Dr WOODRUFF – Thanks. Minister, I’m not sure if this fits straight within your portfolio or within Parks, but an Aboriginal constituent has asked me to question you about working with indigenous leaders in caring for country and fire management. Is there any work that you do in that space, and if so, could you talk about that?
Mrs ARCHER – Yes, it probably does sit more with Parks, and Mr Jacobi made some reference to it shortly before. Would you like to make some more comments about that?
Mr JACOBI – Through you, minister. Please do raise that in the Parks session and we can have the appropriate people there to respond more clearly to that. My understanding is that our Aboriginal fire rangers are actively engaged with Aboriginal community, and I would assume leaders of Aboriginal communities, about fire management on Aboriginal land.
Dr WOODRUFF – Okay, I will do that. In relation to indigenous protected areas, the Secretary spoke earlier about Kooparoona Niara not being off the table, which is very good to hear. What’s the time frame for developing an IPA tenure? I think you’re the third minister I’ve been talking to about this.
Mrs ARCHER – Yes, timeframes?
Mr JACOBI – We have no timeframe at this stage, through you, minister.
Mrs ARCHER – Yes, as we referenced earlier, I think there are some complexities to work through with all of these issues. I can only reiterate my commitment to working through them and really trying to get action on these issues.
Dr WOODRUFF – What could people do to encourage you to have a timeframe? It has been talked about, and having a commitment is one thing, actually having a government process. If there isn’t a government process, if there isn’t somebody who’s tasked with doing the job and tasked with getting an outcome by a certain date, then it’s fair for the community to just assume you’re actually only talking about it. You’re never going to do anything. I think people would like to know whether it’s going to happen or not. They do want some honesty on these issues, because people have been waiting a really long time. Maybe it’s because you’re putting all your efforts into land returns, which some people would feel really happy about ‑ but as we said before, it’s not an either/or, it’s a both. So, what about a commitment today to a timeframe for developing an IPA or to a process of starting consultation with community or something?
Mrs ARCHER – Louise, perhaps talk to where we’re –
Mr JACOBI – Through you, minister, a timeframe would be very difficult to commit to at this point in time. Absolutely, commencing consultation about what is the right mechanism. Is it a section 29 under the National Parks and Reserves Management arrangements, which is a managing authority arrangement? That could be a really good interim step. Currently, we can grant certain types of reserved land to incorporated bodies, for example, councils, and make them the managing authority. That is a tool and an instrument that exists now in legislation and I believe that serves as a very practical, immediate action that could be taken. If a particular incorporated body were to say yes, we want to be the managing authority for a reserve land parcel, we could actively look at that now. It exists in legislation and it could be provided for.
In terms of creating that tenure that we talked about before, which is either an Aboriginal protected area, which could apply across a suite of different tenure types, or an Aboriginal national park, that requires opening up the legislation and it requires writing the specific objectives for what an Aboriginal national park or an Aboriginal protected area should achieve. I’m not suggesting that is a hard thing to do, but a lot of consultation would need to occur with the Aboriginal community to do that. At the moment we don’t have the capacity because we are absolutely focused on land return, as the minister has pointed out, but it is certainly something that we would be open to in the future.
Dr WOODRUFF – Okay, thank you for that. If the Aboriginal Heritage Act goes through next year ‑ which I believe everyone in this room would really hope is the latest it would happen ‑ there’s still another three years or less before there would be another election in this term of government. Can you see that being a body of work after the Aboriginal Heritage Act goes through, as a priority?
Mrs ARCHER – Yes, certainly I could see that it would be a potential body of work. I don’t think that’s a question, it’s just a question of what are we prioritising first? As you identified, obviously the Aboriginal Heritage Act is a very high priority, and we do have some specific time frames to work towards with that, which is good and positive.
We are committed to progressing land return, and the Secretary might want to speak to the complexities of working through that, which would give a bit of an idea of the resourcing in terms of priorities. I certainly wouldn’t say it was not on the table.
Mr JACOBI – I don’t have anything more to add, other than, through you, minister, each parcel can look and appear very simple to do as a land transfer or as a lease or even as a hand‑back. Often you don’t necessarily always get agreement between Aboriginal organisations about who should be responsible for that parcel.
Mrs ARCHER – That consultation and that listening is really important in terms of working through that. This has been challenging over time. That’s why we haven’t seen one for a long time, as you identified, but we are committed to working through those in a considered and measured way to get a good outcome.
As I said previously in relation to Aboriginal heritage or land hand‑backs, importantly, we want to see those be enduring as well.
