Warren Mundine, Abbott’s appointed Aboriginal adviser plans to sue Fairfax media
“The allegations against me published in Fairfax Media last weekend are false,” Mr Mundine says in the statement to be released today.
Need for transparency in Australia’s Aboriginal policy
First principles owed to our first people July 14, 2014 The Age Transparency, accountability and rigorous governance are tenets of good public and corporate policy. Without them, there can be little confidence that outcomes will be decent and fair, let alone optimal.
The Age‘s investigative team on Saturday revealed that conflicts of interest compromised the process and outcome of a land deal that gave a mining company access to an Aboriginal sacred site in Western Australia. The evidence raises concerns that the traditional owners of the land, the Martu people, have shamefully been denied the financial benefits they ought to have received.
It also casts doubt on the judgment and suitability of the federal government’s indigenous policy supremo, former ALP national president and head of the Indigenous Advisory Council Warren Mundine, because a company he part owned and of which he was a director helped broker the deal. The company, Indigenous Investment Management Pty Ltd (IIM), was appointed by mining company Reward Minerals to negotiate the deal to mine for potash at Lake Disappointment with the organisation supposed to be representing the Martu people’s interest, the Western Desert Lands Aboriginal Corporation.
The probity of the deal is brought into question by a clear potential conflict of interest: the chief financial officer of the corporation also held shares in IIM. IIM succeeded in getting the corporation to abandon its opposition to allowing the mining company access to the sacred site. Further, confidential advice to the corporation’s board from its lawyers said the negotiation process had “no validity” and had put directors and executives at risk of breaching legal obligations to act honestly and eschew self-interest.
Mr Mundine’s integrity and competence need to be seen to be beyond reproach, as his national leadership role involves a delicate balance. He is seeking to prevent the corruption that can sully indigenous organisations receiving mining money, while promoting Aboriginal economic development by opening up more land…….
In coming days, Mr Mundine and Prime Minister Tony Abbott are meeting to discuss a report that could revolutionise the participation of indigenous people in the economy. This newspaper considers improving the lot of Australia’s indigenous people one of the most pressing issues for our nation. Our investigation casts doubt on Mr Mundine’s authority to lead such overdue and crucial change.
http://www.theage.com.au/comment/the-age-editorial/first-principles-owed-to-our-first-people-20140713-3buyq.html#ixzz37mmeLw4r
Doubts about legal advice to Aborigines about Lake Disappointment mining deal
Legal advice questioned controversial mining deal: http://www.smh.com.au/national/legal-advice-questioned-controversial-mining-deal-20140715-ztbnd.html#ixzz37mgd7Zbq July 15, 2014 Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie More legal advice has emerged questioning the process that led to a controversial deal between a West Australian aboriginal corporation and a mining company.
Fairfax Media has obtained advice from a third in-house lawyer for the Western Desert Lands Aboriginal Corporation which cast doubt over the process that lead to a deal with Reward Minerals to mine a Martu sacred site in outback WA called Lake Disappointment.
At the weekend, Fairfax Media revealed how two other in-house lawyers for the Western Desert corporation wrote an explosive July, 2011 memo warning that a soon-to-be signed deal with Reward had “no validity”, in part because the corporation’s board and executives had, in their opinion, not acted in the best interests of the Martu people.
A 2009 email reveals that a separate in-house lawyer for the corporation also raised concerns about the Martu people not having given “proper informed consent” to an in-principle agreement signed with Reward to mine Lake Disappointment a year earlier.
In March, 2009, the Western Desert corporation’s then in-house lawyer, Christina Araujo, emailed acting chief executive Tony Wright to advise that she was not “prepared to state that I believe WDLAC has the informed consent of the common law holders” because it could put her practising certificate at risk.
“Tony, further to our conversation on the 6th of March, I am confirming in writing concerns I have in relation to the Reward negotiations,” Ms Araujo wrote. “Apart from my personal observations, I have also had discussions with a number of others who were also of the view that proper informed consent is or may be lacking.
“Going through the files, it appears Katherine Hill [another legal adviser], on numerous occasions provided advice on proper informed consent and it is noted in a file note dated 16/10/2007 that she spoke to Joe Procter and Clinton Wolf about her concern that people did not seem to understand there was a mining proposal over Lake Disappointment.
