SA Labor pushes Aboriginal communities aside

Vanguard November 2012 p. 9
by Nick G.

Aboriginal communities in South Australia are angered by an announced revision to the State’s Aboriginal Heritage Act.

The object of the revisions put forward by Mineral Resources Minister Tom Koutsantonis is to push aside considerations of Aboriginal heritage in the interests of big local and multinational mining and petroleum companies and enable fast-tracking of their exploration and mining applications. Speaking like an old time colonialist, Koutsantonis said Aboriginal people standing in the way of mining needed to “move into the 21^st century”.

Particularly targeted are the APY Lands and the vast Woomera Prohibited Region, both in the north-west of the State.

 (Above- children playing at Pukatja in the APY Lands)

Two days’ notice of amendments

This follows a disgraceful ramming through parliament of the Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Amendment Bill on September 20 following confidential approaches to the government from gas giant Santos.

The unprecedented haste was designed to ensure the validity of certain past grants, consolidations and renewals of petroleum production licenses held by Santos Limited, Delhi Petroleum Pty Ltd and Origin Energy Resources Ltd in the Cooper Basin in the face of pending legal action by Yandruwandha Yawarrawarrka Native Title claimants. Voted on by both Houses only two days after its introduction, the Amendment totally excluded Aboriginal people from consultation.

The Office of the Commissioner for Aboriginal Engagement was outraged by the total disregard of Aboriginal peoples. Commissioner Khatija Thomas said, “To say that I am disappointed at the process surrounding this amendment is an understatement.”

“It undermines our democratic processes and flies in the face of Government rhetoric supporting the engagement of all South Australians including Traditional Owners.”

“The process adopted by the Government to introduce the Bill without notice to Aboriginal people is contrary to international law requiring that only free, prior and informed consent given by Aboriginal people for decisions such as the one to remove a Native Title right,” said Commissioner Thomas.

Arabunna Elder Kevin Buzzacott said it is typical of the SA Government to try to erode what few legislated land rights Aboriginal peoples have.  “I feel like a tiny voice because organisations like BHP Billiton and people like the SA government are so powerful,” said Mr. Buzzacott. “However it is my role to protect the old country.”

Aboriginal heritage sacrificed

Coming so soon after the changes to the Petroleum and Geothermal Bill, the planned changes to the Aboriginal Heritage Act clearly show that there is a united front between mining corporations and the SA government to wind the clock back on Aboriginal people’s rights.

“This Government has clearly demonstrated its attitude to Aboriginal people with recent moves to remove native title rights in relation to petroleum exploration and production in the Cooper Basin and traditional fishing rights on the Yorke Peninsula. Now they want to remove Aboriginal people’s rights in relation to Heritage and Mining,” said SA Native Title Services CEO, Keith Thomas.

“This government and the mining industry are now discussing changes to this Act without properly consulting with the Aboriginal people of South Australia,” he said.

Aboriginal John Hartley, who has worked closely with SA Unions to promote Indigenous workers’ rights, was forthright in his condemnation of Koutsantonis and the big corporations.

“I agree” he told Vanguard, “we need to draft a new Aboriginal Heritage Act and speed up mining. How about we begin by knocking down the Colosseum and the Pantheon, burn all the olden Greek books of knowledge and classical history, trash all the old statues and the site of the original Olympics, tear down the Harbour Bridge for scrap, flatten the Opera House, flatten Big Ben, burn all the Christian places of worship, maybe old parliament house too and really act and celebrate like 21st century people.

“I mean, what the hell do we need that old stuff for? Let’s just plunder, trash and burn everything and anything old and goose-step our way into the future.

“I mean, what the hell do we need that old stuff for? Let’s just plunder, trash and burn everything and anything old and goose-step our way into the future.

“Oh what an empire we could build, how the rivers of gold would finally be realised. Yes let’s move forward and in the place of the old stuff we'll build yellow cake shrines of worship that will continue to glow forever into the far distant future and will remain a lasting monument to the glory of profit and stupidity.”

“Seriously governments have to recognise the first law of this country and stop  bulldozing their way through our country.”

For all the neat window-dressing about human rights and reconciliation, there is no respect for Aboriginal heritage and culture on the part of the owners of capital and the owners of politicians.

Capital ultimately makes the rules of the land, as many Aboriginal people have long understood.

There can be no genuine reconciliation under a system that arose from dispossession and requires exploitation and the impoverishment of the many.