The Promise and Potential of Queensland’s Human Rights Act for Indigenous Peoples: Interpreting the ‘Environmental Right’

In 2019, Queensland became the third Australian state to legislate human rights protections, but the first to enshrine a right of ‘Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples [to] not be denied the right, with other members of their community … to conserve and protect the environment and productive capacity of their land, territories, waters, coastal seas and other resources’. This article analyses how this right may be interpreted and applied in practice, and argues in favour of an expansive interpretation, encompassing a right to consultation. Coupled with Queensland’s complaints and conciliation process, it is argued that this right may provide significant protection for indigenous cultural rights in Queensland.