“It does not appear in the files that the matter was discussed in detail with the common law holders … it is an issue for WDLAC if we do not have informed consent for the Reward matter. Any agreement which may result may be invalid.”
Mr Procter was a consultant helping the Western Desert corporation negotiate the initial 2008 deal and Mr Wolf was then the corporation’s chief executive.
Ms Araujo’s March, 2009 email came at the same time the Native Title Tribunal heard Martu elders testify about the cultural significance of the Lake Disappointment site.
The tribunal was asked to rule on Reward’s proposal after relations between the mining company and the Western Desert corporation stalled in mid-2008 amid an argument over legal costs. In a historic ruling, the tribunal rejected Reward’s bid on the basis of Lake Disappointment’s cultural importance to the Martu people. It was the first time the tribunal had refused a mining company’s application.
But, as reported by Fairfax Media at the weekend, the Western Desert corporation altered it stance on the Reward proposal in 2011, despite strong doubts from another set of in-house lawyers about the negotiation process not being conducted in the best interests of the Martu people.
Ms Araujo’s successors as the Western Desert corporation’s in-house lawyers warned that the Reward negotiation process had in their opinion put the corporation in breach of most of its legal obligations as the trustee body for Martu people.
In a January, 2011 announcement to the Australian Stock Exchange, Reward revealed it had in late 2010 approached the Western Desert corporation to re-open talks over Lake Disappointment.
On April 1, 2011, Reward announced to the ASX: “Reward has appointed Azure Capital and its affiliate Indigenous Investment Management (IIM) as advisers to assist in discussions with the Martu traditional owners.”
Company documents show at the time of this announcement that IIM’s shareholders and directors included former Western Desert chief executive Mr Wolf, senior Azure Capital executives and Warren Mundine, who was last year appointed as the federal government’s top indigenous adviser.
Another shareholder at this time was the Western Desert corporation’s chief financial officer Mr Wright.
Mr Mundine has confirmed that he was not personally involved in the negotiations nor benefited from the deal.
Western Desert corporation chief executive Noel Whitehead and Mr Wolf said external legal advisers were engaged in 2011 to ensure the deal was done properly and fairly.
Reward this week rejected any inference its negotiations over Lake Disappointment were unfair. It said independent legal and financial advisers were involved and great care had been taken to treat the Martu people with respect.
Regulators to decide on Cameco’s Kintyre uranium mine, but not economically viable now
Cameco: Australia Regulator to Rule on Uranium Mine Within Weeks By Stephen Bell Capiyal Gr. 16 July 14 PERTH-–Canada’s Cameco Corp. (CCJ) expects Australian regulators to decide on its proposed Kintyre uranium mine within weeks, but will likely delay construction after prices of the nuclear fuel slumped to nine-year lows.
Brian Reilly, managing director of Cameco Australia, said Wednesday he expects Western Australia state’s Environmental Protection Authority to release a report into the project soon.
“The EPA is sitting on the report and recommendations–we anticipate seeing that released publicly within the next few weeks,” Mr Reilly told The Wall Street Journal on the sidelines of a uranium conference in Perth.
The regulator will make a recommendation to state and federal ministers, who will then make a final decision on whether the project can go ahead.
Mr. Reilly said Cameco hopes to “be in a position by the end of this year to have this project approved.”
However, Cameco would need uranium prices to recover sharply before starting construction of the mine. It would also look to discover more uranium reserves at the mine site.
In mid-2012, Cameco deferred development of Kintyre due to a collapse in the uranium price in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. At the time, Cameco said the project likely wouldn’t be viable if uranium prices fell below US$67 a pound.
Spot uranium prices are currently around US$28 a pound because of a slower-than expected restart of Japanese nuclear reactors idled soon after the Fukushima crisis. There has also been a build-up in global uranium inventories as nuclear facilities recycle more fuel……http://english.capital.gr/News.asp?id=2064849
Tony Abbott was elected to destroy action on climate change
History will condemn climate change denialists Robert Manne theguardian.com, Wednesday 16 July 2014
Tony Abbott was elected by the right-wing of his party for a single purpose: to destroy any meaningful action in Australia against the threat of climate change ……..
Climate change denialism soon spread beyond the US, especially to the countries of the English-speaking world. As Australia is a country extremely sensitive to the cultural winds blowing in from the US, reliant on the export and consumption of coal, and where the denialist Murdoch newspapers exercise enormous unhealthy influence, it is hardly surprising that over the past decade climate change denialism quickly sunk deep roots here.
