Daintree Action Against Senator Hill in Cairns
7/17/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Daintree Action Against Senator Hill in Cairns
Source: Daintree Rainforest Taskforce
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: July 17, 1999
Byline: Teresa Elizabeth
Daintree Rainforest Taskforce
PMB 28 via Mossman
Phone/Fax (61) 07 40989171
Queensland 4873
07 40980063
Australia
e-mail - austrop@austrop.org.au
Save Daintree Campaign Update
Report of an Action during Senator Robert Hill's Opening Address to
the 10th Anniversary Celebrations of the Wet Tropics Management
Authority (WTMA)
2:30pm, Cairns Convention Centre
Saturday 17th July 1999
Reasons for the action:
? We did not want Senator Hill to go back to Canberra without
realizing that people in North Queensland do not support his record
as Federal Environment Minister.
? We felt that Senator Hill, particularly because of his appalling
involvement in Jabiluka, was an unsuitable person to preside over a
World Heritage meeting.
? We believe that too many times bureaucracies back up their chief
ministers without critiquing the records of these ministers in
Government. People within bureaucracies feel that if they are polite
and keep a low profile it will be easier to "get the job done". We
felt we could act for people in the audience or in the bureaucracy
who felt that Robert Hill had a poor record as Federal Environment
Minister, but who were themselves afraid or unable to act.
? We personally felt unable to attend the meeting without showing our
disapproval for Robert Hill's environmental record.
? We wanted to draw Hill's attention to the critical issue of land
buy-back in the Daintree Rainforest. This is buy-back of freehold
land, and the rezoning of this land as National Park; Hill has
continually refused to fund this buy-back initiative. We believe
Government buy-back is the only secure way of conserving the Daintree
lowland rainforest.
What we did:
Friday 16th July
We wrote a letter to the Editor of the Cairns Post. The letter was
printed on Saturday with a large headline "Government inaction means
slow death for Wet Tropics", and a photo of Hill. The letter read:
"Federal Environment Minister Robert Hill is coming to Cairns ...
to open the Wet Tropics 10th Anniversary Celebrations and their
Cassowary Awards. There are many good people in the Wet Tropics
who are doing valuable conservation and community work; some are
working on initiatives in the Daintree Rainforest. Mr. Hill may
not care because he is not interested, but people who live in the
Daintree are literally watching this icon of the Wet Tropics die
a slow death because of his Government's inaction. Once again, the
Directors of Wet Tropics have followed good bureaucratic protocol
to honour their chief minister without any assessment of his
achievements in Government. Unless you fund buy-back in the
Daintree, Senator Hill, your Government will never be able to claim
it has done anything serious for the conservation of the Wet Tropics.
Your stuffing around on the PR circuit is unconvincing to many in
North Queensland who know too much about what you are not doing for
us and our environment."
Saturday 17th July
We (Hugh Spencer and I) bought tickets to attend the meeting. We made
up a banner on a bed-sheet; this way the banner was large, but was
able to be folded up and put in my bag. We got front seats. It turned
out that the proceedings of the meeting had changed from the original
order we had been given, so we had to wait far longer for Hill to be
introduced than we had planned.
About 40 minutes into the meeting, Rod Welford introduced Robert
Hill, as the next invited speaker, to officially open the meeting. As
Robert Hill walked to the podium, Hugh and I walked across his path
out into the middle of the stage and turned to address the meeting. I
said:
"Before Mr. Hill takes the floor, we have a brief
announcement to make. We do not believe Robert Hill should be
addressing this meeting because of his poor record as Federal
Environment Minister."
We unfurled our banner which read:
"WTMA's 10th ANNIVERSARY
NO FEDERAL $$ FOR BUY-BACK
LEAVES 2/3 OF DAINTREE LOWLAND
FORESTS STILL UNPROTECTED;
MR. HILL CONSISTENTLY FAILS
TO PROTECT AUSTRALIA'S ENVIRONMENT"
(WTMA stands for Wet Tropics Management Authority.)
