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ABORIGINAL ISSUES Aboriginal life in Australia continues to be damaged by the nuclear industry.
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Uranium Mining and Aboriginal People -by Vincent Forrester I follow the culture of my people. We belong to the land. We are the caretakers for the land. Our lifetime on this earth is only a blink in time, so our lifetime is spent protecting and caring for this land for future generations......... .....I want to tell you how I feel about uranium and how the whole nuclear cycle affects our land, our lives, our traditions....The people who I believe to be among the worst affected by the nuclear cycle are my people, the Aboriginal owners of Australia.It is our land which white miners rip apart to extract the poisonous yellowcake, and it is on our land where they dump the polluted tailingsI It is on Aboriginal
land that the British, with support from the Australian government of
the time, exploded deadly nuclear weapons, with no regard for our people,
their land or their future. I say to you, when you consider your attitudes to Australian involvement in the uranium industry, that you think first about what you are doing to our people.......... ........what do
Aboriginal people of Arnhem Land know of these dangers? Our people in
Arnhem Land and throughout Australia are not sufficiently informed about
the extent of damages occurring from uranium mining. Nor do we know
the extent to which they are being exposed to radiation in the atmosphere.
Nor do we know the extent of contamination already present in the food
chain. |
| for detailed information on the uranium/nuclear industry and aboriginal issues go to aboriginal issues |
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a
selection of recent & past news items |
Dreams Of Social Responsibility Rio Tinto, Capitalism, and Indigenous Rights Swans Commentary by Michael Barker 15 June 09 Despite the existence of such environmental connections, which may be better described as greenwash, Rio Tinto remains strongly committed to a nuclear powered (and weaponized) future, and it maintains two of the largest uranium mines in the world (one in Australia that is run by Energy Resources of Australia and the other in Namibia). (2) Chris Salisbury, the chief operating officer with the Bauxite and Alumina division of Rio Tinto Alcan, is the former chair of the pro-nuclear lobby group, the Australian Uranium Association (and a board member of Energy Resources of Australia). This connection to the nuclear lobby group is particularly relevant to this article as in February 2009 the Australian Uranium Association established an Indigenous Dialogue Group, which included Professor Marcia Langton as one of their founding members. Langton was a fitting choice as an indigenous representative chosen to sit alongside mining CEOs, as Langton chairs the pro-corporate Cape York Institute, a “public policy organization that champions reform in Indigenous economic and social policies,” that is headed by the neoliberal indigenous rights activist, Noel Pearson. Contrary to its demonstrated willingness to abuse human rights in developing countries, Rio Tinto has adopted an alternative strategy in Australia (since 1996) and it has actively sought to establish working — rather than exploiting — relationships with indigenous peoples. The foundation of this strategy was marked by the creation of the Rio Tinto Aboriginal Fund, No doubt such efforts are necessitated by the desire to be seen to be acting as a socially responsible corporation (in an imperial homeland); something which is not necessary in far flung countries where the ongoing abuse of indigenous populations and landscapes rarely makes the headlines of the mainstream media. The chair of the Rio Tinto Aboriginal Fund, Chris Renwick, is the chairman of Coal and Allied Industries (which is managed by Rio Tinto Coal Australia) and amongst his other corporate connections he is a board member of Downer-EDI, where he sits alongside Michael Harding, the chairman of the Army Project Governance Board of the Australian Department of Defence. Here it should be highlighted that Rio Tinto has always maintained direct military ties and Paul Skinner, the former chair of Rio Tinto (2003-09), was and still is a “member of the Defence Management Board (DMB) at the Ministry of Defence, a high-level committee whose role is to deliver the aims set by the UK’s defence policy, including to ‘achieve success in the military tasks we undertake, at home and abroad’.”……………… ………..Finally, having listed some of the types of projects that the Rio Tinto Aboriginal Fund has financed, it is critical to put Rio Tinto’s philanthropic efforts into perspective. This is because since the founding of its Aboriginal Fund (in 1996) they have only distributed around A$20 million (or US$16 million) in funding to groups across Australia. This is only a drop in the ocean when compared with the immense profits Rio Tinto has reaped from destroying the environment and trampling roughshod over human rights. Indeed, according to the Fortune 500 global company ranking for 2005, Rio Tinto ranked as the 10th most profitable company in the world, and while their net earnings were US$5.2 billion in 2005, the following year their earnings had grown to a massive US$7.4 billion. To try to put Rio Tinto’s minor support for indigenous Australians into further relief, John Pilger noted that “When John Howard came to office in 1996, his first act was to cut $A400 million from the Aboriginal affairs budget. |
| Australia's hidden empire Free Thought Manifesto May 09 JOHN PILGER "........................ - a 'sphere of influence' that stretches from the Aboriginal slums of Sydney to East Timor and Afghanistan. The arrival of new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, offers important continuity........................
The Northern Territory is where Aboriginal people have had comprehensive land rights longer than anywhere else, granted almost by accident 30 years ago. The Howard government set about clawing them back. The territory contains extraordinary mineral wealth, including huge deposits of uranium on Aboriginal land. The number of companies licensed to explore for uranium has doubled to 80. Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of the American giant Halliburton, built the railway from Adelaide to Darwin, which runs adjacent to Olympic Dam, the world’s largest low-grade uranium mine. Last year, the Howard government appropriated Aboriginal land near Tennant Creek, where it intends to store the radioactive waste. “The land-grab of Aboriginal tribal land has nothing to do with child sexual abuse,” says the internationally acclaimed Australian scientist and actvist Helen Caldicott, “but all to do with open slather uranium mining and converting the Northern Territory to a global nuclear dump.” Australia's Hidden Empire |
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A shabby story of neglect A top tactic of the greedy and the non-caring is just simply - DELAY This works just fine when considering the illnesses, deaths, and family sufferings of nuclear victims. So - the UK will acknowledge the nuclear veterans - now that most of them have died - and as for the Australian aborigines - well - not only delay, but now - why not increase their radiation exposure? After all, they're not in a position to sue the government, anyway! |
 The Maralinga Atomic Bomb Tests effects on aboriginal people "They put the bomb there. In our country. Maralinga and Emu Junction. In the middle, right through. All the smoke went there. Right through and finished all our people, in the Victorian desert. You look at it on the map, nobody living in the Victorian desert. All our people gone. - "Myra Tjunmutja Watson
On September 27, 1956, the first British atomic test at Maralinga, in the South Australian desert, codenamed 'One Tree', was conducted, on Tjarutja lands. It followed similar atomic bomb detonations further north at Emu Field, and on the Monte Bello islands, off the northwest coast of Western Australia. One Tree was detonated despite poor weather conditions, resulting in significant radioactive fallout around Coober Pedy, and measured as far away as Townsville in North Queensland and Lismore in New South Wales. The cumulative fallout from the tests ultimately passed over most of Australia. Seven further nuclear devices were tested at Maralinga in the following months. Many Indigenous communities living in the surrounding areas were not warned of the immediate nuclear threat. Despite the experience of previous atomic tests at Emu Field, where Indigenous groups around Wallatinna and elsewhere recalled experiencing a "black mist" rolling through their camps after the tests, followed by widespread sickness, the 1986 Royal Commission concluded that at Maralinga "attempts to ensure Aboriginal safety [during the tests] demonstrate ignorance, incompetence and cynicism on the part of those responsible for that safety." Communities across the Western Desert suffered significant radiation exposure. The fallout from the tests was extensive: radioactivity affected most of the Australian continent, leading to death and sickness, and continuing to affect individuals and communties today. Indigenous oral histories tell of a black mist that caused cancer and asthma, red and yellow-coloured smoke rising, bright flashes of light leading to blindness. There are tragic stories of families sleeping in bomb craters, nose and stomach trouble, family dying, and children orphaned. It is the story of poison spreading far, hurting people and land. To carry out the tests, thousands of Maralinga, Pitjantjatjara and Kokatha people were forcibly removed and dispossessed from their land by 'Aboriginal Protectors' and forced to relocate to government and mission-controlled enclaves. The test range was located in an area that was selected "on the false assumption that the area was not used by its traditional Aboriginal owners," when in actuality Indigenous people continued to move in and around the Prohibited Area – including the Milpuddie family camping in a highly contaminated bomb crater. The boundaries of the test site were not secure, and warning signs were all in English. Maralinga: 50 Years On |
