Graziers, Aborigines unite to fight development ban
05.06.2006
GRAZIERS and Aboriginal leaders have joined forces against moves by the Beattie Government to ban development on remote river systems.
At the old Musgrave telegraph station in central Cape York at the weekend, pastoralists and Aboriginal groups resolved to work together to defeat legislation to protect rivers that have retained their ``natural values''.
The legislation has been implemented to prevent any development or use of river systems away from the state's large population centres.
But Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson said the legislation would prevent economic development in indigenous communities and disrupt cultural traditions.
``We don't want to put ourselves in a position where we have the capacity to undertake profitable, sustainable development in the future but we are simply prevented from using our land by blanket legislation such as this,'' Mr Pearson said.
Pastoralists complain that the legislation was introduced without consultation and prevents them from making improvements to their cattle stations.
Norm Kippen, of the rural lobby group AgForce, said the Government had failed to recognise sustainable development, while increasing the amount of regulation for landowners.
Premier Peter Beattie has agreed to look at how the policyhas been implemented but said he would not alter its ``philosophy''.
``It's the issue of how far you take the protection of wild rivers,'' Mr Beattie said.
Cape York Land Council chairman Michael Ross, who runs the 2000-head cattle station Glen Garland, said the legislation had given pastoralists and Aborigines reason to unite and they were ``ready to fight''.
Before the legislation was introduced, the state Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy warned there had been no consultation with those affected and that ``the real concern is the prescriptive nature of the policy that delivers an end product that services environmental outcomes without due consideration of their social and economic impact''.
``The proposal fails to robustly address the potential impact on the aspirations of indigenous communities as, almost exclusively, they will be the only Queenslanders affected by virtue of the location of the rivers named as examples,'' said thedepartment.
The Wilderness Society is running a nationwide campaign to protect wild rivers and has lobbied the Beattie Government to protect more areas through itslegislation.
