NAIDOC Week, 7-14 July 2019

This year's theme: Voice. Treaty. Truth. Let's work together.

The Indigenous voice of this country is over 65,000 plus years old.

They are the first words spoken on this continent. Languages that passed down lore, culture and knowledge for over millennia. They are precious to our nation.

It’s that Indigenous voice that include know-how, practices, skills and innovations - found in a wide variety of contexts, such as agricultural, scientific, technical, ecological and medicinal fields, as well as biodiversity-related knowledge.  They are words connecting us to country, an understanding of country and of a people who are the oldest continuing culture on the planet.

And with 2019 being celebrated as the United Nations International Year of Indigenous Languages, it’s time for our knowledge to be heard through our voice.

For generations, we have sought recognition of our unique place in Australian history and society today. We need to be the architects of our lives and futures.

For generations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have looked for significant and lasting change.

Voice. Treaty. Truth. were three key elements to the reforms set out in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. These reforms represent the unified position of First Nations Australians.

However, the Uluru Statement built on generations of consultation and discussions among Indigenous people on a range of issues and grievances. Consultations about the further reforms necessary to secure and underpin our rights and to ensure they can be exercised and enjoyed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

It specifically sequenced a set of reforms: first, a First Nations Voice to Parliament enshrined in the Constitution and second, a Makarrata Commission to supervise treaty processes and truth-telling.  

(Makarrata is a word from the language of the Yolngu people in Arnhem Land. The Yolngu concept of Makarrata captures the idea of two parties coming together after a struggle, healing the divisions of the past. It is about acknowledging that something has been done wrong, and it seeks to make things right.)

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people want their voice to be heard. First Nations were excluded from the Constitutional convention debates of the 1800’s when the Australian Constitution came into force.  Indigenous people were excluded from the bargaining table.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have always wanted an enhanced role in decision-making in Australia’s democracy.

In the European settlement of Australia, there were no treaties, no formal settlements, no compacts. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people therefore did not cede sovereignty to our land. It was taken away from us. That will remain a continuing source of dispute.

Our sovereignty has never been ceded – not in 1788, not in 1967, not with the Native Title Act, not with the Uluru Statement from the Heart. It coexists with the sovereignty of the Crown and should never be extinguished.

Australia is one of the few liberal democracies around the world which still does not have a treaty or treaties or some other kind of formal acknowledgement or arrangement with its Indigenous minorities.

A substantive treaty has always been the primary aspiration of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander movement.

Critically, treaties are inseparable from Truth.

Lasting and effective agreement cannot be achieved unless we have a shared, truthful understanding of the nature of the dispute, of the history, of how we got to where we stand.

The true story of colonisation must be told, must be heard, must be acknowledged.

But hearing this history is necessary before we can come to some true reconciliation, some genuine healing for both sides.

And of course, this is not just the history of our First Peoples – it is the history of all of us, of all of Australia, and we need to own it.

Then we can move forward together.

Credits: Image and text from  NAIDOC.ORG.AU

Premier Gladys looks after her mates

Well, the cat's well and truly out of the bag. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian didn't want to offend any of her mates sitting on her side of the parliament so she decided to give every Coalition MP a salary increase.

That's enough to suggest a young Gladys always invited every student in her class at school to her birthday parties. That way no one was left off the invitation list so no one could possibly get offended. And, it also just happened to mean more birthday presents for young Gladys.

Fast forward to 2019. Every Coalition MP will have Gladys on their Christmas card list and she can expect to be on the receiving end of heaps and heaps of Chrissie presents.

Wednesday's Sydney Morning Herald's front page said it all.

"NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is rewarding every Coalition MP with promotions that deliver salary increases of between $10,000 and $110,000 a year on top of their base wage.

Seven fewer Coalition MPs in Parliament after the last election means the Premier has appointed all 65 Coalition MPs as ministers, parliamentary secretaries, committee chairs or to other parliamentary roles. They will all receive position payments and expense allowances for these roles on top of their $165,000 base salary.

Fifteen backbenchers, including eight new MPs, will each lead a parliamentary committee given the task of reviewing proposed laws and scrutinising public sector performance, earning them up to an extra $20,600 a year.

The Nationals MP for Coffs Harbour , Gurmesh Singh, is one of the new MPs and has been appointed chair of the healthcare complaints commission committee.

Mr Singh said there was a “steep learning curve” in Parliament but promised to give his all to the committee , which has in the past reviewed complaints against medical practitioners, the cosmetic health service and unregistered doctors.

“Health hasn’t been an area of specialty of mine, but obviously I’ll throw 100 per cent of my effort behind it,” he said.

...

 

Interim opposition leader Penny Sharpe said the government’s move to hand additional pay to every MP while making cuts to the public service was paradoxical. “While workers in NSW are suffering from record low wage growth, insecure work and the loss of jobs, the arrogance of the Premier to doll [sic] out sneaky pay rises to her MPs is shameful,” she said. 

After her March election victory, Ms Berejiklian increased the number of ministers and parliamentary secretaries . She appointed 18 MPs parliamentary secretaries , who each receive at least an additional $21,000 each year. At the same time, she expanded her ministry by one to 24 members.

Ministers earn an extra $94,000 to $110,000 in salary and can claim up to $42,000 in expenses . The most a senior minister can earn including expenses is $318,000 per year.

Another eight Coalition MPs earn above their base salaries for parliamentary roles, which occur in every government, including the speaker ($94,000 extra), whips ($21,000) and their deputies.