| Native Title Tribunal rejects first mine application ABC News By Babs McHugh 2 June 09 For the first time in its 15 year history, the Native Title Tribunal has knocked back an application for a mining lease on Aboriginal land in Western Australia. The Tribunal ruled the significance of a proposed mine site to a local Aboriginal group, the Martu, overruled the economic and public interest. Many mining companies are struggling against the poor economic tide, so could the ruling have long term ramifications for foreign investment? It is the second historic win for The Western Desert Martu People......................... Acting CEO of the Western Desert Land Council Tony Wright says he understands the Martu could make a lot of money from the mine but that is not enough. "It's not all about money," he said. "It's not culture for sale." Native Title Tribunal rejects first mine application - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) |
Finishing what Howard started: major attack on land rights Green Left Peter Robson31 May 2009 New policies announced by the federal ALP Aboriginal affairs minister, Jenny Macklin, turn back the clock on Aboriginal land rights more than 30 years....... .........Macklin announced the federal government would use its powers to take over the Alice Springs town camps that, until now, were under Indigenous control. ........................After blaming Tangentyere Council and the remote communities for the “appalling conditions” that has resulted from chronic underfunding, Macklin and Rudd have once again shut Aboriginal people out of the negotiating process. Green Left - Finishing what Howard started: major attack on land rights |
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Native Title Tribunal stops mining lease The Age Warwick Stanley May 28, 2009 -
An Aboriginal land corporation has had a historic win in the National Native Title Tribunal by blocking a company's application for a mining lease .In the first case where a company has failed to win a mining application on land granted under the Native Title Act, Reward Minerals Ltd subsidiary Holocene Pty Ltd was denied a lease over Lake Disappointment in Western Australia. |
The Western Deserts Lands Aboriginal Corporation (WDLAC), which holds the native title area on trust for the Martu people, hailed the decision as "a historic and special day"............ ...........The Martu hold native title rights over 136,000 square kilometres of land in the Western Desert, including Lake Disappointment on the eastern edge of the Pilbara........... ....................Emeritus Professor Robert Tonkinson, chair of anthropology at the University of Western Australia until his retirement in 2003, told the NNTT inquiry that traditionally Lake Disappointment was an area "where no interference would be contemplated by the Martu". |
 Senate to investigate land council's financial dealings Northern Territory News NICK CALACOURAS 21 May 09
THE senate will hold an inquiry into the financial dealings of a Territory land council. The Senate Finance and Public Administration committee last week voted to investigate the relationship between the Central Land Council and the Centrecorp Aboriginal Investment Corporation. NT Senator Nigel Scullion said the investigation followed two appearances by CLC chief executive David Ross before the Senate Estimates Committee. "The secrecy surrounding the relationship between the CLC and Centrecorp and its beneficiaries remains impenetrable," he said. Senate to investigate land council's financial dealings - Northern Territory News |
| “Caring For Country” Linked To Good Health: Medindia.com 17 May 09 Indigenous people in the Northern Territory who participate in “caring for country” activities enjoy significantly better health, a study published in the May 18 Indigenous Health issue of the Medical Journal of Australia has found............................“Our findings suggest that in caring for country programs may be a means to generate sustainable economic development and gains for both ecological and Indigenous peoples’ health in remote areas of Australia.” ......... Caring for country programs occur on Aboriginal lands and seas and deliver a range of essential environmental services “Caring For Country” Linked To Good Health: MJA |
fromIPS News: "As coastal and island communities confront rising sea levels, and inland areas become hotter and drier, indigenous people are at risk of further economic marginalisation, as well as potential dislocation from and exploitation of their traditional lands, waters and natural resources," said Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma. |
Aboriginals of Australia: Climate Change Threat | Maralinga women tell their story Australian Broadcasting Corporation Reporter: Mike Sexton 7.30 Report 11/05/2009 The tragic legacy of Britain’s nuclear testing at Maralinga in the South Australian outback is now a well-documented chapter in the nation's history. But for the Aboriginal people whose land was used for the tests, there is a feeling that their voice has not been heard. Now a group of women from remote communities in South Australia’s far west coast have written and illustrated their story for the first time. ...............MIKE SEXTON: Their book is called 'Maralinga: The Anangu Story' and records for the first time in their own voice how Aboriginal people suffered from the British atomic tests in their traditional country in the 1950s. YVONNE EDWARDS: We wanted to share our story with the world, with everyone so they know what we went through, and our grandmothers and grandfathers went through......................MIMA SMART, YALATA COMMUNITY COUNCIL CHAIR: The bomb is really a radioactive poison, made our people sick and a lot of them was infected by that with other sickness, cancer and lung disease, and a lot of them died. MIKE SEXTON: As a result of the weapons tests, deadly plutonium was scattered across the desert making some sections radioactive for at least 24,000 years and off limits to the original owners. The 7.30 Report - ABC |
The Maduwonga say the 17,000 hectares of land that will need to be cleared to make way for the mine will desecrate the most sacred sites in their family’s history………………… A Maduwonga elder, Isabel Dingaman says the expansion may create jobs and profits, but people need to consider the health and environmental impacts of mining uranium when they make submissions to the South Australian Government. “It’s poison gas. Once it’s released it’s invisible, you can’t see it, can’t smell it and the wind will carry it as far as it wants to,” she said. Ms Dingaman also says people claiming to be related to her family have signed on to the group’s native title, rendering it null and void. Olympic Dam EIS rejected - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) |
| A treaty now will go a long way to a more equal Australia The Age Paul Briggs * May 4, 2009 -"...........For Aboriginal people to contribute in Australian society, we need an underpinning treaty that protects and sustains our identity and culture for all Australians. This base can then also help provide the necessary resources to fund an Aboriginal economy that is also spiritual and social and not just aligned to economic outcomes....... .......The dispossession of Aboriginal land is the greatest miscarriage of justice that has been carried out in the history of Australia. Claiming the land as terra nullius — "empty land" or "land belonging to nobody" — more than 200 years ago continues to have a lasting effect on Aboriginal people..........................A treaty now will go a long way to a more equal Australia | theage.com.au |
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"Aboriginal land" - just who is it really for? The South Australian government and the uranium lobby see big bucks in mining and nuke waste, and will manipulate "Native Title" to get control of land. |