Hill was forced to wait at the podium before he could begin his
address. We stood with the banner long enough for people to read it,
then crossed back in front of Hill to our seats, packed up our gear
and left. We were interviewed outside the auditorium by Channel 10,
and handed out our prepared media statements.
Saturday July 17th 1999
MEDIA STATEMENT
"Senator Robert Hill is giving the welcome and keynote address at the
Wet Tropics Management Authority's 10th Anniversary Celebrations, the
Cassowary Awards, in Cairns.
"We are planning to enter the building for Senator Hill's address
raising a banner indicating that Senator Hill has continually failed
the Australian environment, most notably on greenhouse gas emissions
and Jabiluka. He has failed the Wet Tropics in particular by refusing
to fund buy-back of freehold land in the Daintree Rainforest (yet the
Queensland State Government has promised funding for buy-back if it
is matched by Federal money). As residents of the Daintree region we
have grave concerns that without land buy-back, the conservation of
this forest will not occur, and the social tensions within the
Daintree coastal community will continue to escalate.
"In view of Senator Hill's many failures, not only omissions or
incompetencies, but what we would describe as policies and actions
causing great and long-term environmental destruction, we do not
believe Senator Hill has the credibility to open and address this
meeting.
"There are many people within the Wet Tropics area who are doing
outstanding work for their communities and environments. These people
deserve recognition. In entering this meeting we are in no way
wishing to discredit the work of any people today who will be
receiving awards. We believe, however, that the conservation-minded
people attending today's meeting deserve to be addressed by people
with proper environmental credentials."
Teresa Elizabeth and
Dr. Hugh Spencer
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Results of the action:
*I think we encouraged other audience members to raise Jabiluka as an
issue towards the end of Hill's address.
*The action was under-reported in the media. However, there was a
front page article in the Cairns Post on Monday about the Cassowary
Awards - that there had been an administrative bungle and that many
people who should have received awards had not. There was a mention
of our "interruption" in this article, with a quote from our media
statement, and a comment that Hill had been "visibly shaken". On
Monday, Channel 10 ran a comprehensive story on Hill's refusal to
fund Daintree buy-back. This included footage of the Daintree, our
action, a couple of words from us, and a statement by Hill that he
absolutely refused to fund buy-back, and "do people really want me to
buy-back the whole of Australia?"
*Overall, it seems the combination of our action, audience heckling
during his address, and the administrative bungling of the awards was
a public relations disaster for Hill.
Problems:
*We had been expecting to be acting in concert with a protest against
Jabiluka. Because no such protest occurred, we had to include
Jabiluka in our talks with the media, and we were unprepared for
this.
Follow-up:
*The Daintree Rainforest Taskforce is requesting parliamentarians to
put questions to Robert Hill asking him why he has refused to fund
land buy-back in the Daintree Rainforest.
Over 2/3 of the Daintree lowland rainforest is zoned freehold.
Either the land is bought back by Government and rezoned as National
Parks, or if no buy-back occurs, this land will eventually be fully
settled, with a population of approximately 4,000 people. If the land
is fully settled, for any degree of conservation to occur, very
strict controls on freehold land usage will have to be instituted
and enforced. It will be onerous for residents to abide by these
laws, and it will be a huge financial burden on the local council to
implement and enforce these laws. Conservation controls on freehold
land (enforced by local council) would achieve far less effective
conservation results than would protection afforded by National Parks
legislation. For these reasons, we have been lobbying for so long for
land buy-back in the Daintree Rainforest.
*The Taskforce is now writing a Daintree management proposal to be
presented to State ministers at their next Country Cabinet meeting
(26th July). We will be making this paper available to politicians,
conservationists and other interested people. Please contact us if
you would like a copy.
Teresa Elizabeth for Daintree Rainforest Taskforce.