Wednesday, 3 May 2023

Cultural heritage management plans

Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (19:03): (143) My matter tonight is for the minister for Aboriginal affairs. I am asking her to review the dysfunctional process surrounding the management of farming areas impacted by cultural heritage overlays. In this instance I have two northern Victorian farmers who need access to water year-round for their livestock, but the channels which supply them suffer from serious silting issues – channels which have a cultural heritage overlay on them by the Yorta Yorta Indigenous corporation.

After more than 12 months my constituents have given up trying to get any kind of engagement, let alone a solution, from the Yorta Yorta corporation. The specialist they were originally told to talk to about their area has never even been there to see the challenges and understand the likely solutions. It took them 27 phone calls to get someone to come and see them, and that person failed to show up on the first three occasions. When they finally fronted on the fourth appointment, my constituents tell me the conversation never even got started and they were left exactly where they started.

These farmers need Goulburn Murray Water to bring in its machinery to clear the silting or they will be in serious trouble again when the water season ends in 11 days time. But my constituents tell me Goulburn–Murray Water cannot bring in the heavy machinery without the approval of the Yorta Yorta corporation, approval which does not seem to be forthcoming. And here is the heart of the problem: handing Indigenous corporations control over large swathes of land is one thing; having them accept the responsibility which comes with such a decision is proving to be an entirely different matter.

These rights are not a one-way road. Surely the corporation in this case has a legal as well as a moral responsibility to care for all the people covered by the cultural overlay in a timely, fair and equitable manner. Apparently not, according to not just these constituents but many others in a number of different locations. The two farmers I have been talking with are concerned they will be without water, as they nearly were in 2022, because their silted channels will restrict the flow of water still available after Goulburn–Murray Water ends its water season. There should be benchmarks for service delivery in cases such as these, where the corporations involved have control over genuine economic outcomes. What do my constituents in this case do when all their best efforts are met with silence? They have businesses to run, employees to pay and contracts to deliver agreed amounts of produce at set times. They are working in the real world. They deserve to be treated in a professional and respectful manner so they can continue to run farms that have been operating successfully for generations. Protecting cultural assets is obviously a significant and important issue, but it is not an excuse to use an overlay to simply burden other people also trying to go about their lives.