Call for lands trust to allow more community say ABC 23 April An elder from the Point Pearce community on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula says the Aboriginal Lands Trust (ALT) Act creates division within communities.In a submission into a review of the Act, Adjahdura elder Quentin Agius says traditional owners feel they should have more power over decision making and see more benefit than people whose families have moved to the area .He says the Act impedes Aboriginal prosperity because the trust lacks the resources and expertise to make good decisions for Aboriginal communities."They should have more experienced people within the ALT board - it's more of a Government-run organisation than where it should be," Mr Agius said."Community people should have more of a say within their own lands and until that happens all communities, not just my community itself, would feel like their getting deprived." ABC North and West SA - Call for lands trust to allow more community say |
| Indigenous rights declaration just the start by Thalia Anthony, University of Sydney ABC Indigenous News Apr 14, 2009 Australia's endorsement of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, announced recently, comes in the midst of a number of United Nations Committee criticisms on Australia's record on Indigenous rights. These criticisms point to Australia's failure to uphold Indigenous people's human rights and rights to equality and non-discrimination. The criticism has been directed primarily towards the Government's policy on the Northern Territory intervention.............................the intervention undermines rights to .................... self-determination and cultural rights (especially through its provisions for compulsory acquisition of Indigenous land) and rights to Indigenous participation in decision-making (as a result of the lack of consultation on the intervention). In light of its Indigenous scorecard on the international arena, Australia has a lot of answering to and a long way to catch up to meeting its treaty obligations. Nonetheless, Australia endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which "recognises the minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the indigenous peoples of the world". |
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What a piece of manipulation! When the uranium bubble completely bursts, - well, darned if a new law might see aboriginal land destroyed, but with no compensation whatsoever to the aboriginal landowners! - see item below |
New Bill on Uranium Royalties Could Rob Aboriginal Landowners The Epoch Times 31 March 09 DARWIN—A bill seeking to apply a uniform royalty regime to all new uranium projects in the Northern Territory could disadvantage Aboriginal people, a Senate inquiry has been told....... .........there are concerns that basing royalty payments on profits, rather than revenue, could disadvantage the people whose land is being mined. .................. Dave Sweeney, from the Australian Conservation Foundation, said the bill needed to hand control back to indigenous people. "There are major questions about traditional decision making and the ability of people to say yes or no to developments." Mr Sweeney also called on the senators to consider the environmental impacts of uranium mining and consider ways to introducing mandatory safeguards into the bill. |
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Do you smell a rat here? - Note the words in red. It sounds as if the claim has been resolved in such a way as to give uranium miners total slather in the Flinders Ranges This will mean not only wrecking the environment of the traditional aboriginal people there, but also, for all Australians, the permanent degradation of the magnificent Flinders Ranges |
Tribunal resolves Flinders Ranges claim Brisbane Times March 30, 2009 - South Australia's biggest ever native title claim has been resolved, giving the Adnyamathanha people non-exclusive rights over a large section of the state's mid-north. Recognising the coexistence between the traditional owners of the land, pastoralists and mining companies, the determination will provide the Adnyamathanha People access to 41,000 square kilometres of land for ceremonial and cultural activities such as hunting, camping and gathering bush tucker. The 41,000sq km section of land resolution includes consent to access the 918sq km Flinders Ranges National Park. The tribunal also partially resolved a claim relating to the 367sq km Angepena pastoral lease contained within the full title........... ...............The new agreement is expected to give the traditional owners some say in developments, including the planned expansion of the Beverley uranium mine, Tribunal resolves Flinders Ranges claim
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| ' Good citizen' would restore Racial Discrimination Act ABC News 27 March 09 A lawyer representing a group of central Australian Aboriginal people has reiterated calls for the immediate restoration of the Racial Discrimination Act. The Federal Government will keep an election promise next Friday when it pledges its support for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. But despite UN concern, the Racial Discrimination Act remains suspended.................................. "If the government wants to be seen internationally as a good citizen it needs to immediately reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act and remove the discriminatory aspects of the Northern Territory Emergency Response," George Newhouse said...............................The Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation says the Federal Government needs to support its words with action when it comes to Aboriginal rights. The corporation's Donna Jackson has praised the Government for keeping its election promise to support the declaration, but says the rights of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory are still being ignored. "There's still the reality that the Intervention, which has suspended the Racial Discrimination Act, and the nuclear waste dump which is to go on or near Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory, actually is in contradiction with some of the rights being supported," she said. "It's confusing, I guess is what I'm saying. These are the things that are enshrined in the declaration... if you say you're going to support it on one hand and then still have these things in place on the other, it does seem to be extremely hypocritical." Good citizen' would restore Racial Discrimination Act - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) |
| Chief Justice backs Aboriginal treaty
Sydney Morning Herald Joel Gibson 28 March THE Chief Justice of the High Court, Robert French, has dismissed the legal argument used by the former prime minister John Howard against the reaching of a treaty with indigenous Australia. Justice French disagreed with the view that a treaty was impossible because Aboriginal Australia was not a sovereign nation - or as Mr Howard put it in 2000, that a nation "does not make a treaty with itself".............................Such an agreement could recognise and acknowledge traditional law and custom of indigenous communities across Australia, their historical relationship with their country, their prior occupancy of the continent and that there are those who have maintained and asserted their traditional rights to the present time," he said. "This is a cultural reality which can be accepted without comprising, symbolically or otherwise, Australia's identity as a nation.".............................. The director of the Indigenous Law Centre at the University of NSW, Megan Davis, said Aboriginal people would be relieved that an agreement could yet come out of the "massive disappointment" of native title laws. Australia has so far resisted an agreement with its indigenous people, unlike nations such as New Zealand and Canada. Chief Justice backs Aboriginal treaty | smh.com.au |
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Several items below about: - the United Nations charter of indigenous rights - UN query about Australian human rights breaches - UN conference on racism - that Australian government is not keen to attend - This all should give us a clue about what a bind the Australian government is in. The Rudd government said "Sorry" to the aboriginal people, and that was good. BUT - does the government still want to hand over aboriginal land to uranium miners and nuclear waste dumping? |
 United Nations to query Australia on possible human rights breaches * WA Today - The Age Tom Arup, Canberra * March 12, 2009 - ".....................The listing of potential international law breaches comes as the UN Human Rights Committee prepares to hold a review into Australia's human rights record in New York over the next fortnight. The UN panel has made particular note of the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act for the indigenous intervention in the Northern Territory..................................As a signatory to the UN's International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Australia's human rights record is reviewed every four years. United Nations to query Australia on possible human rights breaches | watoday.com.au |
| Traditional owners continue ban on Koongarra uranium mining ABC News 26 Feb 09 Traditional owners in the NT's Kakadu region have decided to continue a ban on mining at the $5 billion Koongarra uranium deposit.
The French company Areva wants to mine 14,000 tonnes of uranium at the site that is surrounded by Kakadu National Park.
