Plantation sell-off threatens native title

A federal government push to privatise publicly owned forest plantations poses a serious threat to native title rights, the Queensland Greens declared on November 25.

Spokesperson Peter Sykes said that the Commonwealth's recently released “Plantations 2020” strategy was partially responsible for a rush of native title claims that include most of Australia's 750,000 hectares of crown plantations.

“Native title rights as they relate to forest plantations are amongst the most complex issues that have emerged as a result of the Wik decision”, Sykes said.

“In many cases, plantations have literally buried significant aspects of indigenous cultural heritage. Plantation establishment causes such a radical change to the landscape and the ecology of an area that it will take years to unravel existing native title rights and traditional links to the land.

“It places indigenous claimants in an extremely difficult position when they have to choose between a rushed claim that may not hold up to legal scrutiny or almost certain extinguishment if they fail to act.”

The strategy document states that the Howard government intends regularly to review state government ownership of plantations, based on the New Zealand privatisation model.

“Once a plantation is sold to private investors, not only do the taxpayers lose control of a valuable environmental asset, but native title rights are quietly extinguished under the guise of an economic rationalist agenda”, Sykes pointed out.

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