade reserves over the claimed land.
“It’s a big job and there’s a lot to get across, but if returning land and reconciling with Aboriginal people is indeed a priority for this Government, responding to a formal land claim from the statutory body that receives Aboriginal Land should be high on the Premier’s list,” said Rebecca Digney, manager of ALCT.
Echoing his Ministers, the Premier pointed to a stalled, four-year long review of the Aboriginal Lands Act 1995 as an excuse not to act. This review seeks to ‘identify barriers to returning land, and seek options to improve the land return process,’ but has no stated timeline or definitive end point (here).
“There are no barriers to returning land to the Land Council as it was specifically established to hold title of land on behalf of the entire Aboriginal community,” said Ms Digney. “There is no other claim on this land so the review is nothing but a poor excuse not to act.”
“The best way to improve the land return process is to actually do something to return land, respond to properly constituted claims, and to treat the Aboriginal community with the respect so many claim to hold, not look for excuses to do nothing”
“Acts are reviewed all the time, but in the interim, that doesn’t stop business proceeding under the existing Act. Planning laws have been reviewed, but that didn’t stop planning applications progressing. Why should land returns stop while Government dithers and delays on an already four year-old review?”
In response to Budget Estimates, ALCT will again write to the Premier to formally claim this land.
