Aussie Aboriginal People Hurt by Green Policies

For John, BLUF:  Doing bad by trying to do good.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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I thought this was an interesting story about how pursuit of Progressive (in this case, Green) goals sometimes hurts minorities.  From Australian Financial Review we have this item by Nyunggai Warren Mundine, "Green groups keep Aboriginal people in poverty".  Here is the lede and subsequent two paragraphs:

In 2009, the Bligh Labor government declared three major Cape York rivers as “wild rivers”.  It was a politically motivated decision to secure Greens preferences in a close state election.  It locked up major areas of Queensland’s far north making it impossible for traditional owners to pursue developments, including things like horticulture and tourism.  It made a mockery of the Labor party’s support for land rights. Aboriginal people in Cape York had their land but, unlike every other landowner in Australia, weren’t allowed to prosper from it.

The Wilderness Society was the main agitator for the 2009 declaration.  In a statement after the decision, it said “Queensland is blessed with some of the last remaining freeflowing rivers left on the planet and they need to be treasured.”

Too bad Aboriginal people are amongst the poorest people on the planet; a people whose main assets are rights over land and sea.  After years of dispossession and being forced off our land, we’re slowly getting some of those rights back – only to be told by Green groups that the music has stopped.

One of the things that worries me about the whole Algorism Climate Change panic is that while it recognizes the dangers to some populations in low lying areas, it seems to avoid looking at the fact that many of the proposed changes lock in the poverty present in much of the world.  We need some economic analysis and some demographic analysis before we start taking on big changes to how we do business.  And, frankly, even without concerns about climate change, simple justice would require us to look at the distribution of wealth around the world.  Some may not wish to work the kind of work week that is de rigueur in the United States, but they should have the opportunity to not live in what we in the West see as poverty, if they don't wish to.

Hat tip to the Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff