Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

There's not much that I can add to what the member for Lingiari has just said. He's been involved with rangers for a lot longer than I have, but I'll just make a couple of points. I think he summed up well, at the end, the importance of rangers to our nation. I want to reiterate that the work the rangers do is very dangerous. It's all relative, but when coupled with the tyranny of distance that we have in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Queensland—wherever rangers work—the very nature of their work means they are far from support. They work in special and unique places where there are limited health services, and when things go wrong, as they invariably do, it can be fatal. During World Ranger Day we pay our respects to the rangers who've lost their lives or been seriously injured while at work. I know that communities near Gan Gan in Arnhem Land, in the member for Lingiari's electorate, are still in mourning over the loss of a ranger who was taken by a crocodile last October. These are the dangers that they face in the invaluable work that they do.

The conservation work done by these rangers is also invaluable in the protection of our precious and ancient environment. Rangers apply traditional knowledge to land and sea management. When that's combined with the latest science, our nation benefits. Whether it be fire management, which is becoming increasingly important, traditional burning, management of weeds and pests, protecting threatened species, or preserving stories and culture and handing them on to future generations and tourists—it all benefits from the work of rangers on country.

I'd like to take a moment to applaud the work done in the NT by the Caring for Country Branch of the NLC, the Northern Land Council. I acknowledge that there's a delegation from the Northern Land Council in the parliament today. Caring for Country hosts and provides administrative support for land and sea ranger groups and supports joint management of national parks and management of Indigenous protected areas, IPAs. The Northern Land Council currently services 12 ranger groups and jointly manages seven parks and reserves, including the World Heritage listed Kakadu National Park. The NLC actively supports the work of Aboriginal custodians to maintain their cultural obligations to care for this land and sea country through the Caring for Country Branch, which provides environmental and related support services to traditional owners who actively manage in excess of 200,000 square kilometres of land and sea country.

In my electorate of Solomon and the member for Lingiari's electorate is Larrakia country. I want to acknowledge the work done by the Larrakia rangers. They are a long-running urban-based ranger group. With income coming from both commercial enterprise and grant funding they have 22 rangers working across Larrakia land and sea country. When we talk about Larrakia land we're talking about the greater Darwin region, west across to the Cox Peninsula and east to the Adelaide River. This ranger group differs from other ranger groups as much of their effort is directed to commercial work, employment and training. The Larrakia partnership with a whole range of stakeholders and landholders is vital. I commend the work that they do. We know that improving local decision-makers and putting self-determination back in the hands of Aboriginal owners are key steps towards closing the gap. This is very important in the Northern Territory. Aboriginal owned and/or managed land occupies around half of the Territory's landmass and 85 per cent of the coastline. There are currently 1,000 Aboriginal rangers operating across 46 established Aboriginal ranger groups. They manage 460,000 square kilometres of land. That's huge. It's a huge territory. It's also a huge estate being managed by the rangers. Again, I commend the work that they do.

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