Concern that Australian aid money is going to support Australian mining firms in Africa
AID MONEY USED TO SUPPORT MINING CSR PROJECTS http://acan.org.au/2012/10/aid-money-used-to-support-mining-csr-projects/ A group of Australian and international civil society groups, lead primarily by AID/WATCH, have written an open letter to Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, expressing concern that Australian aid money is supporting the CSR initiatives of Australian mining firms, particularly in Africa.
The Foreign Minister recently announced at a mining conference that funds from the Development Assistance Program (DAP), administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) but financed by AusAID (Australia’s state foreign aid agency), are being used to co-finance (with various mining companies) the community projects used by mining companies to garner their ‘social license to operate’.
The civil society groups have raised concerns in their letter that mining is not an effective approach to spurring community development – noting that actually mining tends to harm the lives of people in developing countries rather than improve it, a phenomenon commonly referred to as the ‘resource curse’. The letter also alleged that some recipients of the aid money are not reputable, noting the Paladin corporation has been linked to corruption in Malawi.
The signatories of the letter urged the Australian Government to revise their approach to delivering aid for the purpose of supporting mining as a means of community development. There has been no response from DFAT or Minister Carr’s office.
Lawyers acting for Paladin have been in contact with AID/WATCH. Their correspondence laid out that AID/WATCH’s letter potentially damaged the reputation Paladin’s CEO and the company overall. Paladin demanded the withdraw of the letter from Aid/Watch’s site, commit in writing to never publishing similar statements in the future and publish a letter prominently on their site apologizing to Paladin and their CEO. The lawyers noted that should AID/WATCH fail to abide by the terms “Paladin and John Borshoff reserve their rights in this matter”.
The threats made in the letter are hollow since Australian law does not provide to corporations a cause of action to sue for defamation, and John Borshoff was not named in the letter to the Foreign Minister. However, AID/WATCH has since removed the letter from their site, but it can be accessed on Mines & Communities website here. http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11978&l=1
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