Environmentalists have reacted with shock to moves by the SA government, backed by the ALP opposition, to put Western Mining Corporation in charge of Aboriginal Heritage over 1.5 million hectares of South Australia.

The move is designed to facilitate the quadrupling of production capacity at the Roxby Downs uranium project, the largest uranium deposit on the planet. The projected expansion to around 7,000 t/a envisaged in the environmental impact statement was approved earlier this week by Federal Environment Minister Robert Hill, also of South Australia.

The Roxby Downs (Indenture Ratification) (Aboriginal Heritage) Amendment Bill, passed by the upper house of the SA Parliament last night, gives WMC total control over Aboriginal sites of significance, with the power to decide which sites they choose to protect or not, and without any obligation to consult with Aboriginal communities. Under previous legislation, the 1988 Aboriginal Heritage Act, responsibility rested with the government, which was obligated to consult with Aboriginal communities.

According to FoE Uranium spokespeople John Hallam and Bruce Thompson:

"It is doubly disturbing that this has been done both in order to facilitate the quadrupling in production capacity of the largest uranium deposit on the planet, and that the South Australian ALP has consented to this appalling denial of justice.

In allowing this to happen, the ALP has knowingly or otherwise participated in the program of the Liberal government to roll back the hard won gains of Aboriginal land rights and deny genuine reconciliation in order to please powerful uranium mining interests. It is a stance which directly contradicts the ALP's opposition to the Wik legislation, and its commitment to reconciliation at a national level.

We are very disturbed at what this might mean in terms of the ALP's commitment to justice for Aboriginal people on the one hand, and its opposition to further uranium mining on the other. This legislation has been passed in order to facilitate the exploitation of the worlds largest uranium orebody, so that Olympic dam may become the worlds largest uranium producer (at 6-7,000 tonnes/year), and so that the worlds largest repository of radioactive sludge may irradiate the north of SA for the next 300-700,000 years or so.

We hope very much that these priorities do not represent the thinking of the ALP at a national level, and that we can expect truly responsible environmental outcomes at the ALP's national conference in January."

John Hallam
Friends of the Earth Sydney,
Suite 15,
1st Floor, 104 Bathurst Street,
Sydney, NSW, 2000.

Ph +61 2 9283-2004
Fax +61 2 9283-2005

nonukes@foesyd.org.au and http://sydney.foe.org.au/

Attention: Chiefs of Staff; Political and Resource Journalists.

ACF Media Release

Government to divest Aboriginal Heritage protection to WMC:

Exemption from the SA Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988 for Olympic Dam

The Bill would grant WMC legal privilege to be covered by an Act of Parliament that has never been proclaimed, the 1979 Aboriginal Heritage Act, rather than the existing 1988 Aboriginal Heritage Act. ACF are aware that Crown Law advice confirms WMC and their Olympic Dam mine operations are presently covered by the 1988 Act.

In seeking to pass this Bill the Government is abdicating its responsibility to undertake processes by which they address Aboriginal Heritage issues under the 1988 Act. The Minister Dorothy Kotz is presently required to undertake consultation with Aboriginal people in regard to sites. However if the Bill is passed WMC would then be in a legal position to:

• ignore the provisions of the 1988 Act designed to protect Aboriginal Heritage;
• undertake any consultation that occurs and decide the manner of that consultation;
• decide which Aboriginal groups the Company consults with;
• decide the level of protection that Aboriginal Heritage sites receive;
• decide which Aboriginal Heritage sites they recognise.

"As the commercial operator and proponent of expansion within these areas, in spite of conflict of interest, WMC would decide the level of protection for Aboriginal sites. Government can not be allowed to divest itself of due obligations to Aboriginal Heritage."

"The ACF believes that these intended outcomes of the Bill are fundamentally unacceptable to the broad Australian community. This Bill seeks to take away from Aboriginal traditional owners the due process and protection of the law in regard to Aboriginal Heritage sites within the Olympic Dam Area and Stuart Shelf Area" said David Noonan, ACF Campaign Officer.

As a matter of urgent public interest the ACF has called on the SA Government to withdraw this controversial and divisive Bill. The ACF has called on the Labor Party, Australian Democrats and Independents of the SA Parliament to prevent its passage into law.

Contact: David Noonan, ACF Campaign Officer on (08) 8232 2566

ACF homepage