The lucrative deposit sits three kilometres from Nourlangie Rock - a sacred art site and major tourist attraction. Representatives of traditional owners, the Northern Land Council, Areva and the Territory and Federal governments met in Jabiru and Cooinda this week to discuss the future of the deposit. Traditional owners decided mining should not go ahead at the site. By law the matter can be revisited, but the NLC says it has been told by traditional owner Jeffrey Lee that he never wants to discuss the company's proposal again Traditional owners continue ban on Koongarra uranium mining - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
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Indigenous Leaders Call For End To Uranium Mining allheadlinenews.com
Windsor Genova - AHN News Writer 26 Feb 09 Takoma Park, MD (AHN) - Indigenous activists and leaders of Native American, Australian aboriginal and Tuareg communities are in Washington, D.C. Friday to press elected officials at Capitol Hill to stop uranium mining. Leaders of the group said the extraction of uranium ore needed to produce nuclear weapons and fuel for nuclear reactors are being done in indigenous communities contaminating scarce water supply there and causing cancer to Native Americans, aborigines in Australia and Tuaregs in Niger. Tuareg activist Sidi-Amar Taoua said uranium mining in Niger has devastated its landscape, destroyed the fauna and flora around the mines and contaminated the land, air and water with radioactive dust, gases and liquids. "The depletion of already scarce water supplies threatens the very survival of the Touareg as well as the local communities around the mines who are already suffering the many illnesses caused by the uranium mines," Taoua said. Dr. Bruno Chareyron, director of the French investigative lab that has conducted radiological testing at nuclear sites in France and around the world, and actor James Cromwell are backing the group and campaign against uranium mining. "When my laboratory went to the mining towns in Niger we found radioactive scrap metal from the uranium mill being sold on the city market; uranium contamination of drinking water that exceeded World Health Organization standards; and radioactive tailings from the uranium mill stored in the open air," Chareyron said. "The situation is equally bad in France where tailings have been paved into school playgrounds and parking lots. But the French nuclear corporation, Areva, denies in its own press release that there is any contamination from the Niger mines. This is simply not true." Meanwhile, a plan to allow uranium mining in New Mexico's Mt. Taylor will be opposed, said Acoma Pueblo spokesman Manuel Pino. "We are not going to let that happen. We will fight that industry tooth and nail to the very end," Pino said. Indigenous Leaders Call For End To Uranium Mining | AHN | February 27, 2009 |
| Uranium Industry is not a cure to Aboriginal Poverty Perth Indymedia FEBRUARY 27, 2009. The Australian Nuclear Free Alliance (ANFA) has dismissed claims by the Australian Uranium Association that uranium mining is the solution to systemic Aboriginal disadvantage. The uranium industry's attempt to promote itself as a cure to Aboriginal poverty is in direct conflict to the reality of the Aboriginal experience. Extensive research has shown that mining agreements have not improved life for Aboriginal people - uranium mines mean more problems. The main lasting effect of uranium mining for Aboriginal people is radioactive waste on their country - with no resources to clean up the miner's mess, say the ANFA. Australians are one part of a global assault inflicted by mining corporations and governments who care more about profits than about long term effects on our Nation and our lands. "Aboriginal people have been and remain at the sharp end of resistance to the uranium and nuclear industry in Australia and we are not about to be swayed by an industry PR exercise..." Perth Independent Media Centre |
Is it perhaps more of a political problem to con white Australians out of their land? |
"Australia has the world's largest global resource of uranium, something like 38 per cent," he (Geoscience Australia's James Johnson) said. Regions with relatively high levels of radioactivity could be candidates for "hot rock" thermal power stations, which would be driven by water heated by natural underground energy. The radiometric map would be available free to anyone who wanted it, Dr Johnson said, "It will be a dramatic aid to mineral exploration."Map shows the radioactivity beneath your feet - National News - National - General - The Canberra Times |
Map shows the radioactivity beneath your feet| Indigenous mining dialogue group not a silver bullet Independent Weekly LARINE STATHAM Feb 20 09
A group set up to bridge the gap between Aboriginal Australians and uranium mining companies has been criticised as being a tool to rob native title holders of their land. Former national ALP president and Aboriginal leader Warren Mundine has also come under scrutiny following his decision to become a board member of the Australian Uranium Association - the industry body responsible for establishing the dialogue group that Mr Mundine is now part of. Jillian Marsh, an Adnyamathanha custodian, is one such critic who knows first hand how desperately Aboriginal people need an independent body they can turn to for impartial advice and information. But she does not believe the dialogue group, co-convened by ten uranium industry experts and indigenous community leaders, is the answer. “Isn’t it a conflict of interest what (Mr Mundine) is doing?” “There is just too many people working across too many boards and that is what concerns me,” she said. “And they are not closely enough connected with the communities who are dealing with this stuff on the ground.” The Beverley Uranium Mine site, based 520km north of Adelaide, rests at the northern end of the Flinders Ranges on the traditional lands of Ms Marsh and her ancestors…………………… “The way that money is being used to bribe Aboriginal people is really unethical,” she said. “We never talk about how these decisions split families up and divide communities........Holding its first dialogue group meeting this week, AUA executive director Michael Angwin said it was “too early” to speculate what deals might done with native title holders to secure future mining sites………………………………. Australian Conservation Foundation nuclear-free campaigner Dave Sweeney said indigenous communities had “been a major impediment for the uranium industry for a very long time”. “This is an absolutely cynical attempt on the part of the industry to reposition itself as an industry that listens, cares and is concerned,” he said…………………he was also concerned the information passed on to Aboriginal communities by the dialogue group might not be entirely balanced………………….Mr Sweeney said Aboriginal people had no right of veto under the current native title system and that development applications were “profoundly weighted in favour of business”. “A lack of consent is not sufficient to stop development proceeding,” he said………………….“They act as if Aboriginal people have the right to say no and that this is an even playing field, but that is totally misleading.” As the chief executive of Native Title Services Corp, Mr Mundine said it was likely that most future mine developments would be established on indigenous land. Indigenous-mining dialogue group not a silver bullet: ACF - Local News - News - General - The Independent Weekly |
Founding members of the Indigenous Dialogue group Mr Warren Mundine, Chief Executive Officer, NTSCorp Ltd. Mr Parry Agius, Chief Executive Officer, South Australia Native Title Services Ltd. Mr Barry Taylor, former Executive Chairman, Ngarda Civil and Mining Pty Ltd. Prof. Marcia Langton, foundation Professor of Australian Indigenous Studies, University of Melbourne Mr Clinton Wolf, Consultant on indigenous economic development Mr Dean Dalla Valle, President and Chief Operating Officer, Olympic Dam, BHP Billiton Ltd. Mr Rob Atkinson, Chief Executive, Energy Resources of Australia Ltd. Mr Greg Hall, Managing Director, Toro Energy Ltd. Mr Mal Wedd, Director, Resource Development, Heathgate Resources Ltd. Mr Michael Angwin, Executive Director, Australian Uranium Association |
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Uranium industry poses as advocate for aboriginal people with - the "Indigenous Dialogue Group" 19 Feb 09
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“The uranium industry’s attempt to promote itself as a cure to Aboriginal poverty is in direct conflict to the reality of the Aboriginal experience,” said ANFA Committee member and Adnyamathanha custodian Jillian Marsh. “Extensive case study research and the concerns raised by Aboriginal people at the grass roots level shows that mining agreements have not improved life for Aboriginal people and uranium mines mean more problems.” Late last year a detailed examination of hundreds of mining agreements by the Native Title working group found that less than twenty had brought significant benefit to Aboriginal communities "It is cynical for the uranium industry to act as if it can deliver for Aboriginal people. The main lasting effect of uranium mining for Aboriginal people is radioactive waste on their country, and no resources to clean up the mess left by miners,” said Ms Marsh. "This is a worldwide phenomenon; Australians are one part of a global assault inflicted by mining corporations and governments who care more about profits than about long term effects on our Nation and our lands." Formed in 1997, the Australian Nuclear Free Alliance brings together Aboriginal people and environment and public health groups concerned about existing or proposed nuclear developments in Australia, particularly on Aboriginal homelands............................ ANFA Committee member and Kokatha Mula custodian Sue Coleman Haseldine said: “Aboriginal people have been and remain at the sharp end of resistance to the uranium and nuclear industry in Australia and we are not about to be swayed by an industry PR exercise.”
