Christine Milne, Senator for Tasmania and Leader of the Australian Greens, is one of Australia’s most experienced environmental and community activists, with more than thirty years of front line activism.

Christine Milne – Photo, smh.com.au

After leading an alliance of farmers, fishers, scientists, environmentalists and concerned community members from Wesley Vale to prevent the construction of a polluting pulp mill, Ms Milne was elected to the Tasmanian parliament in 1989, and became the first woman to lead a political party in Tasmania in 1993. She was elected to the Senate in 2004, and elected Deputy Leader of the Greens by her colleagues in 2008.

When in the Tasmanian parliament, Ms Milne constructed a comprehensive plan to transform the State into a “clean, green and clever” economy. Her proposal has now become main stream policy. Ms Milne’s global reputation was recognised when she was appointed a United Nations Global 500 Laureate and elected Global Vice-President of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature from 2005-08.

She was born in May 1953, at Latrobe, Tasmania, the second daughter of Wesley Vale dairy farmers, Tom and June Morris. Ms Milne has a Bachelor of Arts majoring in History and Political Science, and taught High School for a number of years after graduating from the University of Tasmania in 1974.

Her first environmental activism came in 1983 in the campaign to save huts at Waldheim Chalet in Cradle Mountain National Park. In the same year she was arrested and imprisoned for her involvement in the Franklin Dam blockade. In 1988 and 1989 Ms Milne led the campaign by farmers, fishers, scientists and environmentalists to stop the Wesley Vale pulp mill. In 1989 she was elected to the Tasmanian Parliament as the Independent member for Lyons. Jointly, she held the balance of power, in supporting the ALP with an accord which led to the doubling of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage area, Freedom of Information law reforms, and to the Douglas Apsley and Friendly Beaches National Parks.

In 1992 she was re-elected in the seat of Lyons as an Independent. In that year she became a founding member of the Tasmanian Greens party with Bob Brown. In 1993 Ms Milne was elected the Leader of the Tasmanian Greens following the resignation of Bob Brown.

Between 1996 to 1998, she led the Tasmanians Greens while with the balance of power with a Liberal minority Government, in which time Gay reform was delivered, the State Apology to the Stolen Generations and the protection of forests in the Counsel River region was pushed.

In 2004 Ms Milne was elected to the Australian Senate. In 2005 she took up her Senate seat and immediately set about taking on climate change. In 2008 she was elected Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens. In 2010, Senator Milne was re-elected on a record-breaking Greens Senate vote of 20,27 per cent. In 2011 she developed a Clean Energy Package which was announced in July and legislated in November. In 2012 she was elected Leader of the Australian Greens.

The Stringer posed its first series of questions to Senator Milne on Aboriginal Australia:

THE STRINGER: When you would have been in primary and high school what you would have been taught about Aboriginal Australia – in historical terms – would have been limited. Where, when and how did you first begin to learn about the real history of Aboriginal Australia?

SENATOR MILNE: I am a sixth generation Tasmanian and Indigenous education was almost absent from my education and what I was taught was wrong.

That’s why I have always supported efforts to recognise the rights and culture of Tasmanian Aboriginal people. In the Tasmanian Parliament I used Greens influence to secure an Apology to the Stolen Generations in 1996 and to fly the Aboriginal flag over the Parliament.

Since being elected to the Senate, I visited Alice Springs and Mt Everard community to discuss my opposition to the nuclear waste dump proposal and when I was in the Kimberley late last year I met with Aboriginal people to discuss my support for the campaign to protect James Price Point. I look forward to visiting more communities in my capacity as Greens Leader.

THE STRINGER: How do the Australian Greens draw their knowledge of Aboriginal Australia? From which people, what agencies, literature, experiences?

SENATOR MILNE: We work extensively with individuals, communities, health officials, non-governmental organisations, academics and other experts in this area but we also get beyond Parliament House meetings and go out into communities whenever we can.

My colleagues Senators Rachel Siewert and Scott Ludlam are regular visitors to remote communities and to urban regional areas where they always meet up with local Indigenous people. We also work hard in areas like Senate Committees and Senate Estimates to get more information released from the Government and Federal departments.

THE STRINGER: Are the Australian Greens prepared to consider affirmative actions in the near future and secure Senate spots for Aboriginal Australians? If so will they look for Aboriginal Australians with expertise of the remote communities?

SENATOR MILNE: Australia needs more Aboriginal Parliamentarians. The Greens have a strong history with ATSI candidates, as we do with candidates from many backgrounds, reflecting our multicultural society.

We will continue to work for seats for Aboriginal Australians. It’s important to ensure those candidates have expertise of remote communities but we are also aware that about 75% of Aboriginal Australians live in urban and regional communities and also experience disadvantage and gaps in life expectancy.

THE STRINGER: What do you think of the NT’s Chief Minister dropping the Aboriginal Affairs portfolio and arguing a whole-of-government approach, and what do you think of Tony Abbott’s proposal for a Prime Minister of Aboriginal Affairs?

SENATOR MILNE: I agree that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are affected by all portfolios in Federal and State governments, and so a whole-of-government approach should ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are included in all the Government’s consideration planning.

However what concerns me about Tony Abbott’s suggestion for a whole-of-government approach in the Prime Minister’s portfolio is that it takes much more than a government bureaucracy to ultimately deliver – the outcomes should be the priority, and without better policies it would simply be a bureaucratic change. Tony Abbott supported John Howard’s Intervention policies and so I would encourage ATSI people to ask specifically what he would change.

