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The Queensland Government says it has no intention of changing its controversial Wild Rivers legislation, despite a push by the Federal Opposition to have it overturned.

The laws restrict certain types of development in sensitive areas, including near three rivers in Cape York in far north Queensland.

In Federal Parliament last night, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott introduced a private member’s Bill in an attempt to override the Act.

“In the spirit of bipartisanship, I invite the Prime Minister to think seriously about making time for this legislation to be debated and voted upon,” he said.

“If he thinks there is a better way of doing it, I am not proud.”

Mr Abbott says the State Government has wrongly taken away the ability of traditional owners to use their own land as they see fit.

He told Parliament that if Aboriginal people cannot use their own land, it is not really theirs.

“Under section 51/26 of the Constitution we have the power in this Parliament to make laws to ensure that the Indigenous people of Cape York are given back their birthright in respect of their land,” Mr Abbott said.

However, Queensland’s Natural Resources Minister, Stephen Robertson, says Mr Abbott’s Bill is an uninformed political stunt.

He says development projects including mining, grazing, fishing and eco-tourism are encouraged in the cape, providing the rivers are not heavily impacted upon.

Many Indigenous people in Australia’s north fear agricultural development, the Northern Australia Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance says.

A Federal Government-commissioned taskforce has concluded the north is not suitable for widespread agricultural development.

But the taskforce says some crops could be expanded, especially fodder for cattle.

The chief executive of the alliance, Joe Morrison, says Indigenous people fear they could be exploited.

“When we hear words to the effect that it’s an opportunity to create a northern food bowl and those sorts of things it just puts fear in the minds of people who are resident here,” Mr Morrison said.

“We certainly don’t want to go down the track that’s been well-trodden before in terms of disadvantaging, particularly Indigenous people, further.”

A member of the taskforce, Professor Bob Wasson from Charles Darwin University, says while it is unrealistic to insist that rivers remain untouched, Indigenous industries need them to be in good condition.

“It’s not just water in a bucket, it’s water in a river, water in a wetland, water in a functioning ecosystem,” he said.

“And that’s what we’ve got to maintain in northern Australia while developing opportunities for livelihoods for Indigenous people because, frankly, that’s the big social issue which we have not yet solved.”

The president of the National Farmers Federation, David Crombie, says there needs to be more information about water availability in the country’s north.

“Everybody knew it wasn’t just as simple as transferring southern agriculture holus-bolus up north,” he said.

“But look, there are opportunities.

“The big constraint I guess at the moment is the absence of good data on water.

“We need to generate better data on water availability and better data on the interconnectivity of ground water and surface water.”

The Federal Opposition says there are far more opportunities to develop northern Australia for agriculture than the taskforce has concluded.

The Opposition’s spokesman on northern and remote Australia, Senator Ian Macdonald, says there are plenty of opportunities for development.

“Nobody ever thought we were going to be planting crops from Cairns to Broome on every square inch of soil,” he said.

“What we wanted was real leadership, a way to look forward, to provide some of the food that Australia is going to desperately need as the south of our continent gets drier.”

A confidential report into Northern Territory’s Family and Children’s Services says placing Aboriginal children with Aboriginal families is being given priority over child safety.

The Territory Government has suppressed some details of the 2007 Bath Report, which describes a child protection system in crisis.

One of the main issues is the use of unassessed and under-qualified carers to look after children.

The report, which was obtained by The Australian newspaper, says placing Aboriginal children with a relative or an Aboriginal family is seen as more important than safety considerations.

“In some cases this principal appears to be given primacy over basic child protection considerations,” the report states.

The report details several cases where children were left in sub-standard care, including one where a two-year-old boy suffered serious burns while with his carer.

The Child Protection Minister yesterday said that child safety must come first, but admitted the system still has serious problems.

The Government says parts of the report need to remain confidential.

The Opposition’s child protection spokeswoman, Jodeen Carney, says the Government is holding back to avoid scrutiny.

“We will get the report, we will examine it and we will question Government on it,” she said.

“It’s very clear from the Government’s conduct that it does not want to be questioned or scrutinised or challenged in any way.

“Well it has been caught out and things are not all well in the Territory’s child protection system as Government would want us to believe.”

Ombudsman Carolyn Richards has launched her own investigation into complaints about child protection and she says not much has changed.

“The complaints I’ve received date from 2009, most of them between April and November 2009, and they’re relating exactly the same thing happening to other children,” she said.

“What concerns me is that even though the Government has put in a huge amount of money into child protection services there doesn’t seem to be any change in what’s happening to children.”

The Child Protection Minister, Kon Vatskalis, says the Government is making improvements and will do more after another inquiry into the system later this year.

“We have to actually start doing things differently,” he said.

“We have to see … have we got carers here in the Territory, because we’ve got transient population?

“Is the way we operate the best way?”

