Miners back an Aboriginal voice
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Mining executives, unlike too many of our politicians, generally know a lot about Aboriginal peoples and their culture. And it can even be said that in some respects they think the same way – both take a very long-term view.
Miners have become big supporters of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples over the past two decades largely because, as profit-maximising entities, it’s in their long-term interest to do so. About 60 per cent of the mining in Australia is located on or near land returned to Aboriginal communities, according to the Minerals Council, so this puts a premium on maintaining good relations with the true owners of the land.
Noel Pearson signs the Uluru Statement from the Heart in May 2017.
Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Rio Tinto, which has been a trailblazer in employing Aboriginal workers and compensating communities, learnt the hard way about what happens when you don’t do the right thing. The company’s predecessor, CRA, lost the Bougainville mine in the late 1980s and sparked a civil war because it didn’t properly compensate the affected community for the impact of the massive mine.
The CRA mine was one of the world’s biggest deposits of copper and gold, so this became a very expensive lesson for the company and the industry as a whole. Some of the executives who worked at Bougainville returned to Australia and led the company’s positive engagement with our Indigenous peoples.
Article source: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/why-we-can-t-afford-to-let-aunty-abc-be-privatised-20180619-p4zme9.html?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed
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