Australian Nuclear Free Alliance — Friends of the Earth Australia |
Uranium turns green - from the print version only of The Age 18 Feb 09. (ABC Radio's Bush Telegraph will also provide a platform for the uranium industry at a date not yet known)
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Australia's uranium industry has moved to outflank environmentalists through direct national involvement with indigenous communities, to counter "biased" information. The industry will open up new avenues to inform Aboriginal communities about uranium issues and specific projects, and genertae plans for indigenous economic development. The Australian Uranium Association represents the country's explorers and miners. Launching the Indigenous Dialogue Group, comprising industry and Aboriginal leaders, AUA executive director Michael Angwin said the move was aimed at giving indigenous communities "the best possible" informationa about the industry on which to base access and development decisions. NTS Corporation chief executive Warren Mundine, a former ALP president, did not specufy environmental groups, but said that "too often in the past, indigenous communities had made decisions on uranium projects on their lands with "incomplete and biased information" |
| Warren Mundine joins Australian Uranium Association to act as go-between for Aborigines THE AUSTRALIAN
17 Feb 09
FORMER national ALP president and Aboriginal leader Warren Mundine says he'll act as a go-between to ensure indigenous communities benefit from uranium mining on their land. Mr Mundine has become a board member of the Australian Uranium Association (AUA), which has established a "dialogue group" to discuss how indigenous land owners might benefit from uranium mining....... .............."We know that most of these mines are going to be on indigenous land..........." .............He denied his role as an indigenous representative in the dialogue group had been compromised by his acceptance of an AUA board position............... .........AUA executive director Michael Angwin refused to say what deals might be done with native title holders to secure future mining sites............... ..............He denied the group was borne out of any frustrations in gaining access to future mine sites or locations suitable for low-level nuclear waste........... ..............The group includes 10 men who are members of indigenous community groups and mining businesses, including Native Title Services, BHP Billiton, the University of Melbourne, Energy Resources of Australia and Toro Energy. |
 Kokatha refuse BHP expansion January 19, 2009 Coober Pedy Regional Times
The Kokatha have issued the following STATEMENT re: BHP & Native Title Kokatha have denied their signatures to BHP Billiton for both an open cut and an expansion. Kokatha denounced Native Title who are not appointed to speak for Kokatha or their lands. Native Title are not recognised by the Kokatha. Native Title have been notified of the above in writing and have continued to conspire with mining companies and collect “people” claiming to be related to Kokatha. A meeting was staged on the 14th December 2008 with participants allegedly willing to accept payment in exchange for some signatures on Kokatha land, for BHP Billiton. Individuals who attempt to sign on Kokatha lands are not Kokatha. Any Native Title negotiations with any Kokatha person, past or present are undoubtedly coerced as noone understands Native Titlle...............“You ignore this poison being leached into the waterways because it’s invisible. You need to demand tests independently or you and your children will become sick as we did.” “Your governments thirst for nuclear and power has stolen this country’s water. They are out of control and you must speak up and demand that this madness stops" - Isabelle Dingaman (Executive Member) on behalf of Kokatha”...............................KOKATHA REFUSE BHP EXPANSION AND DENOUNCE NATIVE TITLE “MINING CO. AGENTS” « |
......Uncle Dootch Kennedy, from the Sandon Point Aboriginal Tent Embassy said “We demand the UN Declaration on Rights for Indigenous Peoples be adopted and implemented as a binding blueprint for Indigenous policy development”, he said. The Lucas Heights Nuclear Reactor stands on Kennedy’s ancestral lands........................ ...........They are also condemning Australia’s role in the nuclear-fuel cycle and the failure of the Rudd Labor government to endorse the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights — a promise that the ALP had made in the lead-up to the last federal election...................... Green Left - AUSTRALIA: Peace walk for Aboriginal rights |
Peace walk for Aboriginal rights
"If the community-owned country (land) becomes "sick" through environmental degradation, climate impacts, or inability of the traditional owners to fulfil cultural obligations through ongoing management and habitation of their land, the people of that land will feel this "sickness" themselves," it said. |
Rights push by Indigenous South Australians ABC News 29 Dec 08
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Calls for
an an Indigenous bill of rights have been supported by the Aboriginal Legal
Rights Movement (ALRM).
Kaurna elders used Sunday’s Proclamation Day anniversary in South Australia to call on government to honour a promise made in 1836 to establish a treaty………………………….CEO of the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement, Neil Gillespie, says the Government is failing to provide Indigenous people with access to the basic human rights outlined in international conventions. “Australia, except for the declaration of rights for Indigenous people is, as I understand it, a signatory to these international conventions and yet we are continuing to fail in meeting our obligations to the extent that ALRM has lodged a formal complaint against both the federal and state governments for their continued breaching of basic human rights for Aboriginal people,” he said. |
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Liability talks over poisoning risk stall Maralinga handback THE AUSTRALIAN Verity Edwards December 27, 2008 LEGAL liability for potential plutonium poisoning on the former nuclear test range at Maralinga in the South Australian desert has bogged down efforts to return the land to its traditional Aboriginal owners. Amid claims of blame-shifting between Canberra and the state, the scheduled transfer of the land to the Maralinga Tjarutja people is now more than two years overdue. The 3000sqkm range, 1300km northwest of Adelaide, was the scene of British nuclear tests in the 1950s and 1960s. Residual levels of lethal radioactive plutonium contaminate a 200sq km section of land called the North West Plume, northwest of the Taranaki explosion site. |
Despite a $104 million clean-up, government negotiators and lawyers representing the Maralinga Tjarutja have been unable to agree on who would carry the cost of the indemnity insurance if the lands are reoccupied. While South Australian
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Jay Weatherill insists a breakthrough is
imminent, sources close to the talks say the state has been in no hurry
to pass laws for a handback. |
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Aborigines win court fight against Swiss miner
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I’ll take West Australian native land: Barnett THE AUSTRALIAN Amanda O’Brien, WA political reporter | December 11, 2008
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WEST Australian Premier Colin Barnett has used a speech to 500 business leaders to reveal he will forcibly acquire land from Aboriginal people in the Kimberley to provide a site for a major gas-processing precinct…………..Kimberley Land Council executive director Wayne Bergman said the announcement was heavy-handed and objectionable and he was seeking legal advice……………… “It’s no surprise that the most disadvantaged people are being put further under pressure for big business. It’s been a consistent message from the Premier.” Mr
Barnett told the business audience that his Government would be “unashamedly
pro-development”. It would be a theme in everything he did.
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Land owners 'need educating' for uranium mining to succeed ABC News 9 Dec 08
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A uranium mining conference in Perth has been told the industry needs the support of traditional land owners if it is to succeed. The Australian Uranium
Association's Managing Director, Michael Angwin, addressed the conference
which is exploring the relationship between Native Title and uranium
mining. "And they're
fearful of it because they can't see radiation and they don't understand
it....................He says the WA Government needs also to develop
its policy on uranium mining to appease the public's fear about the
industry. |
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The undiscussed supply chain scitizen.com David Thorpe 10 Dec 08 - ".....................In Australia the Government is relishing the idea of making money from the nuclear renaissance being predicted, and uranium mining is expanding all over the place. Australian greens are fast losing the optimism they felt when the Labor Party won the last election. The temptation to cash in the expense of the environment and traditional peoples under the pretense of it being 'low carbon' is too much. Uranium mining has often been a disaster for indigenous peoples. In the Northern Territory plans to expand a nuclear dump at Muckaty station are being pushed forward with no regard for the land's Aboriginal owners. |
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The supposedly greener new Australian government Minister Martin Ferguson has failed to deliver an election promise o overturn the Howard Government's Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act, which earmarks a series of sites for nuclear waste dumps
Martin Ferguson |
Senator Ludlam asked him last week at a senate hearing: "How can Martin Ferguson wash his hands of this issue and allow small Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory to cop this waste in a repeat of the worst nuclear colonialism of the past? "In South Australia, in August the Australian Government approved the expansion of a controversial uranium mine, Beverley ISL. This was dubbed a “blank cheque licence for pollution”. Groundwater specialist Dr Gavin Mudd, a lecturer in environmental engineering at Monash University, has examined the data from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and called for it to be “independently verified by people not subservient to the mining industry” (The Epoch Times Sept. 2, 2008). Elsewhere in the Northern Territory, on Oct. 31 BHP Billiton said it plans to have the first of five planned stages of expansion at its Olympic Dam mine in production by 2013. This will increase production capacity to 200,000 tonnes of copper, 4500 tonnes of uranium and 120,000 ounces of gold. This is a vast open cast mine, from which the wind can carry away radioactive dust. Not far away locals are fighting a new uranium mine 25 kilometres south of Alice Springs. Elsewhere, at the Ranger mines, on November 17, Energy Resources of Australia - 68.4% owned by Rio Tinto - said it expects to find 30,000 to 40,000 tonnes of ore in the Ranger 3 Deeps area. In October the company signed an agreement to supply uranium oxide to a Chinese utility. At the same time they signed a safety accord. This is how safe the mine in fact is - and you won't find such records at African mines: almost 15,000 litres of acid uranium solution leaked in a 2002 incident, and since then further leaks ranging from 50 to over 23,000 litres have been reported on the South Australian Government's Primary Industries website. The most recent was on April 22, 2006 when 14,400 litres of solution containing approx. 0.5% uranium leaked out. The undiscussed supply chain - Scitizen |
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Backlash at Aboriginal mining loss *The Age Russell Skelton * December 8, 2008 * INDIGENOUS Australia has failed to reap the benefits of the biggest mining boom in history because of a deeply flawed system of negotiating and distributing royalty deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars.Documents to be released today reveal that the system of devising and collecting royalties flowing from deals under the Native Title Act is shrouded in secrecy, lacks accountability and seldom creates jobs or lasting economic benefits.............. Major flaws include: * Of the hundreds of agreements already struck between indigenous communities and industry, only 12 had provided substantial benefits to Aborigines. * Unnecessary confidentiality clauses had resulted in a lack of transparency and accountability. Little data was available on the structure and equitably of agreements. * A serious lack of expertise among native title representative bodies and traditional owners had created an unlevel playing field between mining companies and communities. |
| Aboriginal
elder takes on BHP over mine The Age November 27, 2008 An Aboriginal
elder has taken on the heavyweights at BHP’s annual general meeting
to urge the mining giant to abandon plans to expand its Olympic Dam mine
because it was taking “sacred water”.
