Sunday, August 13, 2023

Australian mining, oil and gas companies being nudged into a future of production sharing contracts with Aboriginal land councils by Australia's Resources Minister Madeleine King

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

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You’re the voice: The Indigenous challenge for corporate Australia :Just how far will corporat



Australia's  Minister for Resources and Minister for Northern Australia Madeline King told The Australian Bush Summit today: 

.............for more than 40,000 years before European Settlement, across the nation – when it was all what we might call ‘the bush’ today, Indigenous Australians mined ochre – for religious and art purposes; and stone – for tools to make life easier and productive. 

We should respect and celebrate the fact that we share this land with the oldest continuous culture on Earth.

It’s why we support the implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and why we encourage the private sector to forge genuine partnerships with indigenous communities, as many have.

King's promotion of the narrative  that Aboriginals are Australia's first miners, and that the private sector ought  to  "forge genuine partnerships with indigenous communities", taken together with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's plans to impement on a national scale the Arnhem land  royalty benefit account scheme suggests that the Albanese Government wants to see mining, oil and gas compnaies work with local Aboriginal land councils in arrangemets similar to Indonesian type oil and gas production sharing agreements.




TO BE READ WITH 


Saturday, August 5, 2023

Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginals means handing over mineral ,agricultural and all other property to Aboriginal Land Councils who will decide how the revenue from those assets will be spent on themselves - Australia's PM Albanese provides first indication of what a Yes vote for his Voice referendum will mean

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 



David Spears wearing a dark navy shirt sitting on a chair next to Anthony Albanese wearing a wide brimed hat
David Speers and Anthony Albanese at Garma Festival 2023.(ABC News: Michael Franchi)ABC reporting about the interview says nothing about Albanese's partial explanation of what recognition will mean


Speaking to David Speers on ABC Insiders this morning Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese provided the first real explanation as to what "Recognition" of Australian citizens who identify as Aboriginals might mean. 


He repeated (in essence)  these statements made earlier in the week:


"The Dhupuma Barker School at Gunyangara is truly a local success, the school attendance rates show what works," he said.

"It arose from listening, it arose from government following decision-making from the bottom up, which is why it is so important."

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said the Garma Institute would give Yolngu people the opportunity to continue their education without having to move away from family.

The benefit account receives money from the Commonwealth based on royalties generated from mining on Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory.


Albanese told Speers that he wanted to replicate this model throughout the country, and that that could only be done if his Voice referendum passes, and Australian Aboriginals are "recognised" in the Constitution. He did not say how or why they are not already recognised as Australian citizens, and seemed to echo Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson's assertion that Aboriginals are excluded from the Constitution. 



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