Study Finds Most Mining Deals with Australian Aborigines Fail To Deliver

Tuesday, 30 January , 2007 08:17:00
Reporter: Louise Willis
TONY EASTLEY: A new study has found that many of the land use
agreements between Indigenous people, mining companies and
Governments are poorly constructed, and ride roughshod over the
rights of Aborigines.

Professor Ciaran O'Faircheallaigh from Queensland's Griffith
University says the deals were supposed to help fast-track mining
operations and deliver financial windfalls for Aboriginal communities.

But he's told AM's Louise Willis that some of the deals should never
have been signed.

CIARAN O'FAIRCHEALLAIGH: This is independent research, it was carried
out in conjunction with a number of major Aboriginal land councils.
They covered the period since 1977, but most of them have been
negotiated since 1998.

They cover all of Australia's major resource regions, including
central Queensland, Cape York, the Northern Territory, the Pilbara,
and so on.

LOUISE WILLIS: And what did you find?

CIARAN O'FAIRCHEALLAIGH: We found enormous variation and outcomes. We
found that a small number of the agreements, about a quarter, are
delivering very substantial outcomes to Aboriginal people.

However, at the other extreme, we found that about half of the
agreements have little by way of substantial benefits. They're either
doing very well in a minority of cases, or in a majority of cases,
they're not getting substantial benefits.

LOUISE WILLIS: And how many of the agreements that you looked at do
you think should never have been signed?

CIARAN O'FAIRCHEALLAIGH: Perhaps about a quarter should not have been
signed. The reason we say they should not have been signed is that,
in the case of one agreement for example, the financial benefits are
less than $100,000 over the life of a substantial project.

LOUISE WILLIS: And in the resources boom, the mining companies are
benefiting from these agreements, do you think while Aboriginal
Australians are missing out?

CIARAN O'FAIRCHEALLAIGH: A lot of the weakest agreements are
negotiated under the Native Title Act.

The Native Title Act puts Aboriginal people in a weak negotiating
position, because at the end of a six-month negotiating period, if
they haven't reached an agreement with the mining company, the
company can go to the National Native Title Tribunal and request that
the lease be issued, the mining lease be issued, and the project go
ahead.

In every single case that this has happened to date, in 16 cases in
the last 10 years, the National Native Title Tribunal has allowed the
mining lease to be issued.

So, Aboriginal people know that companies know that if they go to the
Tribunal, they will get an outcome that is good for the company.

LOUISE WILLIS: What do you hope happens with your study now? Do you
hope that Indigenous Australians get better at negotiating outcomes?

CIARAN O'FAIRCHEALLAIGH: Get organised, work out exactly what it is
you want to get out of an agreement, and get organised on a local
level, in terms of having a strong, united community when you deal
with government, when you deal with mining companies.

But also get organised in terms of working with the regional land
organisations that have the expertise, that have the experience that
can provide the backing that you need in dealing with big companies
and with government.

TONY EASTLEY: Queensland professor, Ciaran O'Faircheallaigh, speaking
there with Louise Willis. Many Agreements