Maralinga Tjarutja Lands

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (15:03): My question is to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation. Will the minister inform the chamber about the recent celebration to mark the excision of section 400 Maralinga Tjarutja lands from the Woomera Prohibited Area?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (15:03): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. On Wednesday 6 November I had the very great pleasure of joining elders and members of the Maralinga Tjarutja community, as well as numerous state and federal representatives, including Senator Scullion, Senator David Johnston (both ministers in the federal government, of course), former ministers Stephen Loosley and Paul Holloway, and the local member, Mr Rohan Ramsay MP, and a number of very other important distinguished representatives, for a very special celebration.

After 60 years a significant part of the Woomera Prohibited Area, known as section 400, representing about half the Maralinga Tjarutja lands, was returned to the traditional owners. It is an area of roughly 3,000 square kilometres in the south-western sector of the Woomera Prohibited Area. It is an area prescribed under the commonwealth Defence Act for defence testing purposes. It is part of the ancestral lands of the Maralinga Tjarutja people and it is as significant to them as any other part of their country.

This celebration marked the very successful culmination of a long and complicated process to have the land returned to the Maralinga Tjarutja people. As members may be aware, this land was contaminated following atomic testing conducted by the British government from 1955 to 1963. This activity had quite a devastating impact on the Maralinga community, as well as the land, and we are still coming to terms with the extent of that impact.

What we have are stories from people who lived through the nuclear tests, people like Mr Yami Lester, a young boy at the time, living with his family in the heart of the Yankunytjatjara tribal land at the time of the tests. While giving evidence during the Royal Commission in the mid-eighties, Mr Lester told of a thick, ominous black cloud engulfing his campsite following the blast. Within days, apparently, people at the camp began to feel ill with intense stomach pains, and they developed skin rashes and sore, watery eyes. Maralinga Tjarutja Elder Ms Mima Smart spoke of the heartache that was felt by her people. She said:

I got heavy heart being here but when I talk about the past I feel like we can, we can cry inside. I cry from my heart because what happened to this land and to the people that passed on.

In 1984, a large part of the Maralinga Tjarutja was reinstated to the traditional owners by the then Bannon Labor government in accordance with the Maralinga Land Rights Act 1984. This legislation continued the ground-breaking work started by the Dunstan Labor government to ensure that land rights were fully recognised by creating and investing inalienable freehold title on the land to the Maralinga Tjarutja people.

In 2004, the first co-managed national park in South Australia was established as a partnership between the Maralinga Tjarutja people and the Rann government. This gave the traditional owners the ability to care for and determine the future of their country and started an intricate network of parks that has steadily grown since then. The insistence of the Maralinga Tjarutja people and the findings of the 1985 McClelland Royal Commission, instigated by the Hawke Labor government, prompted the British government to finally take responsibility for the proper rehabilitation of that land.

The handover of section 400 also gives the Maralinga Tjarutja people the opportunity to grow the already successful tourism business established at Maralinga Village near Oak Valley. This, in turn, will create opportunities for employment and additional business activity for the local community. Local resident Mr Robin Matthews started tours of the site, he told me, and he has been reported on radio as saying:

There's no jobs out here...So if we can set this up and do it right in that five year [funding] period it's going to be great. The young generation are going to have something to look forward to and take pride in their own—this is their land.

This is also another important step towards reconciliation in our state. Not only has it strengthened our mutual friendship and trust, but it is also a sign of recognition and respect for the Maralinga Tjarutja people and their ancestors as the first custodians of this land. It is an acknowledgement of the impact that dispossession has had on these people and their culture and, most importantly, it helps us all acknowledge the past and move forward towards a better future.

I would like to commend the federal Minister for Defence, the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and the federal government for their decision to excise this part of the traditional lands of the Maralinga Tjarutja from the Woomera Prohibited Area, and I particularly congratulate the Maralinga Tjarutja people for such a successful outcome after a very long battle.