Kevin Buzzacott patiently waited for almost three hours for question time at BHP Billiton’s AGM in Melbourne on Thursday when he meekly stood up to the microphone and read out a prepared speech. He politely addressed the board of the world’s biggest miner, asking them to stop the planned expansion of the copper, gold and uranium mine in South Australia. Do not expand this mine. We don’t want an open cut mine; we do not want any more water taken out of the Great Artesian Basin; we want that to stop,” Mr Buzzacott said. He was supported by about 100 protesters who gathered on the Melbourne Park lawn outside the venue to oppose the expansion, which would make Olympic Dam one of the largest mines in the world………………Another shareholder, documentary filmmaker David Bradbury, asked the board if it had done forward estimates on how much they would have to pay in future class actions for people, including mine workers, adversely affected by the mining……………………….The protesters claimed the miner is legally able to override important environmental legislation because of the South Australian Roxby Downs Indenture Act. |
Indigenous activist speaks: Outback communities and the nuclear industry Green Left Peter Robson 21 November 2008 Jillian Marsh is a member of the Adnyamathanha community in the Flinders Ranges and active in the Australian Nuclear-Free Alliance. She recently traveled to Germany to receive the 2008 Nuclear-Free Future award, and is writing a thesis entitled A look at the approval of Beverley Mine and the ways that decisions are made when mining takes place in Adnyamathanha country. Marsh spoke about the expansion of the nuclear industry in South Australia and the Northern Territory. ....................The main components we have to deal with in my area are the mining, processing, transport, waste and storage and management of the waste. It’s quite possible that nuclear power will also be a key factor. There is a big push on governments to adopt nuclear power n terms of replacing coal-fired power stations with nuclear power stations, the economics don’t stack up, the environmental issues don’t stack up and [uranium is] still a fossil fuel. There’s the huge issue of waste, and what do you do with the waste................... ...........there’s the legacy of what the nuclear industry has already done in Australia: there’s the detonation of bombs, the contamination of land that has caused, the chronic health issues that people suffer from as a result of radiation sickness. There’s never been any compensation for, or recognition of, the people [in remote communities] that through suffered that.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,never been any research or investigation done that could see how widespread or serious the contamination is.................. In South Australia, there’s the expansion that’s on the table for the Roxby Down Olympic Dam mine. The expansion of the Olympic Dam process has already excluded Aboriginal people from consultation and decision making. WMC [Western Mining Company] sought an indenture agreement from the government to have exemption from the Aboriginal heritage legislation in South Australia. The state government allowed WMC this exemption. That stands for the lifetime of the mine. Indigenous people have been discriminated against by the SA Aboriginal Heritage Act. Legally that means they have no power to have any say over what happens as a result of the expansion........................development or mining companies can come back with a new package with new people, with new strategies or rework the same ones they used previously, and they can pressure people again and they can do that every five years, for eternity. They just wear people down, because communities don’t have the same level of resources that mining companies have access to. Then you have the mining companies working very closely, verycomfortably with governments. The new government has actually intensified the problems by opening the doors for the nuclear industry to expand and by saying that they will continue to seek a place in Australia to store nuclear waste. It’s going to be somewhere in remote or rural Australia, it won’t be in Sydney or Adelaide or Canberra. It will be somewhere in the vicinity of Alice Springs or Port Augusta. It’s remote and rural communities getting a kick in the arse all the time and getting the raw end of the deal from the commonwealth government................ ......rural and regional Australia is being targeted by the nuclear industry, by the mining companies and by our own government people. It’s got to stop. |
| NT
stockman rents out his paradise to conservationists to save wildlife THE
AUSTRALIAN Natasha Robinson | October 11, 2008STOCKMAN Frank Shadforth
knows every inch of stringybark woodland and tropical rainforest that
thrives at his pastoral station lining the southern Gulf of Carpentaria.
But some of the rare animals and birds that were once found in the station's
forests now live only in his memory....................................
Now the pioneering stockman -- whose father was the first Aboriginal
stockman to purchase a long-term lease over pastoral land in 1953 --
has entered into a historic deal with private conservationists. |
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| The
Australian Wildlife Conservancy, a non-profit organisation, has just clinched a deal to sub-lease more than 100,000ha of Mr Shadforth's Seven Emu Station, 850km southeast of Darwin near the Queensland border.In the first environmental rental arrangement of its kind, the sub-lease has the potential to open up economic opportunities for indigenous pastoral lease-holders across Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.......................................... The region is one of the most biologically diverse areas in northern Australia, and is under-serviced by national parks. The sprawling properties are home to more than 300 species of reptiles, amphibians, fish, birds and mammals and over 500 species of plants. The federal Government provided a $2 million grant from the Biodiversity Hotspots Program to help with the purchase of Pungalina................ For many years, Mr Shadforth has been concerned as he watched the animals that he used to see frequently as a child slowly disappear. "The land is like a tree -- if you don't look after it, it will die," he says. And he has encouraged
other pastoralists across northern Australia to consider entering into
a similar "environmental rental" deal with private conservationists
like the AWC. For some years, the Indigenous Land Corporation has been buying back pastoral properties on behalf of indigenous landowners. Mr Shadforth says that if indigenous pastoral leaseholders were to sub-lease land to private conservationists, it would open up employment opportunities and new income streams. NT stockman rents out his paradise to conservationists to save wildlife | The Australian
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 Outback ranks highly
in the world wild webThe Age Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin August 27, 2008 A STUDY has identified 40% of Australia - 3 million square kilometres - as the largest intact wilderness on Earth that ranks in quality with the Amazon forest, Antarctica and the Sahara.“Few Australians realise the extent and quality of their own wilderness,” said Barry Traill, a wildlife ecologist who co-wrote the study identifying 12 regions of Australia that remain almost completely untouched by humans. “We just take what’s here for granted, not realising how rare it is,” Dr Traill said. “As the world’s last great wilderness areas disappear under pressure from human impact, to have a continent with this much remaining wilderness intact is unusual and globally significant.” The Wild Australia Program Study, which will be made public today, was made by international conservation organisations Pew Environment Group and Nature Conservancy, which scanned the world for the last great wilderness areas. They will spend $12 million over three years to help Australian organisations improve protection of the areas that range from the stark, treeless plains of the Nullarbor to northern Australia’s savannah to lush rain forests on Cape York Peninsula. They want to see at least 5000 Aboriginal rangers employed full-time to manage and care for the land………………………..Areas identified in the study were the Kimberleys, Carpentaria, Cape York, Arnhem Land, the Gibson, Simpson, Sturt Stony, Great Victoria, Great Sandy and Tanami deserts and the Nullarbor. |
| Australia's
ancient Aboriginal rock art at risk, experts say - AFP 25 July
08BURRUP PENINSULA, Australia — Australia's greatest ancient
Aboriginal rock art is at risk of being damaged or destroyed because it
sits at the epicentre of the country's resources boom, experts say
.The etchings of men and animals on the rocks of the Burrup Peninsula, some of which are believed to be up to 30,000 years old, lie in Western Australia's remote and mineral-laden Pilbara region. The etchings of men and animals on the rocks of the Burrup Peninsula, some of which are believed to be up to 30,000 years old, lie in Western Australia's remote and mineral-laden Pilbara region.Images carved onto the red rocks scattering the landscape include kangaroos, lizards and emu tracks as well as the extinct native Tasmanian tiger which died out on the mainland 6,000 years ago.Among the most significant panels are those showing human faces and activities and what experts believe are mythical figures. One of the pictures is depicting movement, is showing a man climbing a tree; probably to go hunting a possum or something like that," says archaeologist and anthropologist Sue Smalldon. "The depiction of movement is quite rare in historic art around the world." "We had nearly one million panels of rock art," Smalldon told AFP.That's what so important about it. Yes, it's important to culture, yes, it's important aesthetically and for other reasons. But from an international perspective, it's the greatest concentration of rock art in the world." ...........The government placed the Burrup rock art on the National Heritage List in mid-2007 but as yet there are no fenced-off areas and no walkways to guide visitors to the sites where kangaroos, echidnas and other native fauna roam wild............................Local Aboriginal leaders such as Wilfred Hicks, from the Wong-Goo-Tt-Oo people which claim a connection to the Burrup, remain concerned about the site. "I'm very worried
about it. All my people are worried about it because it's destroying
all the Aboriginal art," he said.
