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Noel Pearson. Labor, greens reimposing terra nullius in Cape: Pearson Wednesday, 24 June 2009 8:13:34 AM By Evan Schwarten QUEENSLAND, June 24, 2009: Indigenous leader Noel Pearson has accused the Queensland government of trying to reimpose "terra nullius" on Cape York through its wild rivers laws and proposed World Heritage listing. Mr Pearson said the government and green groups had misled people about the region in order to further an environmental agenda, which he said would condemn Aboriginal residents to welfare for generations to come. "They've created in the public consciousness, this concept of a green `terra nullius' - a green wilderness without people in it," Mr Pearson said. It follows the Bligh government's decision to declare three basins - the Lockhart, Stewart and the Archer - as "wild rivers". The declarations ban development within 1km of rivers and creeks in the basin with lesser restrictions placed on the remainder of the declared area. Mr Pearson, an architect of the historic Wik case, said the declarations, along with the looming threat of a World Heritage listing would undermine efforts to help break the welfare cycle in the region. "This is the last thing I want to be doing, to re-fight Wik, to re-fight the Mabo case," he said. "We have a much more urgent agenda on children and education and health and development in our communities. "All of our plans for our people to get on their own feet are buggered by this." Mr Pearson said conservation groups had "conjured up environmental threats" to the Cape, where none existed. "The Australian public is very vulnerable into being herded into pre-emptive decisions on the environment," he said. "In the minds of voters of southeast Queensland they probably think Cape York is under the kind of threat that the Gunns paper mill represents down in Tasmania. "The truth in Cape York Peninsula is you can't find a chainsaw north of Cooktown." Mr Pearson and his supporters are currently preparing a legal and public campaign against the legislation, but he conceded the fight would be more difficult than the Wik case. "In many ways we got a better deal out of the Right than the threat we are facing from the Left," he said. "At least we got concessions from the people who wanted to develop Aboriginal land that it should be done via agreement - on this stuff they talk about consultation but they don't talk about agreement." - AAP Printer Friendly Version  Email Story to a Friend Submit Letter to Editor