Use First People’s science to manage bushfires, says Graeme Samuel

Former ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel says the Black Summer showed that Australia needs to embrace indigenous science.

Former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ACCC Graeme Samuel. Picture: AAP

Former ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said the horror Black Summer bushfires showed indigenous science should be embraced and could be used to prevent catastrophes, after handing down a scathing review of the nation’s 20-year-old environmental legislation.

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 is meant to recognise the role of Indigenous Australians in conservation but Professor Samuel used his interim report on the legislation, released on Monday, to argue it did not allow for true engagement.

“Something I became quite concerned about during the early stages of the consultation process was that where there had been steps taken to engage with indigenous communities, it tended to be tokenistic, symbolic and representative,” Mr Samuel told The Australian.

“The bushfires demonstrated that tens of thousands of years of indigenous science would be of great value to the Australian community, for example in bushfire management, but we have disregarded it. We’re not embracing indigenous science but need to.”

Professor Samuel said while there had been a spike in interest in Aboriginal bushfire management practices following the fires, it had since petered out.

“Indigenous knowledge is frankly unappreciated in terms of what it can offer,” he said.

The interim report, which considered up to 30,000 submissions, says indigenous Australians are “entitled to expect stronger national-level protection of their cultural heritage”.

Professor Samuel called for the creation of an indigenous knowledge and engagement committee to advise the federal environment minister, declaring the legislation had prioritised the views of Western science.

He argued Australia’s indigenous cultural heritage laws “need to be reviewed”, with more work required to “support better engagement with indigenous Australians and to respectfully incorporate traditional knowledge of country in how the environment is managed”.

“There is a culture of tokenism and symbolism,” the report into the legislation says. “Indigenous knowledge or views are not fully valued.”

Environment Minister Sussan Ley has said she will work closely with Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt to begin roundtable meetings with state Indigenous affairs and ­environment ministers.

Professor Samuel said the way environmental data was captured also needed to be overhauled.

“It’s inaccessible, it’s not current and I can’t tell you in respect of what area you live whether you’ve got a threatened species. It’s just not possible,” he said.

The Royal Commission into Natural Disaster Arrangements investigating the summer fires has heard the infernos were an “ecological disaster” pushing Australia’s threatened species to the brink of extinction.

More than 8 million hectares of land was burned in the past fire season and 45 per cent was nature conservation reserve.

Professor Samuel said an improvement in data collection would assist in the granting of development proposals. “We need a lot more specificity especially when dealing with development proposals, he said.

The commission continues.