Dr WOODRUFF – Minister, your department’s review in 2021 of the Aboriginal Heritage Act identified it, correctly, as the worst Aboriginal cultural heritage law in the country.
Mr JAENSCH – Did it?
Dr WOODRUFF – Yes. Matthew Groom, when he was the Heritage minister in 2016, said it was shamefully disrespectful of Aboriginal people and woefully outdated. You’ve talked about an exposure draft finally coming. Other documents, like the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area Management Plan, have identified cultural landscapes for Aboriginal people as extremely significant and deserving of protection. The current act doesn’t countenance protections for cultural landscapes and it’s stuck in an antiquated archaeological approach, which some members of the Aboriginal community have called a sticks and bones approach to protecting Aboriginal culture. Will you commit? Does your exposure draft countenance protections for Aboriginal cultural landscapes and seascapes?
Mr JAENSCH – Thank you for the question. There is a wide range of matters that are covered in the successive drafts of the new legislation and the matter of Aboriginal cultural landscapes has been given a lot of consideration, as have other things like intangible cultural heritage, to the extent that the two are different. Some of the matters that we’re working through still – one of the reasons this isn’t straightforward and quick work is that we need to not only protect Aboriginal cultural heritage in its various forms, but also to provide people interacting with the legislation with clarity and certainty about what that means, what their obligations are, and how to manage for them and around them.
We need to be careful that we don’t create uncertainty when we introduce into legislation protection for things that are new ideas or concepts that arguably have a subjective assessment of significance built into them. We don’t want to end up creating confusion, or even resentment and hostility towards notions of Aboriginal cultural heritage.
One of the things that I’ve been very consistent with in briefing, and being briefed by, my department is to look closely at what happened in Western Australia when they introduced new Aboriginal cultural heritage protection legislation within the last couple of years, then withdrew it.
Dr WOODRUFF – Yes. They went back to a very dark place.
Mr JAENSCH – That’s right. In the process there were a lot of people who weren’t terribly deeply engaged with the subject matter who weighed‑in on arguments there. It has set back Aboriginal affairs, the discussion, the acceptance, and the reconciliation journey because it introduced fear and uncertainty where that was not needed. We want to avoid that wherever possible. We want to make our new legislation robust in terms of the the way it protects Aboriginal cultural heritage. We need to make sure that it is clear to everybody how that works and what their obligations are. There may also be issues that, ultimately, we would like to have considered and protected through this legislation that we’ll have to decide whether we spend another year trying to refine and polish to make sure they’re absolutely watertight, or if we set them aside and put them to further work while we get on with the things that we know we can get right. Cultural landscapes may be in that latter category. We’ve not yet finalised the draft. You’ll see it when it comes out and we’ll take your feedback when you see it.
Dr WOODRUFF – I’m sure you’re aware that cultural landscapes is the issue that Tasmanian Aboriginal people continually raise as the area which is –
Mr JAENSCH – Aboriginal people raise lots of issues all the time, it’s not my –
Dr WOODRUFF – Can I just finish my question, minister? The issue that Aboriginal people continually raise as the kind of gross failure of our legislation in being able to protect ancient Aboriginal areas. It was the west coast of takayna that was protected in 2012 as the Western Aboriginal Cultural Lands that would tackle the western –
Mr JAENSCH – Tasmanian Aboriginal Cultural Landscape.
Dr WOODRUFF – Tasmanian Aboriginal Cultural Landscape. Because of its hut depressions and high density of midden deposits, petroglyphs, and burial sites, amongst many other incredibly important cultural factors in that living landscape.
Your government has continually supported four‑wheel driving in that area and in the Arthur-Pieman Conservation Area. The Parks minister has put out a draft West Coast Off‑Road Vehicle Strategy. I know you’re aware of it. Can you see the harm that would be done to that extraordinary living landscape if four‑wheel driving was expanded as is proposed under this government initiative? It’s a $10 million funded initiative for mainland four‑wheel drivers to come to Tasmania as part of a north‑west tourism strategy.
