Western Australia’s Aboriginal Ranger Program has been operating for seven years now and is funding vital work by Traditional Owners across the state. Right across Western Australia, Traditional Owners are telling us this work matters to them. It’s not only delivering real and tangible outcomes for First Nations peoples but also safeguarding the environment for all West Australians into the future. Country Needs People is asking for your support to ensure all parties commit to continuing and strengthening the program so that WA’s Aboriginal Rangers can be supported into the future. 

Sign the petition to call on all WA pollies to publicly commit before the March 2025 election to secure and strengthen the WA Aboriginal Ranger Program. 

From the Kimberley to the South Coast and the desert to the Jarrah Forests, Aboriginal Rangers are working to sustain Country, culture and community. Aboriginal Rangers are managing fire to protect biodiversity and cultural values, reducing feral animal and invasive weed impacts on native species, and working with scientists to keep Western Australia’s unique threatened species safe. WA’s Aboriginal Ranger Program also enables Traditional Owners to fulfill their cultural obligation to care for Country, whilst creating positive work for individuals and communities. Sign the petition today and help ensure the WA Aboriginal Ranger Program is continued and secured into the future.  

As a proud West Australian and resident in your electorate who loves our great natural environment and the people who make it what it is, I want to see direct investment in practical things that benefit nature and people. For the last 7 years WA’s Aboriginal Ranger Program has funded highly valued jobs for Traditional Owners to protect and manage Country. Their work benefits every West Australian, so it’s critical that this hugely successful program is strengthened and continued into the future.  

Our natural environment faces many increasing pressures, and we want to see greater efforts to protect the precious natural and cultural values of Western Australia. Who better to do that than the Traditional Owners of those places?   

WA’s Aboriginal Ranger Program is a high value investment and a success story for our state, so I want to know what you will do to ensure Rangers can continue looking after Country and culture for every West Australian.

We need to hear - before the 2025 WA Election - whether you will commit to secure and further strengthen the Aboriginal Ranger Program over the next term of government. Specifically, I’d like to hear if you will commit to ensuring the work of Rangers protecting and managing biodiversity and cultural values on Country is a priority for government, by: 

• Providing more ongoing and longer-term funding to Ranger teams rather than only short-term funding options;  

• Growing the annual funding allocation to the Aboriginal Ranger Program and indexing it to CPI over the next term of government; 

• Providing appropriately tailored funding and support to emerging Aboriginal Ranger groups who are just starting up;  

• Providing resources for key land and sea management, infrastructure, operational and equipment needs and special project grants for Ranger groups to strengthen their work on Country;  

• Ensuring that Rangers can prioritise the protection of biodiversity and cultural values on their Country and that this is valued by government.  

Aboriginal Rangers are on the frontline of WA’s biggest challenges – they’re safeguarding threatened species, managing damaging wildfires, fighting invasive species and assisting on the ground with disasters and state emergencies.  If we strengthen the WA Aboriginal Ranger Program, it can provide more meaningful, valued, and secure local jobs in regional and remote communities where they are badly needed.    

If we want to create positive opportunities for young people throughout WA, we must invest in our local people, and you can’t get more local than Aboriginal Rangers living and working in their own communities.   

Please tell me your plan to secure, strengthen, and support WA Aboriginal Rangers into the future. This will be very important to me as I consider my vote.