Senator Nita Green speaks on working with Crisafulli government and importance of Indigenous Rangers
Senator Nita Green announced the Albanese Government would invest $355 million for 1000 new jobs in the Indigenous Rangers program and spoke on working with new LNP state government.
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Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef Senator Nita Green said she is prepared to work with the Crisafulli government and does not feel threatened by the Katters intention to test the new parliament with reef regulations.
At a party level, KAP leader Robbie Katter said he would consider introducing policies around protecting primary industries and ethical issues aligned with its core values.
“A lot of stuff that’s gone in before would be a good start,” he said.
“It would be interesting to test the new parliament on commercial fishing, I’ve got my Babies Born Alive bill to put back in, Blue Card bill to put back in, and we might, we could, test reef regulations, vegetation management.”
“It would be good to test something on water allocations and water infrastructure.”
In Townsville on Friday to announce the expansion of the Indigenous Rangers Program across regional Queensland, Ms Green said the government will commit to expanding the program to allow for another 1000 rangers.
“That means nationally, we’re delivering $355 million to expand our range of programs across the country,” she said.
“What I’m really excited about as a Queensland Senator and the Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef, is that Queensland is getting the most proportion of this funding.”
Ms Green said Indigenous Sea and Land Rangers play an “integral role” in protecting the environment and was hoping to see an increase in the number of female rangers
“There’s a lot of female Rangers already out there, working on land and sea country, but we want to give that an extra boost, ”she said.
Federal Labor candidate for Herbert Edwina Andrew said she was “ecstatic” about the announcement to expand the Ranger program.
“I’ve seen it in action on Magnetic Island. I’ve seen it in action around the Townsville region. I lived on Magnetic Island for some time, which I absolutely loved, and just seeing that sharing of knowledge between the traditional owners, the ones that have had that knowledge for 60,000 years, passing on that love and custodianship of that land to the rangers that were currently employed on the island was just incredible to see,” she said.
Ms Andrews said she was working hard in the background in the lead up to the federal election next year.
“My background is in the community sector. I understand the cost of living impacts. I understand the struggles that people are experiencing at the moment, and stay tuned, because there’s some pretty big conversations we’ll be having around those areas,” she said.
Speaking on David Crisafulli reinforcing his election commitment to end Queensland’s truth-telling inquiry, Senator Green said it was something that needed to be a “ongoing conversation”.
“We have a new state government worded in by the people of Queensland, and they had an agenda that they took to the election, and they’re going through the process of implementing that They were very clear about their department treaty and that they didn’t support that,” she said.
“So I understand them taking these steps. What I’d encourage them to do is to think about what elements of this process could still be retained to provide some benefit to community.
“I think a broader conversation with the community about what parts of this process could still provide some benefit, whether that’s just consulting with groups, making sure that our First Nations communities do have a say at the table of Government, that is something that should be an ongoing conversation with any government, no matter who’s in the Premier’s chair.”
Following the state election which saw Labor’s three MPs removed from their seats, Ms Green said she “preferred to have a variety of voices at different levels of government”.
“We are going to work with the new state government to deliver for Townsville and for the North Queensland region, no matter who is in government, that is a priority, but ultimately, it’s about listening to the community,” she said.
“They’ve had some strong views about some very important issues, and so the next couple of weeks and months isn’t really about asking them to vote a certain way, it’s about listening to what they want.”
Ms Green said she hopes David Crisafulli and the new LNP government “stick to their word”.
“Any surprises like rolling back reef regulations, I don't think that this community would support that.”
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Originally published as Senator Nita Green speaks on working with Crisafulli government and importance of Indigenous Rangers
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