Concerning Adam Giles’ decision to scrap the Aboriginal Affairs portfolio, I think given the level of disadvantage in the Northern Territory, an Aboriginal Affairs portfolio in the NT government is important to ensure that a Minister is responsible for overseeing specific policies to address this problem of disadvantage directly. The problem with the NT Government approach is that when everyone is responsible, no one is and no one drives the changes that are needed.

THE STRINGER: By many counts the Intervention/Stronger Futures is struggling in the NT in trying to exact positive changes – poverty is entrenched, incarceration rates are high – 84 per cent of the NT prison population are comprised of Aboriginal peoples – youth suicide rates among the highest in the nation, homelessness rates nearly 20 times the national rate – why is this so? What more can be done to garner better outcomes?

(Journalist, Gerry Georgatos, declares an impartiality conflict of interest as a staunch critic of the Northern Territory ‘Intervention’ and of ‘Stronger Futures’)

SENATOR MILNE: The Greens have always been opposed to the Intervention and have been trying to roll it back. We were also the only ones standing up against Stronger Futures when it was debated in Parliament last year.

It is a failed Howard policy that should never have been extended. To address problems of disadvantage, rather than a heavy handed, top-down approach that takes away communities’ rights, we need adequate and continuous funding for community projects that are proven track record, not rushed, unaccountable and patronising policies that have demonstrated no good outcomes.

We have worked extensively around this issue since its inception, campaigning on the rollback of the Intervention and also extracting more information from the Government and federal departments through Senate Committees and Senate Estimates.

THE STRINGER: What more should be done to actually Close the Gap – rather than the piecemeal funding approach that exists?

SENATOR MILNE: We need strong, sustained investments across areas such as health care, housing, infrastructure and education. The Government continues to waste money on the unproved and expensive regime of income management, when this money would be far more effective in other areas, such as reducing dependence on drugs and alcohol or combating hearing health problems.

The recent slide backwards on numeracy and literacy results make it clear we must measure whether genuine progress is being made, not just the numbers walking into the class room. More must be done to address the reasons behind kids not developing stronger numeracy and literacy skills, including contributing factors such as otitis media and inadequate housing.

A commitment is also being sought from the Government to ensure the continuation of a National Partnership Agreement on Closing the Gap in Indigenous Health Outcomes. The current agreement is due to expire in the coming months and its continuation is critical.

THE STRINGER: Can the Native Title Act be improved? Some Aboriginal Corporations have not adequately disbursed wealth back into their communities. Some of these Corporations have become very wealthy while the communities languish, or they do less for their communities when compared with other Aboriginal Corporations. Do you agree? What should be done to improve acquittal or funding and of their operations? Should ORIC (Office of the Registrar of Aboriginal Corporations) and the NNTT (National Native Title Tribunal) be improved in terms of balance and check?

SENATOR MILNE: Yes, the Greens are committed to improving the Native Title system and have legislation before the Senate to achieve this.

We have participated in an extensive community consultation and have been through a Senate Inquiry, listening to expert opinion on how the Act can be improved. We would like to include measures to reverse the onus of proof required for claims and ensuring traditional owners are able to benefit financially from their lands.

The Act needs to provide meaningful rights and a basis for economic and community development, as well as the recognition of rights to land, culture and resources.

THE STRINGER: Do you read the Indigenous specific news media?

The National Indigenous Times is a valuable part of our media landscape – I think it’s important to have diversity in our media and news and commentary that represents the views of all. I’m pleased that NITV (National Indigenous Television) is now available on free-to-air, it adds to our media diversity and provides an important service.

-Senator Christine Milne was pressed for time and was not able to answer the suite of 22 questions which Tony Abbott did answer last week. The one question that I was hoping Senator Milne would answer was one posed about the Northern Territory community of Utopia. Mr Abbott did respond to this question that he needed to be briefed first on Utopia before answering it. What is disturbing about our parliamentarians effectively not responding to the question about Utopia is because we have visited Utopia and seen the despair people live in, we have described this to parliamentarians and that Utopia made international headlines after Amnesty International’s Secretary-General Shalil Shetty described the community as in a third-world state and UN Human Rights High Commissioner Navi Pillay labelled the Australian Government’s neglect of Utopia as “racism.”

The unanswered question, among a few others also unanswered, was as follows:

THE STRINGER: The Government is committing $4 million to Utopia (NT) but why is not more being injected to fully build up Utopia and ensure the full suite of services, just like most other regions of Australia?

-The Northern Territory community of Utopia, 350 km northeast of Alice Springs, is an example of Government neglect – it is third-world and most of its 1,200 Alyawarra and Anmatjirra peoples languish in dilapidated homes and without the suite of public services that most other Australians enjoy. The United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay condemned the deplorable conditions and described the neglect as racism. Amnesty International’s Shalil Shetty described Utopia as third-world.

-Last month the Australian Government finally meted out $4 million to Utopia for housing refurbishments and facilities – this is peanuts and let us hope that most of the $4 million is not eaten up by bureaucracy and contractor fees. (Gerry Georgatos)

In the weeks and months ahead we will continue to bring you more interviews with the nation’s political leaders – on a wide variety of issues. Last week we brought you Mr Abbott and this week Senator Milne, both on Aboriginal Australia. Deeper discussions and tougher questions will surface in future interviews with both Mr Abbott and Senator Milne and with other leaders on our political landscape.