By RUDI MAXWELL and NEVE BRISSENDEN

Greens Senator Dorinda Cox has called on the Federal Government to support her ‘Sea Country’ Bill after traditional owners failed in their bid to stop construction of an underwater gas pipeline on Monday.

Tiwi Islanders lost their Federal Court case against gas company Santos’ plan to build a pipeline from the Barossa gas field in the Timor Sea to Darwin, arguing the pipeline would disturb the travels of an ancestral being of fundamental importance in their culture.

Justice Natalie Charlesworth said there had been a significant degree of divergence in traditional owners’ accounts about Ampiji, a rainbow serpent, and the Jirakupai or the Crocodile Man songlines and she wasn’t satisfied that either tangible or non-tangible cultural heritage would be disturbed by the pipeline.

Greens Resources spokesperson Senator Dorinda Cox said that, while the court’s decision was very disappointing for traditional owners, it gave the Federal Government an opportunity to properly engage with her Private Senator’s Bill regarding protection of sea country.

“When we talk about intangible cultural heritage, we are talking about oral history, a critical part of First Nations’ history.”

“We need to ensure that traditional owners and knowledge holders have the opportunity to be genuinely consulted,” she said.

“That’s non-existent under the current legislation, and it leaves the door open for anyone who wants to dispute the credibility of information.”

In August, Senator Cox introduced a Bill that requires standards of consultation with traditional owners, ensures they are included as “relevant people” in the consultation process and ensures that underwater cultural heritage is identified and protected.

Last Friday, the Federal Government said it would re-examine the consultation process for offshore projects.

Simon Munkara lost his court case preventing Santos’ Barossa gas pipeline in the Timor Sea.

Senator Cox said, as well as tinkering with the regulations regarding offshore approvals, legislation was needed to clear up a number of ambiguities, including who has cultural authority to speak on behalf of country and what free, prior and informed consent actually means.

“When we talk about intangible cultural heritage, we are talking about oral history, a critical part of First Nations’ history in passing down those stories, identifying those places on country, understanding what our traditional songlines do, in relation to trade routes and also the continuation of our culture,” she said.

“Currently, the way that it looks is that a 200-year-old shipwreck off the coast can be recognised under the legislation but yet the story of Ampiji can’t because the legislation doesn’t recognise it.”

Federal opposition environment spokesman Jonno Duniam said confidence in the regulatory process needed to be restored and hit out at the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO), which ran the case on behalf of Tiwi Islanders.

“The EDO’s case has proven to be a waste of valuable time and resources for all involved,” he said.

“The first thing that Labor could do to improve this would be to defund the EDO.”

Northern Territory Chief Minister Eva Lawler said the Federal court judgement was a “good decision” and work was now needed to reassure industry to invest in the NT.

Ms Lawler will travel to Japan next week to meet with Japanese oil and gas company, INPEX.

Tiwi Islanders argued there was a significant new environmental impact or risk from the pipeline.

“What we can do in the territory is to provide that surety to the onshore oil and gas industry,” she said.

“But…in the territory, you have to work with environmental groups and you have to work with traditional owners.

“We do need to balance that with growing the oil and gas industry.”

Australian Energy Producers, which represents the oil and gas industry, said the project had incurred substantial delays as a result of a broken offshore environmental regulatory system.

“Reform of the offshore approvals system is urgently needed to put an end to the lawfare as activists seek to exploit the ambiguities in the regulations,” chief executive Samantha McCulloch said.

AAP

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