Traveston dam Indigenous agreement signed

Posted Wed Apr 23, 2008

Another significant step has been taken towards the construction of the controversial proposed Traveston Crossing dam south of Gympie in south-east Queensland.

Traditional owners and the State Government-owned company developing the project have registered an Indigenous land use agreement with the National Native Title Tribunal.

The registration recognises the native title rights of the Kabi Kabi people and Queensland Water Infrastructure chief executive officer Graeme Newton says it is an important step forward.

“It’s a significant box to be ticked and I think both ourselves and the Indigenous parties are very pleased to have that box ticked to allow us to move forward,” he said.

Kabi Kabi elder Lurlene Henderson says the group has been compensated for use of the land to build the dam and she is pleased the agreement recognises the traditional owners of the area.

“It will allow us to operate our cultural heritage interests and to deal with native title in the area for all Kabi Kabi people,” she said.

 State Hansard: 1st, May 2008

Traveston Dam, ILUA

Hon. PT LUCAS (Lytton—ALP) (Deputy Premier and Minister for Infrastructure and Planning) (9.56 am): Yesterday in parliament the member for Gympie asked the Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships if she could explain the background to recent court action regarding the Traveston Crossing Dam Indigenous land use agreement. I am surprised that the member for Gympie was not aware the question should have been addressed to me as infrastructure minister overseeing the SEQ water grid, including this vital project, especially given he put out a media release about the issue six weeks ago.

Nevertheless, I am pleased to update the House on the status of this important step in the project. On 14 April 2008, following extensive engagement and negotiations dating back to September 2006, the National Native Title Tribunal registered an Indigenous land use agreement for the Traveston Crossing Dam project. It recognises the rights and interests of the Kabi Kabi people, sometimes known as Gubi Gubi, for the lands and waters in the project area. It was authorised by 10 signatories on behalf of the Kabi Kabi people at a publicly notified meeting attended by approximately 175 traditional owners in August 2007.

On 18 February 2008, a native title claim was lodged by some members of the Gubi Gubi people which would have adversely impacted on the agreement. The original signatories of the ILUA with QWI—that is, the Kabi Kabi people—requested Queensland Water Infrastructure join them to have this native title claim struck out in the Federal Court to protect the ILUA which had been signed in August 2007. On 11 March 2008, the Federal Court agreed that the Kabi Kabi people and QWI were appropriate parties in the application.

On 11 April 2008, the parties who lodged a native title claim withdrew their application. The National Native Title Tribunal registered the ILUA on 14 April. The member for Gympie clearly does not have a good understanding of the matters facing his electorate. This ILUA allows for the benefits to be shared equally amongst all the Kabi Kabi peoples.

But let us have a look at the record of the National Party on these sorts of issues. During the Bjelke-Petersen era, it was Queensland government policy to deny legitimate freehold sales of leases to Indigenous groups. In 1976 the Bjelke-Petersen government blocked the purchase of a pastoral lease by the Aboriginal Land Fund Commission in the Aurukun region. The plaintiff in the case, John Koowarta, took the Bjelke-Petersen government to the High Court and won. He actually had money to buy it, but what did the National Party government do? They made it a national park over the top of him.

That is what they did. That was their attitude then.

I will come back to the present. So what has the National Party done since then? In 1997 the National Party released a discussion paper that called for, among other things, a 1 January 2000 deadline on all native title claims. That same year, National Party president Don McDonald was calling for the widespread extinguishment of native title across Australia.

This is pure hypocrisy from the member for Gympie. He is a born-again environmentalist, a bornagain champion of social justice, but we do not have to scratch the surface very hard to reveal his National Party true colours. He is against a dam that would take only four per cent of the total flow of the Mary River when six per cent goes to agricultural uses. The other day his mate the member for Darling Downs had a go at environmental flows in the Kolan river system.

It is about time the members opposite were exposed as the hypocrites they are.