...

During the election campaign, Ms Berejiklian attacked a proposal by Labor to scrap the public sector wage cap – which freezes pay rises for over 390,000 public servants at 2.5 per cent – calling it a ‘‘ pay rise for middle managers’ ’ and ‘‘ economic vandalism’’ . Following the election, the Department of Premier and Cabinet forked out $2.3 million on redundancy payouts for 69 political staffers who did not continue on in the new government, according to figures obtained under freedom of information laws. A government spokesman said that every Coalition MP was “working hard for their community and for the entire state” and called the Labor Party “lazy” . “While the Liberals and Nationals government is working hard to deliver unprecedented investment in schools and hospitals, Labor has been leaderless for 93 days – all because they put the interests of Bill Shorten ahead of NSW,” the spokesman said."

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday, June 26, 2019, pages 1 and 10

Clarencegirl is unwell and on sick leave until further notice. 

News Corp, Morrison Government & mining lobby groups in concerted attack on environmental lawyers

The Attack.....

The Australian, 22 June 2019:

A taxpayer-funded network of environmental lawyers has been handed more than $2.5 million by state governments, helping the group to clog up courts and launch dozens of cases against gas and mining projects, including Adani’s Carmichael mine.

Environmental Defenders ­Offices in NSW and Queensland were awarded more than $1m from the Berejiklian government and almost $400,000 from the Palaszczuk government in 2017-18….

Resources Minister Matt Canavan yesterday called on the states to deprive the green lawyers’ groups of any more taxpayer funds.

“These EDOs are not defending the public interest but pursuing a political agenda,” he said.

“As such, they should not be receiving taxpayer support to ­destroy people’s jobs.”….

Leading business groups ­accused the EDOs of engaging in “vexatious litigation” which is ­delaying projects for years, damaging job-creation efforts and hindering the flow of ­royalties to states and territories.

“Frivolous and vexatious legal challenges to environmental ­approvals delay projects and threaten jobs in regional Australia,” Minerals Council chief executive Tania Constable said.

An Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association spokesman said the EDOs’ advocacy on climate change was out of step with their apparent role as a community legal centre for environmental cases.

“We have for some time questioned the role of the EDO and its public funding,” he said.

The Response.....

NSW Environmental Defenders Office (EDO NSW), 22 June 2019:

EDOs stand firm against attacks

We are a community legal centre of expert lawyers, proudly and unapologetically helping the NSW community to use the law to protect wildlife, people and our planet.

You can help by making a tax deductible donation today.

Environmental laws should not be for the few. They affect us all. Yet once again we are forced to defend the community's access to justice against attacks by a fossil fuel lobby aggrieved by the power our work provides to communities who seek to challenge the lawfulness and merit of their major projects.

EDO NSW's litigation work on behalf of our clients plays an important role, ensuring that people have access to justice and are able to exercise their rights under Australian law. People have a right to use the law to protect their family, homes and environment. To be clear, as public interest community legal centres, EDOs do not litigate on our own behalf, but represent clients (community groups, Aboriginal groups and individuals) who may otherwise be unable to have access to the justice system.

It’s disappointing to see, yet again, the Minerals Council and Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association demonstrating their lack of understanding of, and respect for, the rule of law. At their heart, these claims are an attack on our democracy and  we should all be very concerned.

The fossil fuel lobby has a track record of making the unsubstantiated claim that EDOs engage in vexatious litigation, and frankly it’s getting tired. Despite being over-utilised, this claim remains a troubling proposition. EDO NSW lawyers, who include some of the best in our field, take our professional responsibilities extremely seriously. Our 30 year track record is evidence of that. Not once in our history have our clients’ cases been found to be ‘frivolous or vexatious’.

Underpinning most of our litigation work is a question about whether the law has been complied with. That decision-makers apply the law is a fundamental feature of our democracy. Ensuring the law is complied with should be uncontroversial.

Help us continue this important work.

In other instances, our work interrogates whether approving a project is – considering all the circumstances – the correct or preferable decision. These are not simple questions. The answer lies in the weighting of a range of different factors. Our important work ensures that evidence proffered in support of a project is thoroughly tested. 

In a number of instances, including in the recent case concerning the proposed Rocky Hill coal mine, the economic benefits of the mine put forward by the mining company were found to be overstated, based on the evidence put forward by both the Government’s expert and our client’s.  Equally the economic negatives of that project - including social impacts and impacts on Aboriginal cultural heritage - were found to have been understated by the mining company.

Litigation is a small component of the work this office does on behalf of clients. When we do so, it is only after application of our casework guidelines and detailed analysis from senior legal experts to ensure there are merits in bringing a case.

EDO NSW also provides the community with free legal advice and education - work that does see us receive some State government grants. Our office operates a daily advice line providing free advice on matters of environmental and planning law.

The NSW Government has provided EDO NSW with funding for decades, irrespective of which party is in Government. This demonstrates a bipartisan understanding of our role and corresponding support for the provision of access to justice in this space - that is, allowing members of the community to understand and seek advice about NSW environmental and planning laws. 

Our work relates to ensuring that laws are applied correctly, and ensuring that evidence put forward by project proponents is tested in an appropriate and independent forum. Any changes to the law that erode community opportunities to participate in environmental decision-making would be very concerning. This could easily be seen as a blatant attempt to further prioritise the rights of coal mining companies over the rights of communities, including farmers, eco-tourism operators and others.

Show your support for EDO NSW today.

David Morris

CEO - Solicitor