Antinuclear

Clive Palmer firm Mineralogy’s ‘poor’ indigenous relations HEDLEY THOMAS AND PAIGE TAYLOR THE AUSTRALIAN MAY 01, 2014  CLIVE Palmer’s flagship company Mineralogy has a “particularly poor” record of working with Aborigines, who say their rights and culture have been trampled in his pursuit of mineral wealth on sacred sites.

Mr Palmer’s new political merger with three indigenous Northern Territory politicians comes amid his expressions of grave concern about the health and poverty of Aborigines.

But an examination by The Australian of findings by magistrates in mining court and native title cases show his main company has failed to act in good faith, flouted rules, operated combatively, had little regard for indigenous landowners and may even have destroyed ancient burial sites.

A key witness and senior member of the native title claim group whose evidence was ­accepted by the mining court, Mathew Sampi, said yesterday he had no confidence in Mr Palmer as the tycoon had broken past pledges to spend money on indigenous health.

“We don’t believe anything he says now,’’ said Mr Sampi, who represents the Kuruma Marthudunera people and grew up fishing and hunting in the Cape Preston area in the Pilbara, near an iron ore project built by Chinese companyCITIC Pacific.Findings by magistrates include that Mr Palmer’s company and staff exhibited “a sense of absolute entitlement in relation to mining endeavours” and “adopted an unduly confrontational approach” with indigenous owners. One of Mr Palmer’s top executives was found to have been an unreliable witness and the ­architect of “misleading” sworn documents.

Trumpeting the defection of the three indigenous MPs to his Palmer United Party this week, Mr Palmer appealed to indigenous voters to trust his commitment to reduce child deaths above other parties.

“He can suck a lot of Aboriginal people in and some of them really don’t know what they have been talked into. He seemed real good in the beginning, saying he was going to help the Aboriginal people in the area. They destroyed a lot of things, they disturbed special places where there used to be ancient tools.”……

the acrimonious dealings involving Mr Palmer’s company and Aborigines in remote parts of Western Australia are laid bare in the court findings……..

In an earlier Native Title Tribunal case, Mineralogy was found to have given a “take it or leave it” ultimatum to indigenous owners of the land the company wanted to mine. Tribunal deputy president John Sosso found that Mineralogy had not acted prudently, reasonably or responsibly in its dealings with Aborigines. In a case involving the Kuruma Marthudundera group, elders Neil Ricky Finlay and Mr Sampi told the court of bad experiences with the company in the Pilbara region, which includes sacred burial grounds near the Cane River and the town of Karratha.

The Mining Court’s magistrate, Elaine Campione, des­cribed the two elders as “respected, senior and knowledgeable men” and she accepted their evidence………http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/investigations/clive-palmer-firm-mineralogys-poor-indigenous-relations/story-fnk76wj3-1226901468114#