Promise check: An additional $10 million per year for areas of land and sea managed by Indigenous groups as Protected Areas

At the 2022 election, Labor promised an additional $10 million per year for areas of land and sea managed by Indigenous groups as Protected Areas. Here's how that promise is tracking.

Speaking in parliament in August 2021 after the release of the Closing the Gap report, then opposition leader Anthony Albanese identified increased funding for Indigenous Protected Areas as an objective for a future Labor government.

IPAs are portions of land and ocean managed by Indigenous groups.

They cover more than 85,000 hectares and according to the National Indigenous Australians Agency "provide a framework for Indigenous communities to combine traditional and contemporary knowledge to collaboratively manage their land and sea Country".

IPAs also make up almost 50 per cent of Australia's National Reserve System — a network of protected areas that conserve natural landscapes and native plants.

During his speech to parliament, Mr Albanese said that, if elected "funding for Indigenous Protected Areas will be increased by around 50 per cent to ensure appropriate management of these areas".

In its election policy platform, Labor provided further detail, saying this increased funding would represent an "additional $10 million each year".

It added that "the funding will be used for things like improving biosecurity, restoring biodiversity, and managing cultural sites".

In a statement to the promise tracker, a spokesman for the NIAA — which administers the IPA program — said total spending by the Australian government on IPAs in the 2021-22 financial year was $19.3 million.

Assessing the promise

This promise will be considered delivered if $10 million per financial year is demonstrated to have been spent on the management of IPAs, over and above baseline spending in 2021-22.

Here's how the promise is tracking:

19 May 2023

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

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Promise check: An additional $10 million per year for areas of land and sea managed by Indigenous groups as Protected Areas