The impact was seen in late 2009 with the coup inside the Liberal party which replaced Malcolm Turnbull, a rational believer in climate science, by a complacent opportunist, Tony Abbott, who regarded and still regards climate science as “crap”. The anti-Turnbull coup represents the most critical moment in the recent history of Australia. Abbott was elected by the right-wing of his party for a single purpose: to destroy any meaningful action in Australia against the threat of climate change. When the carbon tax is repealed, the leaders of the coup and the fossil fuel interests they represent will receive from a dutiful prime minister their anticipated reward.
The right-wing denialists, now dominant within the Coalition, often call themselves conservatives. They are not. At the heart of true conservatism is the belief that each new generation forms the vital bridge between past and future, and is charged with the responsibility of passing the earth and its cultural treasures to their children and grandchildren in sound order. History will condemn the climate change denialists, here and elsewhere, for their contribution to the coming catastrophe that their cupidity, their arrogance, their myopia and their selfishness have bequeathed to the young and the generations still unborn. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/16/history-will-condemn-climate-change-denialists
Fukushima Women Against Nuclear Power – At the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan
Statement in Japanese http://onna100nin.seesaa.net/
We, The Fukushima Women against Nuclear (Women of Fukushima Demand End to Nuclear Power) have submitted the following 4 demands to the Ministry of Environment, which has critical responsibilities for the decontamination and monitoring of radioactive materials, removal of earthquake debris and tainted soil as well as health care program for victims of the nuclear accidents;
l. Make plans to reduce radioactive exposure and carry them out immediately, getting out of too much dependence on decontamination.
2. Based on the principle of the Act for the relief and support of the nuclear power plant disaster victims, especially the affected children, make drastic changes to the policies of the Ministry of Environment in dealing with the affected areas with its victims, and radioactive contamination.
3. Listen to voices of victims and reflect them into the policies from now on.
4. Environment Minister, Nobuteru lshihara, should resign.
The demands are to protest against the skull session with the experts about decontamination held in Fukushima on June 15th, as well as the remark of Environment Minister lshihara “What matters in the end is the money” on the following day.
The skull session had been closed-door in the original plan, rejecting the participation of public audience. Several experts and hosts are associated with organizations which promote nuclear power, so that the selection of members wasn’t well balanced at all. There were also practices which are totally lack of transparency and fairness, such as;
– Acts to obscure affiliations of experts and hosts in a subtle manner.
– Absence of residents’ participation or representation.
– Substantive downgrade of decontamination target by shifting to measured results of personal dosimeter which measures only a part of external exposure
We strongly protest all of those practices. Yet this is not only about the Ministry of Environment, but it’s spread over various governmental agencies including the Reconstruction Agency, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and lndustry, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Their common premises are:
– No harm would be affected by this level of radioactive contamination.
– No health issues due to the nuclear power plant accident have been identified yet.
– Continuous living in the affected area is desirable both for victims and for economy of the country.
To derive policies aligned with those premises, they practiced actions such as;
– Sabotage of important investigations.
– Denial of the existence of the subjective symptoms of poor health by individuals.
– Underestimation and disregard of initial contamination and internal exposure.
– Disregard of the reports about the health effects of the Chemobyl accident from the local doctors.
– Unfair procedures to prevent submission of objections or counterarguments from citizens.
– Diffusion of the radioactive materials by policies with priority on economy and vested interests.
(The policies in place are going in the completely opposite direction to where it should be going to minimize damages of the nuclear accident;
rubble processing in the wide area and construction of incineration facilities for radioactive debris.)
The lack of sincerity on the part of the government has brought unnecessary contamination to citizens. They haven’t carried out their missions to prevent expansion of the damage.
In Fukushima Prefecture, among the youth and children under l8-year-old at the time of the disaster, the number of patient of thyroid cancers has been increasing. According to the announcement made on June 10th 2014, 89 children have or are suspected to have thyroid cancer. And many out of the 50 who already underwent operations have been suffering more severe symptoms such as lymph node metastasis, lung transition, and hoarseness. We are anxiously awaiting for the publication of reports with more detailed and accurate information.
