Online in court: Gomeroi woman’s legal challenge to Environment Minister

THE Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) is in the Federal Court tomorrow, May 13, acting for Veronica 'Dolly' Talbott, as a member of the Gomeroi Traditional Custodians.
 
According to the EDO, this is an important Constitutional test case.

This case challenges the lawfulness of a decision by the federal Environment Minister not to grant protection to several 'Significant Areas of Aboriginal cultural heritage' within the footprint of the approved Shenhua Watermark open cut coal mine on highly productive agricultural land on the Liverpool Plains, northwest NSW.
 
The Minister made this decision despite acknowledging the “immeasurable” cultural value of the sacred places and objects under direct threat of destruction or desecration, the EDO is claiming.
 
The Minister acknowledged that the development of the mine would destroy or desecrate the Significant Areas but concluded that the mine’s potential economic and social benefits outweighed their heritage value.
 
Dolly Talbott expressed the deep hurt felt by the Elders and the community at this decision and that there was no choice other than to fight it.
 
“When we heard of the Minister’s decision, there was a high level of confusion and disbelief," she said. "Does our culture, our spiritual and sacred places of Aboriginal heritage, mean nothing in this country? We believe the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 was put in place to protect our heritage, but in this case it hasn’t at all.

“If this mega-mine proceeds, our interlinked sacred places will be completely destroyed and obliterated from the landscape. We will no longer be able to read our Country, share our sacred places with our children and grandchildren. Our ancestors’ footprints, their legacy to us, will be lost - lost forever.
 
“We are the only ones who have no monetary interest in this," said Dolly, “We just want to protect our heritage, our sacred places. As the oldest living culture on the planet, surely this should be of utmost importance to Australia?”
 
David Morris, CEO, Environmental Defenders Office said, “Tomorrow, EDO is privileged to represent Dolly Talbott in a hearing challenging the Minister’s decision to protect coal mining over a site of significant importance to First Nations peoples.
 
"Our client will argue that the Minister made an error of law, incorrectly applying the legislation which is designed to protect Aboriginal Cultural Heritage. This will be an important test case, interrogating the limits of the Constitutional basis for the Act and the matters which the Minister was permitted to consider in deciding to refuse protection for the areas.”
 
The Gomeroi Traditional Custodians first lodged an application for protection of the Significant Areas in April 2015 under s.10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 (Cth) (ATSIHP Act). The purpose of the ATSIHP Act is:
 
“the preservation and protection from injury or desecration of areas and objects in Australia and in Australian waters, being areas and objects that are of particular significance to Aboriginals in accordance with Aboriginal tradition.”
 
The Minister acknowledged that the development of the mine would destroy or desecrate the Significant Areas but concluded that the mine’s potential economic and social benefits outweighed their heritage value.
 
The Significant Areas, which are within the footprint of the mine, are an important cultural junction and part of a broader Aboriginal cultural landscape. They include sacred places and significant ceremonial corridors. The interlinked sites also include, but are not limited to, large grinding groove sites, scarred trees and artefactual objects of high order significance irreplaceable to the Gomeroi Traditional Custodians. If the mega-mine of three open-cut pits went ahead, not only would the existing landscape be destroyed but it would be replaced by a new, mine-created landscape.
 
https://www.edo.org.au/shenhua-watermark-coal-mine/

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