Research
Ecology and Greenfield Precincts: Integrating Conservation and Bushfire Exposure Risk into Urban Planning
The rapid increase in urban expansion that is currently occurring around the world creates huge expanses of contested space on the fringes of cities and towns. Urban planners are on the frontline in trying to balance the social and economic pressures of providing affordable housing and accommodating increasing human populations, with the important challenge of meeting expectations around biodiversity conservation, a healthy environment, and a safe place to live. While there are a wide range of tools and expertise available to investigate the trade-offs between potentially competing land-uses and their spatial arrangements, there are few examples of how to draw upon these existing tools and incorporate them into the planning process.
Establishing a Cultural Flows Commission: A Framework for Joint Action on Indigenous Water Rights
The enactment of the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) (hereinafter ‘the Act’)is the most significant change that has occurred in Australian property law in the past 27 years. A muchcelebrated milestone, the Act formally recognized traditional Indigenous legal systems and introduced legal pluralism into Australia’s legal system. However, in practice, the native title system remains beset with problems. One of the key issues is native title’s failure to protect Indigenous water rights. ‘Cultural Flows’ is a policy framework conceived of by Indigenous peoples to further advance Indigenous water rights and to include Indigenous voices in water planning and management. This paper proposes the creation of a joint Cultural Flows Commission to assist in implementing Cultural Flows. The paper explores how an intergovernmental agreement could be used to establish the Commission and how the Commission could play a vital role in reforming water law and policy to advance Indigenous selfdetermination in Australia. Most importantly, the Commission would address the many calls for ‘national focus’ when implementing Cultural Flows.
The Birrarung Act: Between a Decolonial Nation-State and Settler- Colonialism
The Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act 2017 (Vic) established a ‘new and independent’ body as the ‘voice of the river. The Victorian state government considers it to be at the legislative forefront in the emancipation of First Nations Australians. Whilst attempting to replicate some of the languages behind other political settlements agreed between settler- colonial states and First Peoples over rivers and their guardianship, the Victorian Act grants no legal personhood to the Birrarung. It does not establish First Nation Australians as the legal guardian of the river, either. Instead, the Act sets up a statutory advisory body which mandates at least two Indigenous Traditional Owner representatives out of twelve appointees (representing other stakeholders), as made by the Minister for Planning (Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act). Despite the limited representation of Indigenous Peoples in the advisory body, the legislation does contain substantive provisions, indicative of a minor ‘decolonial moment’ in the face of sustained ‘coloniality’ by the nation-state. A philosophical analytical framework of ‘coloniality’ is applied to the legislation to undrape exactly where the cutting edge of First Nations’ emancipatory legislation actually is.