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Labor to force Aborigines off their land Green Left Weekly Jay Fletcher & Peter Robson 8 July 2008 - "On June 21, Indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin announced that her government would begin to end funding for infrastructure to remote Northern Territory (NT) Aboriginal communities that she deemed were "economically unviable". This is the Rudd Labor government's first major attack on Aboriginal land rights since taking power. Macklin's comments were made on the first anniversary of the NT intervention. .The following day there were nation-wide protests against the racist Howard-era policy which has allowed for a massive police and military invasion into remote Aboriginal communities............... A year ago, many Aboriginal activists condemned the policy as a "racist land grab", and argued that the sudden concern about child abuse was a smokescreen for policies that would allow Aboriginal people to be pushed off their land. The legislation passed didn't even mention the words 'child' or 'children'............. .................Macklin said that communities that failed to attract private capital should no longer receive federal funding for infrastructure, and that people from such "unviable" communities would be "encouraged" to move to larger communities.............................. According to the Northern Lands Council, there are approximately 600 communities across the NT: nearly half the territory is owned by Aboriginal people compared to just 14% nationally. Some 60,000 Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people live in the NT, about 29% of the territory's population, compared to 2.4% nationally...................................... The remote communities have struggled for years, with little funding - territory or federal - and barely any infrastructure......... By declaring communities 'economically unviable' the Rudd government is destroying some of the most vital vestiges of native title in the country - the continuous connection to land for a start - and shattering the hopes of those who believed that Labor would work to improve Aboriginal rights and living standards. ." |
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Mining plan has SA Aborigines worried The World Today - ABC Radio 26 June , 2008 Reporter: Mark Doman - "ELEANOR HALL: South Australia's mining boom is producing new players in the industry on an almost daily basis, but the drive to make money out of the state's resources and particularly its uranium reserves is generating tension in the local Aboriginal population.......... .... the sites these mining companies drill on is often sacred land to local Aboriginal communities which means that companies like Heathgate Resources must negotiate agreements under the Native Title Act that include royalty payments. Now the company and its affiliate Quasar are negotiating with the Adnyamathanha Aboriginal community over a potentially lucrative and yet untapped uranium deposit just a few kilometres north of the existing Beverley Mine in the northern Flinders Ranges. Geraldine Anderson is a part of that community and is one of eight native title applicants for the land surrounding the Four Mile deposit. She says she won't sign off on any agreement for mining to begin. Ms Anderson says she was pressured by Heathgate to sign off on a previous deal for an expansion of the existing Beverley mine and she won't do it again. GERALDINE ANDERSON: They bully people, well they bullied me on Christmas Eve to signing this agreement, and I stood off until they took me to court, ERD court.................................... In August 2002 Ms Jillian Marsh addressed a Senate inquiry into the environmental regulation of uranium mining. She told the inquiry that Heathgate's initial negotiations with the Adnyamathanha people, before the official opening of the Beverley mine in 2001, was 'misrepresentative, ill-informed, and designed to divide and disempower the community'..................... a lot of people are saying to me - that the processes that are in place are still ill-equipped to give a fair and equitable voice for the Adnyamathanha community. Geraldine Anderson says she's prepared to fight it out in the courts before she hands over her land to the mining companies..................... MARK DOMAN: Heathgate and Quasar were both approached for comment on
the allegations of bullying and their relations with the Adnyamathanha
community but had no comment...............................". .
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Senator Christine Milne says the letter, sent recently to the Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson, states that traditional owners who have their dreaming sites along a haulage road are against the proposal. The letter has 28 signatures and Ms Milne says it shows there is strong resistance to the proposal 'They specifically say that they were not consulted and that the Northern Land Council doesn't speak for them and they go onto say that they're sick of the secret talks.................................... 'They don't want
the waste dump and they want the government to listen to them. |
Traditional owners don't support Muckaty nuclear dump:
Greens ABC Northern Territory June 12, 2008 "
The Greens spokeswoman on energy says a letter from Muckaty Land Trust
traditional owners shows that not all of them support a nuclear waste
facility being built at Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory.|
Native landowners say Labor lied on nuclear dump issue Courier Mail Denis Peters June 09, 2008 - "TRADITIONAL Northern Territory landowners say plans to site Australia's first nuclear dump in the area are a betrayal of a Labor election promise........ ........Mr Ferguson also said the federal government could force a dump on the NT by using laws enacted by the Howard government. .......... ..........Mitch, a spokeswoman for the Ngwana people, north-west of Alice Springs, said the nominated Hart's Range site should not be chosen. She said then-opposition frontbenchers Martin Ferguson and Peter Garrett told her people before the election that Labor would abandon the proposals for a nuclear dump because they did not agree with the Howard government's decision to impose it on the Northern Territory.......................................... 'We relied on what they said in the pre-election (period), that they would reassess the dump stuff and a lot of people voted for them on that issue' . She said more than 10,000 people lived in the wider Hart's Range area. The Ngwana community, on Alkuda Station, is less than 5km from the proposed dump site. 'They'll be directly affected because they get their water out of the rivers and the soakage' Mitch said. 'They also own the Alkuda Station'. 'It will be much harder for them to sell their cattle overseas as well as in Australia if it's coming from a uranium dump country.' Traditional owner
of the Athenge Lhere people, Kath Martin, said Labor spoke 'with
forked tongues'................................" . |
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Labor's Pre-Election Promise: to repeal the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act 2005. The 2007 national ALP conference voted to repeal this Act if Labor won government. The ALP motion states that a Federal Labor government would: |
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* Not proceed with
the development of any of the current sites identified by the Howard
Government in the Northern Territory, if no contracts have been entered
into for those sites. |
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Land owners to decide on Kakadu uranium mine ABC News 3 June
08
The Northern Territory Government has reiterated its opposition to uranium mining at a deposit near a major sacred site in Kakadu National Park. The Koongarra deposit sits only three kilometres from Nourlangie Rock, a site of sacred traditional art visited by thousands of people every year.But unlike Nourlangie, Koongarra is not within the boundaries of the National Park and federal changes would be necessary to absorb the site into the world heritage area.