The chairman of Western Australia’s Indigenous Implementation Board has labelled a forum on Aboriginal issues in the Goldfields a success.

Indigenous leaders from across the region took part in the Goldfields conversation forum in Kalgoorlie-Boulder this week.

The two-day event was used to develop proposals to take to the State Government on issues such as health, education and environmental sustainability.

The chief executive of the Goldfields Land and Sea Council, Brian Wyatt, has welcomed chairman John Sanderson’s feedback.

“It went really well, a whole lot better than we’d hoped,” he said.

“This is the third now in a series of doing the entire state, we were told there were three more to come.

“He said that so far, to use his words, this was the best so far. So it was pleasing to hear that sort of feedback.”

Traditional owners in the Kimberley are yet to agree on who holds native title for land earmarked for a multi-billion dollar gas hub.

Indigenous people are under pressure to resolve the issue before an agreement can be signed with Woodside.

A native title application has been lodged jointly by the Jabba-Jabba and Goolarabaloo groups but deep divisions have emerged over whether to support the hub.

The Kimberley Land Council’s Nolan Hunter says anthropological evidence is being compiled in order to finalise native title as quickly as possible.

“There will need to be some legal confirmation before any negotiations are made with who has the right to speak for that country,” she said.

“At the end of the day, if you’re wanting to get an agreement, if you don’t ensure you have the get the legal claimants for that area, then what does that say about the legality of the agreement?”

Tasmania’s Aboriginal community has lifted bans preventing work on the Brighton bypass in the state’s south.

The Government cannot issue permits without an assessment by indigenous heritage officers, and the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC) has been refusing to provide its officers.

It has now lifted that ban, after the Government agreed to consult more closely with the community about indigenous artefacts at the bypass site.

The TAC’s Legal Director, Michael Mansell, says that is a good first step but only amounts to a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’.

“It’s not law, it’s simply a policy position adopted by the Tasmanian Government,” he said.

“The fragility of the arrangement, of course, is that what the Government gives today, they can take away tomorrow.”

Mr Mansell says projects like the Kingston bypass and Rubicon pipeline will also be assessed.

“All of these big projects can now begin, they’ll probably start work next Monday,” he said.

“What it means is that the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre will still have to monitor the way things are done, to make sure that the agreement is upheld.

“It’s not the end of the ball-game, but it means at least we’ve got a more level playing field.”

A Western Australian Goldfields Aboriginal leader is confident a new plan, being developed in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, will provide an opportunity to make a real difference on a range of local Indigenous issues.

Kado Muir is coordinating the Goldfields Conversation forum, which began in Kalgoorlie yesterday.

The two-day event aims to develop a set of proposals to take to the State Government on issues such as health, education and environmental sustainability.

Mr Muir says early discussions have highlighted a range of frustrations he is hoping the new plan will help address.

“One of the biggest things people are saying is, ‘hey we’ve been doing this for the past 30 years, when are things going to change?’” he said.

“There’s a great opportunity here for Aboriginal people to have our voices heard, to present it in a format that is readily recognisable and back to the Government and other audiences.”

The South Australian Government has been granted an ongoing exemption from anti-discrimination laws to let it give preference to Aboriginal health workers.

The Equal Opportunity Tribunal is letting the Government and the Aboriginal Health Council advertise jobs specifically for Indigenous applicants.

It also lets Aboriginal-controlled organisations give preference to Indigenous people working in health and substance abuse services.

South Australia’s Attorney-General, Michael Atkinson, has denied that there are problems with the Port Augusta Court getting access to Aboriginal interpreters.

Court sources say the lack of interpreters is contributing to continuing delays to the justice system and keeping Aboriginal defendants in custody for longer than required.

In 2007, the State Government invested almost $500,000 over four years to help train and recruit Aboriginal interpreters.

Since then, seven public servants in Adelaide have been employed casually to also work as interpreters but the program has not managed to engage anyone in the state’s north, where the demand is greatest.

A spokesman for the Attorney-General says in the past six months, 17 of 19 requests for interpreters at Port Augusta have been fulfilled, although he could not say if there were any delays to court proceedings.

He says there have not been any formal complaints about the issue but the situation will be monitored.

Four airstrips on remote Aboriginal lands, in South Australia’s far north-west, have been closed indefinitely, raising concerns about access for medical evacuations and services.

The APY executive board is blaming dodgy repairs to the airstrips at Pipalyatjara, Umuwa, Fregon and Mimili for their closures.

The board’s general manager, Ken Newman, says Pipalyatjara community members now have to drive across the border to Western Australia to collect their mail.

He says the repairs were part of a Federal Government-funded project to upgrade eight airstrips on the lands.

“We’re talking about $3 million I think in total for all of the works to be done, I think it’s just being poured down the drain,” he said.

“I just sort of form the opinion that the works being done by people that don’t have any of the appropriate skills and qualifications for doing such technical work as an airstrip.”