Control of national parks on the agenda

A new advisory group will review the federal government’s joint management of national parks in a move that could see some prized tourism assets given solely to ­Indigenous traditional owners to control.

Environment Minister Sussan Ley. Picture: AAP

A new advisory group will review the federal government’s joint management of national parks in a move that could see some prized tourism assets given solely to ­Indigenous traditional owners to control.

Kakadu and Uluru-Kata Tjuta are the two best-known federal national parks. Both of them, and Booderee National Park, are on Aboriginal land leased to the commonwealth to be jointly managed by Parks Australia and local Indigenous people.

But the existing arrangements appear to have left most participants unsatisfied, amid falling visitor numbers to Kakadu and Uluru and claims neither environmental targets nor local employment and development goals are being adequately met.

Parks Australia was last year forced to redeploy two high-level bureaucrats after the Kakadu’s Board of Management — which includes Indigenous and Northern Territory government representatives — passed a motion of no confidence in them.

Red Centre locals briefly barricaded the entry to Uluru-Kata Tjuta over concerns the tourism industry’s interests were being placed ahead of heightened coronavirus risks.

Environment Minister Sussan Ley has now appointed a six-member senior advisory group of people “chosen for their experience and expertise in governance and Indigenous affairs” to review joint management.

The group has not been charged with finding ways to ­return national parks to Indigenous people, but The Australian understands all options will be on the table.

The group members are former Howard government minister Amanda Vandstone, Central Land Council boss Joe Martin-Jard, former NT chief minister Shane Stone, ex-public servant Helen Williams, Kimberley Land Council chief executive Nolan Hunter and Garma Festival ­director Denise Bowden.

Ms Ley said commonwealth parks were sites of cultural significance and biodiversity.

“The group will help identify the best ways to protect these ­values and ensure that the traditional owners have control over the way the land is managed,” she said.

“In some cases, current management arrangements have been in place for over 40 years, and it is time we looked at them through the lens of today and the nation’s recognition of traditional ownership and title.”

Ms Ley last year toured Kak­adu after receiving complaints about conflicts between Parks Australia and Indigenous people over local employment, fire management, a helicopter crash and works allegedly done illegally on an Aboriginal sacred site.