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Muckaty homestead
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Elders want answers over nuclear waste dump location The Age Sarah Smiles, Canberra June 2, 2008 "ABORIGINAL elders from Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory say" they have been stonewalled by the Commonwealth over whether their land will be used as a nuclear waste dump. The land was designated as a future dump under the Howard government's controversial Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act (CRWMA), which did not require full consent from affected traditional owners. |
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The ALP promised
it would repeal the legislation before the federal election and not
impose a dump on any community. "The whole
process have been very secretive, very contemptuous of the people. All
they want is some honest answers from Ferguson," said NT MP Elliot
McAdam, who has written repeatedly to Mr Ferguson. ...... The Age understands
the dump could hold spent fuel rods from Europe that Australia has agreed
to dispose of under an international agreement, including parts of the
Lucas Heights decommissioned reactor. |
| Study finds Indigenous population lack basic legal knowledge ABC Radio PM - Thursday, 29 May , 2008 - "...................………97 per cent of Yolngu people born after 1965 have little or no understanding of the most basic legal concepts........." |
| Native title applicant ready to fight uranium mine ABC News May 27, 2008 - "A native title applicant for the land surrounding the Four Mile uranium deposit in South Australia |
Area of Beverley and Roxby Downs uranium mines |
says she will not sign off on any agreement for mining to start. An affiliate of Heathgate Resources, Quasar, last week lodged an application for a mining lease just north of the existing Beverley mine in the South Australian outback. A member of the Adnyamathana community, Gillian Anderson, says she is seeking legal advice to help prevent what she describes as a devastation of sacred land. Ms Anderson has already been taken to court for not signing a lease for an extension of Heathgate's Beverley mine and says she will take the matter to court if necessary...". |
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Location of uranium mining areas - Beverley (left), Roxby Downs (right)
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Indigenous community seeks mining voice ABC News May 20, 2008 - "Members of the Adnyamathanha Aboriginal community feel they are being silenced by a mining company seeking a lease in their area. An affiliate of Heathgate Resources which operates in the Beverley uranium mine, in South Australia's north-east, has lodged a mining lease application with the SA Government for the nearby Four Mile deposit. Jillian Marsh is an Adnyamathanha community member who is completing a PhD on the Beverley mine........ ..........She says people feel they have not been properly consulted...... ......'Elders are now going of and having their own meetings, they're having an elders' forum because the negotiation processes around native title are not fulfilling what they want, they feel like they are being silenced and intimidated both by the mining companies and by people in positions of authority,' |
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'The consultation and negotiation processes still aren't adequate and certainly that's what a lot of people are saying to me, that the processes in place are still ill-equipped to give a fair and equitable voice to the Adnyamathanha community'............................." . |
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Miners
welcome changes to Native Title Act ABC News May 22, 2008
- "The mining industry says it is hopeful any overhaul of the
Native Title system will ease the "tremendous hurdles" it
faces in developing resources on Indigenous land..........................Scott
Perkins from the Northern Territory Resources Council says there would
be less reliance on the courts if the system was simpler. ......David Ross
(director of the Central Land Council) says the Land Council supports
initiatives that foster genuine agreements rather than litigation. Jon Altman, from
the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Research at the Australian National
University, says governments should not use potential pay-outs from
mining companies as an excuse to avoid paying for basic infrastructure
like health and housing....................." |
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The traditional
owners had challenged the NT government's power to compulsorily acquire
land under the Lands Acquisition Act (NT). |
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Listening to the people Coober Pedy Regional Times
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……, The majority of the people present were Anangu who travelled long distances to have their say, and let their voice be heard in person…… ANANGU - "We will do our own speaking and business' Anangu challenges South Australian government's involvement in proposals to lease 'Aboriginal lands' withourt correct consultation. Further resolutions relating to Anangu issues were discussed and voted upon, related to proposed leasing of APY lands by the South Australian government and for greater input by local communities…………… ……….Manipulating Anangu affairs through media and inappropriate consultation to cease. Politicians, burwaucrats and media personnel all too frequently pay lip service to the phrase 'consultation with the community', yet the Mintabe meeting highlighted the fact that when it comes to reporting issues, all too frequently it is only the few who have a say, those who know how to manipulate the media and provide simplistic quick-fix solutions to problems which require a great deal of insightful attention.
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Govt to endorse UN indigenous declaration Herald Sun By Adam
Gartrell February 17, 2008 THE Federal Government is preparing
to endorse a landmark United Nations declaration on indigenous rights.
Just days after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd led the Federal Parliament in apologising to members of the stolen generations, Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith today revealed the Government was consulting with stakeholders about reversing Australia's opposition to the declaration. Australia was one of just four countries which last year voted against the non-binding declaration of the UN General Assembly that sets out the rights of the world's estimated 370 million indigenous people. The declaration - more than 20 years in the drafting - was supported by 143 nations but the Howard Government refused to support it, arguing it would put Aboriginal customary law in a "superior position'' to national law. That claim was dismissed
by Labor, indigenous leaders and law experts. "We are of course
positively disposed to the declaration,'' Mr Smith told Network Ten
today.......". |
| Where are the documents giving legal ownership of "Australia" to the British? - Coober Pedy REGIONAL TIMES, by Mark McMurtrie, Nov 1 2007 |
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- "……………..Where is the title of British ownership please? 1836..........………………………. on 19 February 1836 Letters Patent establishing the Province of South Australia were created by William IV and included the following proviso: '……………….PROVIDED ALWAYS nothing therein contained shall affect or be construed to affect the rights of any Aboriginal Natives of the said Province to the actual occupation or enjoyment in their own persons or in the persons of their descendants of any lands therein now actually occupied or enjoyed by such Natives…………….BY Writ OF Privy SEAL'. This acknowledgement of the sovereign right of the Aboriginal Peoples of South Australia to unreservedly continue to enjoy their lands as they always had - in their sovereignty - was reiterated by William IV in the Order-in-Council Establishing Government, DATED 23 February 1836 ……………… 1872: The
Pacific Islander Protection Act 1872 UK (PIPA Act) is passed……. Read the full text at www.cooberpedyregionaltimes.net |
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Owners warn of tremors at nuclear waste dump site - The Age Andra Jackson 20 June 07
Muckaty Station, Northern territory |
- "TREMORS have twice been felt in a proposed Northern Territory site for a nuclear waste dump site, according to Aboriginal owners. 'The last one registered 2.5 on the Richter scale,' traditional owner and Warramunga-Warlmanpa woman Dianne Stokes from the Muckaty Land Trust told a meeting of non-government organisations in Melbourne on Monday night. Two weeks ago, the other members of the trust - with the backing of the Northern Land Council - secretly negotiated a deal under which the Federal Government would pay $12 million to use the 2241-square-kilometre Muckaty Station as Australia's first national nuclear waste dump. Ms Stokes, an elected spokeswoman for the Warramunga and Warlmanpa tribes, said the deal was made by just one of the 16 family groupings represented on the trust.The Northern Land Council failed to listen to the other families, she said......................... .Priscilla Williams, a member of the Hart Range community, the site of another proposed dump, said the community closest to Muckaty Station had a primary school that got its water from a river which ran around the proposed site. |
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The dump will be 8 km from the station homestead
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Truckloads of waste will travel on the nearby Stuart Highway.
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Spent nuclear fuel from two research reaxctors will be brought back from overseas to be stored in above-ground containers.
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