Opinion: How the mining lobby can influence Aboriginal affairs
- Dennis Foley | May 25, 2015
Readers would have recently noticed the media debate concerning a proposal to close 150 remote Aboriginal communities by the Western Australian State Premier Mr. Colin Barnett.
From my Aboriginal standpoint, I believe that the closure has little to do with economic rationalism which Premier Barnett claims; rather, I believe it is either a stunt to gain more Federal funding or more likely a sinister move to assist the mining lobby.
For years, the Minerals Council had lobbied with the former Howard conservative government to restrict Aboriginal land rights claiming that they placed an ‘artificial constraint’ on mining industry growth. The 2006 Northern Territory Land Rights Amendment Act went part way towards the demands of the mining lobby in fact an explanatory memorandum within the Bill on page 4 states “ … The principle objectives (of the bill) are to improve access to Aboriginal land for development, especially mining”.
In June 2007, John Howard announced the ‘Intervention’ amid unsubstantiated allegations of child abuse following the release of a government report, a timely diversion before an election to distract attention from the government’s ongoing neglect in funding Aboriginal housing, education, economic and health programs. The Federal government suspended the Race Discrimination Act, and the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, seized control of Aboriginal land, sent the army in and assumed the power to issue licenses or leases to third parties including mining companies even against the wishes of Aboriginal people whose land was taken.
Mining exploration increased substantially. In 2005-6, only 180 Exploration Mining Licenses were granted. The Northern Territory Land Rights Amendment Act was passed in 2006 improving access to Aboriginal Land for miners and the licenses granted jumped to 257. The Intervention began in June 2007 and for the year 2007-2008 the granted licenses increased to a staggering total of 396, a 220% increase on 2005-6.
To add insult to injury the Northern Territory Mining Act of November 2011 repealed the former Mining Act encouraging more active mining exploration. The Intervention in effect was about mining interests not the ‘Sacred Aboriginal Children’ as it claimed. It was a smokescreen otherwise there would have been considerable increased investment in capital works programs in Aboriginal health, housing, education and economic development.
In September 2014 the combined States of Australia agreed to take direct responsibility for the direct provision of services to Aboriginal outstations. A retrospective step for prior to 1967 the States held this responsibility and it was the states that practiced protectionist regimes segregating Aboriginal people away from non-Aboriginal citizens seizing wages, practicing apartheid and extirpation on reserves. More recently it was the states that refused to guarantee Aboriginal people cultural rights. It was the former Western Australian Premier Charles Court who in 1980 sent a drilling company in on sacred Aboriginal land under police protection. Another historical example of a state government protecting mining interests over the common law rights of the Aboriginal.
Prior to September 2014, the Commonwealth was the protector of Aboriginal rights however the current Prime Minister Tony Abbot in an act reminiscent to that of Pontius Pilot conveniently traded his responsibility over Aboriginal Australia to the states.
Colin Barnett is a neoliberal economist who has reneged on his obligations to 150 Aboriginal outstations stating budget constraints as the excuse to close them. Where will the displaced Aboriginal people live as there are no houses being planned? Where will the displaced children attend school as there is no increase in capital works programs or staffing planned for additional schools or the employment of teachers? What increased medical facilities will be developed in these towns and where are the economic development programs to develop enterprise and sustainable industries employing the displaced Aboriginal persons?
It gets worse; in June 2014 the Western Australia Aboriginal Heritage Act was altered by Barnett’s government in light of alleged ‘inadequacies to keep pace with economic development’. Skeptics claim that it opens the door for increased mining activity on Aboriginal Lands.
Homelands like Reservations are essential for the maintenance of tradition and cultural practice. The positives of the homeland movement arguably outweigh the negatives. If no-one is at home, Aboriginal Lands will be ripe for their rape by the mining companies.
First Nations Canada, beware; for if Barnett is successful in this abuse of basic Aboriginal human rights, then it is a sinister precedent for other countries to follow in the management of their Aboriginal populations. Imagine if in Saskatchewan fifty random reservations were earmarked for closure based purely on economic rationalism. How would existing services cope with the influx of political refugees into the major towns, and imagine the unwarranted stress and worry that our people are experiencing in the uncertainty that they face in Western Australia?
You would not treat a Whiteman like that, Mr. Barnett.
Dennis Foley PhD is Aboriginal (Gai-mariagal/Wiradjuri), a Professor in Aboriginal Studies researching primarily in the fields of Aboriginal entrepreneurship, history and education. A Fulbright Scholar and Endeavour Fellow, he has lived and worked with Indigenous colleagues in the USA, Hawaii, Aotearoa, Ireland, Canada as well as urban, rural and remote Aboriginal Australia.
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