Media release – Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania (ALCT), 16 June 2022
Disallowing low-grade reserve keeps an Aboriginal-owned national park alive
The Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania (ALCT) has requested the Tasmanian Greens move a motion to ‘disallow’ low-grade reserve proclamations in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA), giving Premier Jeremy Rockliff an opportunity to properly consider and respond to ALCT’s 15 month-old formal land claim for a kooparoona niara National Park, first presented to past-Premier Gutwein in response to his 2021 State of the State invitation.
ALCT twice wrote to Premier Gutwein and once to Premier Rockliff, formally making a claim to ‘Unallocated Crown Land’ that was never ceded and has been destined for Parliament for a tenure change since UNESCO requested it be given national park status in 2015. ALCT has yet to receive a formal response.
“This motion keeps alive the opportunity for a ground-breaking new Aboriginal-owned and managed national park in lutruwita/Tasmania,” said Rebecca Digney, manager of ALCT. “We hope Premier Rockliff embraces the chance to consider and respond to this land claim and walk the talk on land returns with a new tenure and a kooparoona niara National Park.”
The ‘disallowance motion’ halts the automatic gazettal of the low-grade reserves and forces Parliamentary debate on the tenures proposed for the land. In March 2022, ALCT wrote to the departmental head overseeing the tenure change process, requesting that the proclamation process be halted. That request was ignored.
“Government talks up its commitment to reconciliation and that returning more land to the Aboriginal Community is its priority, but in eight years we’ve had no action, this opportunity has been totally overlooked and our formal land claim continues to go ignored,” said Ms Digney.
“This is land that was never ceded. It’s Unallocated Crown Land and it’s coming to Parliament for a tenure change. Giving it back is logical, just and what good-hearted Tasmanians would expect.
“Debating these reserve proclamations in Parliament will give supporters of land returns the opportunity to advocate on our behalf and ensure naysayers explain how ignoring a formal land claim and denying land returns will progress reconciliation and justice.”
ALCT will write to all members of Parliament seeking their support for the kooparoona niara National Park concept and thanks Greens Leader Cassy O’Connor for acting on its behalf.
Cassy O’Connor MP, Greens Leader, 16 June 2022
Greens Move to Disallow kooparoona niara Proclamation
Lutruwita/Tasmania was never ceded by Aboriginal people. It was stolen from them at the point of a gun. The path to reconciliation has been slow, painful and full of disappointment for Aboriginal Tasmanians.
It has been 17 years since any lands were returned to Aboriginal people through State Parliament. It’s been seven years since the UN World Heritage Committee asked the Australian and Tasmanian Governments to upgrade the tenure of unallocated Crown Lands inside the World Heritage Area extension to National Park.
It has been 15 months since the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania responded to the then-Premier’s invitation to submit a claim for land return. There has been no response from the Gutwein or Rockliff Government to ALCT’s formal claim for kooparoona niara to be returned and managed as an Aboriginal owned national park.
Instead, on 2 June – in Reconciliation Week – the Parks Minister tabled two proclamations to upgrade the tenure of unallocated Crown Lands within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Before that day, for fifteen months, no conversation was had, nor was there an acknowledgement or response sent to the Aboriginal Land Council.
This is an insult to lutruwita’s First People.
This is why we moved to do something highly unusual for the Greens, and have moved to delay reserve tenure upgrades inside the World Heritage Area so Parliament debate the return of kooparoona niara/Great Western Tiers to Aboriginal people as an Aboriginal Protected Area.
We are calling on the Rockliff Government to delay this proclamation, do the work to establish a reserve class tenure for Aboriginal lands, and return this ancient cultural landscape to its people.
This was a key recommendation in the Pathway to Truth-Telling and Treaty report handed down by respected Professors Kate Warner and Tim McCormack late last year.
We stand with the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania, Tasmanian National Parks Association and the Tasmanian Wilderness Society in calling on the government to stop paying lip service on reconciliation.
The Greens will bring our motion on for debate after the winter recess, unless Premier Rockliff intervenes. We urge the Premier to remove the proclamations and start again.
We hope the new Premier will do what his two Liberal predecessors have not, and return kooparoona niara to the Aboriginal people of lutruwita/Tasmania, then accelerate the process of land returns through all possible means.
