Tips for senior leaders - Dja Dja Wurrung LUAA | firstpeoplesrelations.vic.gov.au

This page outlines suggestions for senior leaders to improve their organisation’s compliance with with the LUAA. It was originally developed for local government, but most of these tips can benefit leaders in all organisations.

Understand the LUAA, RSA Schedule 6, and Reconciliation Action Plans

Senior leaders are in a great position to lead by example – but only if they understand what is needed, at least broadly.

These web pages focus on the LUAA. But you may also be aware of Schedule 6 of the Dja Dja Wurrung Recognition and Settlement Agreement (RSA) – the Local Government Engagement Strategy. And your organisation may have, or be working towards, a Reconciliation Action Plan, or another similar set of commitments. How do these documents relate to each other?

Two considerations can help to distinguish them:

Focus: Traditional Owners / all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
Requirements: mandatory / recommended.

Focus

The LUAA and RSA (including Schedule 6 – the Local Government Engagement Strategy), focus on the Dja Dja Wurrung as Traditional Owners. While some Dja Dja Wurrung people may live within your Council area, all Dja Dja Wurrung people hold Traditional Owner rights in relation to their recognised country by virtue of these agreements and the enabling legislation.

Reconciliation Action Plans, by contrast, usually relate to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who live in your area. Other organisational strategies related to Indigenous people may also have this broad focus.

Requirements

Compliance with the LUAA is legally mandatory, as is compliance with the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 (Vic).

Schedule 6 of the RSA is framed as a commitment by the State to facilitate engagement between local councils and DJAARA (the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation). It lists a number of actions (items A–L) that may be the focus of these engagements. The first of these – compliance with the LUAA and the Aboriginal Heritage Act – are mandatory actions for all councils.

The remaining items in Schedule 6 are, in effect, recommended actions for councils.

Use and improve your existing systems

To make LUAA compliance part of business as usual in your organisation, consider ways you can use or improve existing systems. For example:

Identify LUAA compliance in Risk Registers, noting that failure to comply with the LUAA can lead to VCAT ordering that land to be returned to its previous condition.
Add LUAA assessments to checklists, project management software, or other tools already in use. For example, does the LUAA apply to the land, what kind of activity is it, have we followed the relevant process to conclusion?
Ensure that standard record-keeping includes file notes or other records of LUAA-related assessments and activities.
Include links to these web materials in relevant documents, websites and digital portals.

Training

Training promotes compliance with the LUAA. Consider possible approaches for ensuring that all relevant staff have the required knowledge and skills. For example:

General discussion of the LUAA for all relevant roles during staff induction
In-depth training for relevant roles, such as in-house training, or attendance at multi-organisation workshops
Refresher training after a specified period (such as 2 to 3 years)
Networks and forums among people with similar roles at other organisations.

Note that for the first few years of the LUAA’s operation, the state has taken the lead in organising and promoting LUAA training. In future years this will increasingly become each organisation’s responsibility.

Update position descriptions

Do position descriptions or task lists in your organisation refer to LUAA-related responsibilities or tasks? Updating these might be an immediate and valuable way of building compliance into business as usual.

For position descriptions, consider:

Who in your organisation is formally responsible for LUAA compliance?
Who, in practical terms, needs to be involved in each step?
Who needs to be aware of LUAA requirements (even if not responsible for carrying them out), such as people engaged in planning and budgeting?

For tasks and responsibilities, consider the following phrasing:

“Responsible for ensuring organisation’s compliance with the Dja Dja Wurrung Land Use Activity Agreement”
“Assess whether the LUAA applies to a project and, if so, what kind of activity and with what resulting process”
“Notify DJAARA of advisory and negotiation activities under the LUAA”
“Consult and/or negotiate with DJAARA regarding proposed activities under the LUAA”
“Estimate time and cost implications, as well as opportunities, arising from LUAA requirements or engagement with the DJAARA”.

Questions for performance reviews

When relevant, consider building accountability for LUAA-related tasks into performance-review processes. For example:

Adapt self-assessment forms with LUAA-related questions, as appropriate for role description.
Ask questions in regular catch-up, coaching or mentoring meetings. (How are you going with…?; Tell me about some examples where…; Do you need any assistance or support with…?)
Ask questions in annual performance review processes. (How effective have you been at…? Can you describe some instances, and walk me through what you did in each case…)

Support compliance by other parties

Each organisation is directly responsible for compliance with the LUAA on crown land that it manages. Strictly speaking, organisations are not responsible for ensuring that other parties who manage public land comply. However, you are encouraged to assist other, less experienced organiations and individuals to understand and comply with the LUAA.

For example, DEECA has assisted local councils to meet their LUAA obligations as Committees of Management, and will continue to assist volunteer Committees of Management.

Councils should consider including notes or conditions about LUAA compliance when issuing permits under planning and environment legislation. Council staff might also be able to provide information to residents and other stakeholders.

Build direct relationships

As noted on the first page of these materials, the LUAA is part of an overall Recognition and Settlement Agreement package, which aims to create a new relationship of “meaningful partnership founded on mutual respect”.

This relationship will emerge through dealings between government and the Dja Dja Wurrung over time, but also through direct personal relationships between key people.

For local government, people who might seek to build these direct relationships with DJAARA counterparts include:

Mayors and Councillors
CEOs
Senior managers with overall responsibility for the LUAA and/or other components of the RSA (such as Schedule 6 actions)
Staff with day-to-day responsibility for the LUAA and other relevant matters.

Because DJAARA has limited staff and resources, it cannot build meaningful relationships at all of these levels across 12 local council areas (as well as with relevant state government agencies). Instead, DJAARA asks that organisations contact them to discuss what will work best for each party.

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