Federal Liberal/National Coalition leader Tony Abbott left Normanton, in far north Queensland’s gulf country, on November 10, having failed to win Aboriginal elders' backing for his bill to repeal Queensland's Wild Rivers legislation.
The existing Wild Rivers legislation aims to protect the wilderness rivers of the tropical north, and provide Aboriginal control of employment and economic development in the region.
"We do not support [Abbott’s] shonky bill”, Aboriginal activist Murrandoo Yanner, from the Carpentaria Land Council, told the November 11 Courier Mail. "We think it is badly drafted and legally unenforceable."
"[Abbott] will leave unhappy”, Yanner he said. Yanner supports the existing law, introduced by the Queensland Labor government, and described Abbott’s bill as a “dog's breakfast”.
Yanner said the existing law protected the "lifeblood of the rivers”.
Yanner presented Abbott with a pair of “budgie smugglers” in the colours of the Aboriginal flag and emblazoned with the words: “Wild Rivers ranger.”
Abbott’s bill is supported by conservative Cape York Aboriginal figure Noel Pearson. Abbott vowed to keep trying to win over Aboriginal leaders in the gulf country, with amendments to the bill if necessary, and to win the support of the federal independents.
The Wild Rivers legislation was introduced by the state government in 2005 to protect river systems by limiting development in areas of environmental significance. There are now 10 declared wild rivers basins.
On November 11, Premier Anna Bligh met with Yanner and other Aboriginal representatives from north Queensland and announced the creation of five more Wild Rivers Aboriginal ranger positions before the end of the year, to take the total to 35, the November 12 Courier Mail reported. The jobs come with the guarantee of public service-style employment tenure, with plans to create 100 positions statewide.
"She has taken away one of the main sticks being wielded in the anti-Wild Rivers campaign”, Yanner said. "Now all those blackfella rangers are guaranteed jobs and year-to-year contracts and can afford to get a loan for a house or send their kids to a good college."
The Courier Mail said few other Aboriginal job creation programs in the Gulf and Cape regions matched the success of the Wild River ranger program. They work to cull wild pigs, survey bird colonies, remove ghost nets and eradicate vast swathes of noxious weeds choking waterways and forests.
The program has also broken down barriers between graziers and Aboriginal people. The next move is to push for the Wild Rivers rangers to be contracted to go into national parks, where pigs and weeds run rampant, to perform the same role.