Cassy O’Connor MP | Greens Leader and Member for Clark
The Resource Management Planning Appeal Tribunal’s rejection of the appeal by the Mount Wellington Cableway Company (MWCC) is welcome. The protection of Aboriginal heritage must be prioritised when assessing all development proposals.
The MWCC application sought to minimise assessment of the impact a cable car would have on Aboriginal heritage values. That says everything you need to know about the cable car proposal, the proponent and the Liberal Government that has been cheerleading this proposal from its inception.
Kunanyi is a place of immense cultural significance to the Tasmanian Aboriginal people – both in the past, and now. To try to minimise that is an affront to the palawa people.
MWCC bought up domain names that include the title ‘kunanyi’ without consulting the Aboriginal community. They have since refused to do a comprehensive on-site heritage survey. It’s an understatement to say this is disrespectful.
Of course they don’t want to have to look for Aboriginal heritage, in case they find some. Just as they don’t want to acknowledge the ongoing connection the palawa of southern Tasmania have to kunanyi.
MWCC’s disregard for Aboriginal heritage has been, in large part, fostered by Liberal government facilitation of their divisive, destructive cable car proposal.
It’s little wonder the proponents believe they have a right to public – and critically, First People’s – land when the Liberals, backed in by Labor, have done everything within their power to gift it to them.
The mountain and its summit are public land – it’s Aboriginal land. A cable car on kunanyi is anathema to the protection of the mountain’s cultural and natural values