There are also concerns of immunity system, respiratory system, circulatory organ system, alimentary system, nerve system, psychiatric disorders and others. Yet thorough investigations haven’t been conducted and the government has acted to suppress the voices of concern.
However, we are aware of the data about children who live in the post-Chemobyl nuclear-disaster Ukraine and Belarus. The number of diseases and immunity deficiencies has been increased throughout 28 years and even now. Because operations of decontamination haven’t achieved satisfactory results, the Government shouldn’t downgrade the target and left children, who are susceptible to radioactivity, in the affected area. We believe it’s unforgivable, and it’s sure from a viewpoint of preventive medicine. The Government shouldn’t confine the children in the areas of high air dose, but they should implement comprehensive measures to reduce radiation exposure, and to prevent health hazards. And it shouldn’t rely solely on decontamination work. For families who want to evacuate out of a contaminated area, they should be offered practical plans to meet their needs based on their right to evacuate. For families who decided to stay on, a program should be developed to provide periodical recreation and regular medical check-ups.
Moreover, the support for evacuees, including the voluntary evacuees, runs very short. And serious issues have come out, such as suicides and solitary deaths in evacuation home, child-abuse, unwanted retuning to the original residence, and family breakup. There is an urgent need to investigate the situation, and to provide practical supports to the victims.
Minister lshihara said “Ultimately what matter is the money.” in his answer to the question from a press after he briefed Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, about the meeting with local residents on an interim storage facility.
What we desire as the victims of this nuclear disaster is not money, but the hometown and the life we had before March11th 2011. And we do understand it’s extremely difficult. From the depth of sadness and agony, what we are asking from the Government is;
– Policies based on their determination to do the best to secure health of people and to preserve the environment.
– Minimization of the damage of the Eukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, which has not yet ended.
– Maximum preparation for the potential crisis following a big aftershock.
– Prevention of recurrence of nuclear disaster elsewhere.
However, what they’ve done is to make damage invisible with utmost effort, instead of preventing it. They’ve been accelerating diffusion of radioactive materials, and hiding initial radiation exposure and intemal exposure. On top of those, the Govemment adheres the capability of nuclear weapons through restarting nuclear power plants on the Japanese Islands which have entered into the period of great crust change.
The continuation of nuclear-fuel-cycle planning, and export of nuclear power plants to overseas such as Turkey which is another seismic country . Those activities trample on the sentiment of the victims of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and we must say that it is the policy which has no respect for the lives of other people in the world.
Two days ago, the Abe Cabinet pushed through the Cabinet decision to approve the exercise of the right-of-collective-self-defense which rocks the foundation of constitutionalism and pacifism of the Constitution of Japan. We believe that such militarization of the country, nuclear power plant promotion, and forced toleration of radiation exposure are the Trinity, and we strongly oppose to them all.
To the People of the World,
We would like you to be aware of this serious reality in Japan, and to pay attention to it. We need your help to our activities toward the minimum damage of nuclear power disaster.
July 3, 20l4 Fukushima Women against Nukes
(Women of Fukushima Demand End to Nuclear Power)
Statement source ;http://onna100nin.up.seesaa.net/image/Speech20At20the20Foreign20Correspondents20Club20of20Japan20July2032C202014.pdf
Renewable energy for remote mining in Chile – a model for Australia?
Speaking to The Australian, EY global mining and metals leader Mike Elliott lauded the use of solar power by Codelco to power its mining operations, and recommended that members of the resources sector in Australia follow suit.:Marc Howe 17 July 14, The remote and energy-intensive nature of mining operations make them ideal candidates for the use of renewable power sources. Efforts by the Chilean mining industry to power its operations using renewable energy have been hailed as the future trajectory of development for the global resources sector.
Annual investments in large-scale renewable energy in Australia
Annual investments in large-scale renewable energy in Australia http://www.smh.com.au/business/carbon-economy/annual-investments-in-largescale-renewable-energy-in-australia-20140716-ztkwl.html July 16, 2014Tally of Australia’s investment in large-scale renewable energy, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
2000: $54.5 million
2001: $85.8 million
2002: $255 million
2003: $543.7 million
2004: $721.6 million
2005: 1.472 billion
2006: 1.797 billion
2007: $1.222 billion
2008: $1.198 billion
2009: $1.756 billion
2010: $3.091 billion
2011: $1.649 billion
2012: $1.924 billion
2013: $2.691 billion
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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