Victorian Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos’ idea for Indigenous land management
Steve Dimopoulos has signalled his ‘aspirations’ to enable more joint and sole management of land for First Peoples.
Traditional owners could have the same power as Parks Victoria to manage public land and claim sites of cultural preservation, Victoria’s Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos has told the Yoorrook Justice Commission.
The nation’s first truth-telling body has heard the minister’s “aspiration” to reform the state’s public land act to allow for First People’s to have more joint and sole management of land.
“The minister of the day would have the opportunity … to appoint traditional owners as land managers in the same hierarchy as Parks Victoria is appointed now,” Mr Dimopoulos told the commission on Tuesday.
“I’m not the lead minister on treaty, but it’s probably the furthest we can go in terms of land management, real traditional owner-led land management and authority before a conversation that the premier and government would lead on treaty.”
The revised legislation would also put the opportunity on the table for Traditional Owner Corporations to be the sole manager of their country and reserve public land for cultural purposes.
“We have a responsibility to change laws and we need to take some responsibility for that and reviewing the public land Act … I think reforming some of those laws that barely mention traditional owners in them would be a good start,” he said.
Sarala Fitzgerald, counsel assisting the commission, pressed Mr Dimopoulos on the $1.89bn in revenue from 2010-23 the state obtained from natural resources through grazing, government land licences and forestry products, and why traditional owners had none of the funds distributed to them.
The evidence was met with disbelief, as Yoorrook Justice Commissioner Travis Lovett said: “How can we build intergenerational wealth … when we are continually shut out of the system?
“We can’t get ahead as a people.”
Ms Fitzgerald put to the minister that lands taken care of by Indigenous people are the “best-managed lands in terms of the health of the lands themselves”, and if he accepted that claim, the best thing for conservation of lands is to transfer ownership to First Peoples.
“What I accept is the best for conservation is First Peoples-led custodianship over public lands for the benefit of all Victorians,” Mr Dimopoulos responded.
He said the revised legislation had not been drafted yet, with a second round of consultations to come, but he hoped the bill would be put to cabinet early next year.
The minister used his opening statement before the land, sky and waters inquiry to tell the commission he is driven “to find as many opportunities for First Peoples-led management of public lands that I can”.
“We are effectively trying to retrofit what is and always should have been traditional owner-led management of country within the constraints of a colonial legislative framework,” Mr Dimopoulos said.
The commission also quizzed the minister on the state government’s strategies to advance First Peoples’ self-determination, as Mr Dimopoulos conceded a lack of funding, different priorities and legislative and structural issues were barriers to their success.
Mr Dimopoulos flagged that his department was working on an evaluation framework to hold them to account.
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