Opinion: Details of $30m-plus Moreton Island handover suppressed

A Labor-stacked parliamentary committee just decided what can and can’t be revealed about the handover of Moreton Island, writes Des Houghton.

A Gold Coast MP has been hauled before the parliamentary ethics committee for doing his job and questioning a secret deal that hands control of 98 per cent of Moreton Island – and great wealth – to Aboriginal “custodians”.

Member for Burleigh Michael Hart has been accused of “unauthorised disclosure of committee proceedings” for a speech he made in Parliament.

That’s right. A Labor-stacked committee has now decided what can and can’t be said in Parliament.

Details of the handover to Indigenous groups have been marked confidential.

A state government funding package, rumoured to be between $32 million and $37 million, is also a closely guarded secret.

You pay and pay, but you won’t be told what for. It’s bald censorship involving public funds and in my opinion is improper. It gets worse.

I’m told the secret Indigenous Land Use Agreements contain a confidential Indigenous Management Agreement that gives Aborigines the right to levy new fees and charges to fishermen, 4WD day-trippers, campers, hikers, whale watchers, boaties, divers, ferry operators and cruise boat operators.

Again, we are blocked from seeing the details.

I suspect Labor is trying to conceal the likelihood its new “partnership” may usher in a fishing and boating tax.

I wonder if the ALP has considered the electoral blowback.

More than 200,000 tourists visit the extraordinary island each year. Hart told Parliament their access to parts of the island would be blocked or regulated.

Locals fear hikers who trek to Honeymoon Bay and North Point lighthouse for the spectacular ocean views may have to pay a fee with access provided by Indigenous tour operators. Similar “joint management” agreements apply to North Stradbroke Island and vast tracts of Cape York. Where next? Fraser Island?

LNP Member for Burleigh Michael Hart (right) with shadow treasurer Tim Nicholls

In his offending speech, Hart spoke about the “lack of consultation and the secrecy that is creeping into the committee process and not allowing members of parliament to do their job”.

The secret deal flows from a 2019 Federal Court determination recognising the Quandamooka people’s native title rights on Moreton Island, or Mulgumpin.

In my opinion the Palaszczuk government has gone too far, using that decision to change state laws to hand joint management rights to the Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation, or QYAC. There is no statutory requirement for secrecy, so I’m still at a loss to understand why Labor demanded it.

Hart added: “There is a great deal of risk in the government using these sorts of secrecy agreements in the future to hide the facts from members of Parliament.

“What are we doing here if we cannot look at all the information we require to do our job? Honestly, what is the point in being a member of parliament if you are denied access to information you need to do your job?”

Well said Mr Hart. Without the details there can be little accountability.

The LNP opposition members meekly followed Labor after suggestions in the House they would be branded racist if they failed to do so. I fear journalists are likewise prisoners of the same woke agenda.

Like many Queenslanders
I have no objection to traditional owners having a say in how these national parks are managed. All the better if worthwhile jobs can be created. “There is no doubt in my mind that the joint management of Moreton Island can work between QYAC and the department of national parks,” Hart said in his speech.

“There will be no problem with this working if people work in good faith, they take care of each other’s problems and issues, and they solve them equally.

“My main concern is how the committee system worked.

“We all know that we are a unicameral Parliament in Queensland, meaning that we have no Senate.

Moreton Island has been handed back to traditional owners.

“Members of this House sit on committees, we look at the bills, we tear them apart, we look to see what the best results are, and then we make recommendations to the House.

“In this case we made a recommendation that the Bill be passed.’’

But Hart and other LNP speakers did so with grave reservations after talking to locals.

“There was a genuine opportunity to facilitate a collaborative relationship between locals and the indigenous landowners, instead the secrecy breeds
a level of fear and animosity,” he told the House.

In fact, the Quandamooka collective has signalled it will use handouts to start Indigenous businesses to compete with those operated by whitefellas. Is that not a conflict of interest?

Shadow attorney-general Tim Nicholls backed Hart.

“If the benefits are so good, if the outcomes will lead to all the positives we are told, then why hide them behind the wall of confidentiality? It is a complete whitewash to simply claim the information cannot be disclosed.”

Inexplicably, Labor’s Chris Whiting, defended the secrecy. He ludicrously suggested the LNP members had no right to know the details of the agreement before they voted on it.

He said: “For us to muddle into a confidential agreement lessens trust in the native title system and the courts in Australia.”

Bullshit.

Whiting added: “All sides need to know that their confidential agreements will remain confidential. They do not need state politicians deciding what is or what will remain confidential. It is not our plaything. It is a confidential agreement.”

Whiting said the LNP was trying to portray the Quandamooka corporation
as financially irresponsible, and at one hearing its members were “accusing them of doing something that was potentially illegal”.

Des Houghton is an independent media consultant and former editor of The Courier-Mail, Sunday Mail and Sunday Sun