AFC warns visiting world body: 10-point plan on Wik means eco-chaos

Mark Horstman (Australian Conservation Foundation) &
Terry O'Shane (ATSIC Commissioner, National Indigenous Working Group)

ACF - Australian Conservation Foundation
340 Gore St, Fitzroy, 3065
Phone (03) 9416 1166
Fax (03) 9416 0767
eMail: actenv@peg.apc.org

The OECD Review Team has invited the ACF to provide information about Australia's environmental direction.

The OECD Review will provide Australia's economic partners with an up-to-date profile of national environmental policies and performance.

The ACF and the National Indigenous Working Group will tell the OECD Review Team today that:

• the Federal Government's response to the Wik decision will create a new dimension of serious environmental problems, in addition to extinguishing native title;
• by proposing to upgrade pastoral leases, the Federal Government is radically changing the land management system over more than 40 percent of Australia;
• allowing the States to upgrade pastoral leases will make new land acquisitions for national parks unlikely as the land will become too expensive for environmental agencies to purchase;
• the Federal and State Governments do not appear to be aware of the damaging environmental implications created by the proposed ten-point plan on native title.