CENTRAL LAND COUNCIL ANNUAL REPORT 2017–18 CENTRAL LAND COUNCIL Creative Commons licence With the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms and where otherwise noted, all material presented in this report is provided under a http://creativecommons.org/licences/byl3.0/licence. The details of the relevant licence conditions are available on the Creative Commons website at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/byl3.0/legalcode. The document must be attributed as the Central Land Council Annual Report 2017–18. Third party copyright for publications This organisation has made all reasonable effort to: • clearly label material where the copyright is owned by a third party • ensure that the copyright owner has consented to this material being presented in this publication. ISSN 1034-3652 All photos Central Land Council, unless otherwise credited. 21 September 2018 Senator Nigel Scullion Minister for Indigenous Affairs Senate Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 Dear Minister In accordance with the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976, the Native Title Act 1993 and the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013, I am pleased to approve and submit the 2017-18 Annual Report on the operations of the Central Land Council. I am authorised by the Central Land Council to state that the Accountable Authority is responsible under section 46 of the PGPA Act for the preparation and content of the report. Yours faithfully Mr Francis Kelly Chair Central Land Council CLC ANNUAL REPORT 2017–18 1 OVERVIEW OF THE CLC Chair’s report 3 Director’s report 5 About the CLC 7 CLC executive committee & council members 15 CLC governance 18 Organisation structure 21 Performance report 22 OUTPUT GROUP 1 25 Land & natural resource management 1.1 Permits 26 1.2 Land & natural resource management 27 OUTPUT GROUP 2 42 Land claims & acquisition support 2.1 Land claims 43 2.2 Land acquisition 44 OUTPUT GROUP 3 45 Economic development & commercial services 3.1 Land use agreements 46 3.2 Employment, education & training 50 3.3 Mining 59 3.4 Commercial assistance 69 OUTPUT GROUP 4 72 Advocacy services 4.1 Public awareness & education 73 4.2 Advocacy & representation 78 4.3 Cultural & heritage support 84 4.4 Community development support 87 OUTPUT GROUP 5 101 Administration & support services 5.1 Distributions 102 5.2 Administer land trusts 104 5.3 Dispute resolution 107 OUTPUT GROUP 6 108 Native title Native title 109 CORPORATE MANAGEMENT 118 Annual performance statement 127 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 131 GLOSSARY 165 COMPLIANCE INDEX 168 2 CLC ANNUAL REPORT 2017–18 CHAIR’S REPORT I am looking forward to the day when Aboriginal rangers will be as familiar a sight in every remote community as THE CLC OF OVERVIEW teachers, police officers and health workers. Ranger jobs Francis Kelly are real jobs. They should be as secure as the other government-funded positions in remote communities and not like CDP (Work for the Dole scheme) jobs. Our rangers, including two of my sons, protect our I was very pleased that the minister has kept his endangered plants and animals and our special places word to help the Mutitjulu community get a ranger by managing fires, weeds and feral animals. Yet group. In March I joined the community as it launched sometimes they feel a bit like a threatened species the Tjakura Rangers. The elders named the group themselves. They wonder what will happen to their after the threatened great desert skink they want to jobs when program funding runs out again in a few protect. It was very moving to see two youngfellas dance the new rangers to their headquarters, urged years. on by the women’s dancing and singing and led by Despite the success of our ranger program, and the our Kaltukatjara Rangers from Docker River. praise Minister Nigel Scullion likes to heap on the Together, the two ranger groups will look after the men and women who work so hard to look after their huge Katiti Petermann Indigenous Protected Area country for all of us, the federal government won’t around the Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park. Over secure their futures or fund the program’s expansion. Easter they joined forces with 18 other ranger groups That is very short-sighted because while becoming a for the first national Bilby Blitz, a cross-border survey ranger is the dream of our school children too many of bilby tracks, scats and burrows. The rangers used of our remote communities are still without a ranger the Tracks app, a bilingual mobile app developed group. Anyone who has driven the long distances by the CLC, to put together a snapshot of how between them, through the vast areas our rangers the endangered bilby is going in its last refuges on look after, can see that we need twice as many Aboriginal land. rangers to deal with all the challenges our country The launch of the Tjakura Rangers came on the back throws at us. of more great news: Sammy Wilson’s announcement That’s why I was glad to hear Labor confirm that it will in November, on live television, that the park’s board of stick to its promise to double ranger numbers if they management he chairs has decided to close the Uluru climb for good. The traditional owners have been win the next election and also about the launch of the under a lot of pressure about the climb for a very long 10 Deserts project in March. The project is an alliance time and I am relieved and happy for them that the of Aboriginal land management organisations, board has finally decided to right this historic wrong. including the Central Land Council, and funded by the BHP Billiton Foundation. In June we felt like we were making history again, when the four Northern Territory land councils signed I hope the project will help the CLC plant seeds in an agreement with the NT government at Barunga communities such as Kintore, Arlpara and Aputula, about a consultation process towards a treaty with that have waited so long for a ranger group of their our peoples. The Barunga Agreement has raised our own. These and other communities can start activities hopes and we expect Chief Minister Michael Gunner employing locals, which will hopefully grow into new to deliver real change in education, justice and ranger groups before too long. housing now, not make us wait for a treaty. CLC ANNUAL REPORT 2017–18 3 North Tanami rangers Anthony Navo Rex, Dione Kelly and Donald Robbo learn from elders Leslie Robertson (deceased) and Jerry Jangala Patrick how to create coolamons and kurdiji (shields) from soft bean tree (yininti) wood. We are not happy with the slow pace of housing runs art workshops. In July the group committed a reform and the endless finger-pointing between our total of $440,000 to install the repeater, construct a elected representatives. It seems like the more they toilet and shower block and a workshop and upgrade talk about change and community control the more the communal kitchen. things stay the same. Where’s the action? When will In September, the traditional owners of the we have a say about where and how we live? When Yeperenye/Emily and Jessie Gaps Nature Park will we see an end to the overcrowding that’s making launched a free app to welcome and introduce us sick? tourists to their sacred site Anthwerrke (Emily There is so much more governments should be doing Gap), paid for with the rent they get for the park. to help us stay healthy and safe. In my home town of The app was not just a generous gift to the wider Yuendumu and in nearby Yuelamu we’re running out community but a clever business move. The more of water, and in Laramba and Ti Tree they’re worried visitors it attracts to the site the greater the chance about uranium in the drinking water. At the same time the traditional owners’ next projects there will also be we’re told there will be water to spare for fracking! successful. There’s still no action on the asbestos in our buildings How we use our income from land use agreements and royalties is of course up to us. The CLC’s job is to and progress on sealing the dangerous roads between give us information and then to support the decisions our communities is very slow. When things go wrong we make. When groups choose community benefit in places like Willowra, Nyirrpi and Watarrka there is projects over payments into individual bank accounts no mobile coverage. Every few years we get another the CLC is always looking for good partners, from telecommunications review but still we lag far behind Aboriginal organisations, businesses and all levels other Australians. of government. When royalty distributions cause Many communities continue to use their royalties problems we want to work on our own solutions, and related income to fund some of the things they not have them imposed on us. There is so much need. A group near Tennant Creek, for example, governments could do to help. They could start by is paying for a mobile phone repeater and other partnering with us on community-driven projects to projects using income from the Northern Gas Pipeline help make our money go further. These are ideas we agreement. The group is working with our community have talked about for many years. Maybe it takes a development team to improve their business at the new government with fresh ears to start working with Likkaparta outstation, which hosts visitor groups and us on them in the year ahead.