Mr JAENSCH – I think you’ve put your own ribbon on that to suit your narrative about what the purpose of that strategy is.
Dr WOODRUFF – It is stated in that document.
Mr JAENSCH – Another perspective on it is that, post the closure of tracks south of Sandy Cape, due to their impact on Aboriginal cultural heritage, which haven’t been reopened, undertakings have been given to ensure that the existing track networks are maintained, managed, and used in such a way that they don’t cause further damage to the environment and its natural values and heritage values as well, whilst continuing to provide opportunities for people to access and enjoy that landscape that people have been accessing and enjoying for tens of thousands of years. This is very important the modern‑day communities of the north‑west of Tasmania and those who visit from elsewhere as well. It’s part of their culture and their heritage that they can visit and interact with that environment.
I don’t see there’s anything wrong with that. I think it’s a very healthy thing that we have people out in these landscapes enjoying them and enjoying traditional pursuits there. I’ve got no concern. I’m glad we’ve got a strategy coming together to govern how that area is used and protected in the future with a particular eye on protecting Aboriginal cultural heritage. It’s wrong for you to suggest that the government is promoting unregulated four‑wheel drive access and people driving over Aboriginal heritage, as you often do. It’s quite irresponsible to continue to do so.
Dr WOODRUFF – Your own Aboriginal Heritage Council in their recent update said:
In June the AHC lodged a submission regarding Tasmania Parks and Wildlife’s draft West Coast Off-Road Vehicle Strategy. The AHC were strongly opposed to the strategy and detailed several key concerns relating to appropriate management and protection for Aboriginal cultural values.
Their words, minister, your council’s. Not ours.
Mr JAENSCH – And again –
Dr WOODRUFF – Can I finish and ask the question? Why are you deaf to listening to the Aboriginal community about the necessary protections? Isn’t this basically about pandering to developers and making sure that you can provide clear pathways for development approvals, like for Robbins Island that the Aboriginal Heritage Council was so concerned about, like for kunanyi that they were also so concerned about, and that fell on deaf ears to you?
Mr JAENSCH – I’m not sure which part of that is your question. I think you’ve given a speech which reiterates –
Dr WOODRUFF – You’re not listening to the community, to your own council.
CHAIR – Order.
Mr JAENSCH – your narrative on a range of topics there.
In terms of the Aboriginal Heritage Council, I do listen to them continuously on a wide range of matters there. Putting out a draft strategy is precisely to get input and advice from a range of different perspectives, including from the Aboriginal Heritage Council. They’re performing an important part of that process.
Dr WOODRUFF – Did you back it up to the Parks minister with your view as well?
CHAIR – Order.
Mr JAENSCH – The other thing I need to be clear about, is that you’re asking questions and making assertions around a wide range of areas of government activity which are outside my portfolio responsibilities.
Dr WOODRUFF – Maybe they shouldn’t be: that’s our point. Maybe you should take more ownership of your portfolio.
Mr JAENSCH – That’s a matter you can take up with the Premier in terms of where portfolio allocation should lie.
Dr WOODRUFF – We try on a regular basis.
Mr JAENSCH – Did you want to try to bring that down to a particular question, or is it just a general of –
Dr WOODRUFF – The question is are you going to put cultural and seascape protections into the new legislation? If it doesn’t, it’s utterly failing the needs for Tasmanian Aboriginal people.
Mr JAENSCH – I’ve had a discussion about Aboriginal cultural landscapes. I have my own understanding of different layers of what Aboriginal cultural heritage landscapes are about. I would like to see them somehow recognised and recorded because it’s part of us being able to read the human history of our state through our landscapes. That’s a really important thing for us to be able to do.
Dr WOODRUFF – What about protecting them as well as reading about them?
CHAIR – Order.
Mr JAENSCH – It’s a different thing to work out how to protect that in legislation, in a way that’s consistent and clear to people who may come up against it.
Dr WOODRUFF – It’s your job.
CHAIR – Order, Mrs Pentland will go next.
Mr JAENSCH – We’ll do that to the best of our ability. You’ll see what our proposed approach is when we release our draft legislation.
