1. Rio’swin-winmodelfornorthernandindigenousprosperity
PHIL EDMANDS
Northern Australia is the under-
developed frontier of the “lucky
country”.
The pathway to further econ-
omic prosperity for the Top End
hinges on two factors: govern-
ments must establish the right
settings, and investors and local
communities must take a partner-
shipapproach.
The vast majority of Rio
Tinto’s global iron ore production
comes from Northern Australia.
Our Pilbara iron ore operations
comprise15mines,fourportfacili-
tiesand1700kmofprivaterailway.
We also have salt, diamonds, coal,
bauxite and uranium interests in
Northern Australia. And all of
these operations require close
collaboration with indigenous
communities.
It’s likely to be no different for
otherinvestorsinthe“top-end”.
Large areas of Northern Aus-
tralia are held under some form of
indigenous title. Indigenous Aus-
traliansarealsoanimportantpool
of potential employees — and Rio
Tinto is proud to be one of the big-
gest employers of indigenous men
and woman in Australia, employ-
ing about 1600 indigenous Aus-
tralians.
Some difficult issues in over-
coming economic exclusion of
indigenous Australians remain,
but real opportunities exist if mis-
takesofthepastcanbeaddressed.
Early policy was to seek to
assimilateindigenousAustralians.
They were separated from their
families, their culture was sup-
pressed, their right to country was
denied, and their ability to make
decisions about their lives was
delegated to non-indigenous
administrators.
Subsequent policies didn’t
seem to recognise that cultural
diversity does not derogate from
t he f act that peoples are funda-
mentally equal — they have equal
innate potential, which is equally
limitedbydisadvantage.
Insteadthesemorewell-mean-
ing policies assumed a lesser
potentialonthepartofindigenous
Australians. This led to policies to
look after indigenous Australians
and protect them from them-
selves, rather than policies that
provided indigenous Australians
with what they need to overcome
their disadvantage and compete
independently and on equal
terms.
It is hard for people to take
responsibility for their lives if all
decision-making power over their
lives has been given to someone
else, to realise their potential if
opportunity is only available if
they deny their identity, and to
have self-confidence if they are
treatedasinferior.
The Northern Australia White
Paper,however,evidencesthereal
determination by the government
to correct for these past failings
andgetindigenouspolicyright.
It recognises that realising the
potential of Northern Australia
requires governments, investors
and indigenous communities to
leverage not only its vast natural
assets, but its tremendous un-
tappedhumanpotential.
A primary enabler is title to
land. Indigenous title in Australia
was developed over thousands of
years.Onlyrelativelyrecentlywas
it again recognised in Australia by
ourHighCourt.
There have been complemen-
tary attempts to recognise and
protect that title through legis-
lation. However, the fit between
legislation based on a Western
legal system, and title that arises
from customary law, has not al-
waysbeenaneasyone.Legislation
has imposed complex and inef-
ficient processes. And, while itself
theproductofalivingsystem,that
legislation has assumed a custom-
ary law system that doesn’t
develop,butisfrozeninpre-settle-
ment times. It has also tended not
to recognise the ability to exercise
indigenous title rights for com-
mercialpurposes.
Title issues are now being
reviewed by the Council of Aus-
tralian Governments, assisted by
an Expert Indigenous Working
Group.
Ongoing review must address
overregulation, and how econ-
omic development can be sup-
ported through titles that are
secure and tradeable, and provide
collateralforfinancing.
Governments can also be re-
sponsive to attempts to unlock
funds held in indigenous chari-
table trusts. This will need to pro-
ceed carefully to safeguard
existing contractual arrange-
mentsandrights.
Restricting use of these funds
to charitable purposes, however,
means they are not available for
investment in economic projects.
It is also consistent with a view
thatindigenousbeneficiariesneed
tobelookedafterandtheirmoney
keptsafe.
In fact, while there are govern-
ance issues given lack of experi-
ence and training, people learn
from their mistakes. Indigenous
Australians must be able to con-
trol their economic resources just
as other Australians do. And, yes,
if those funds are invested in com-
mercial projects they will be at
risk, but the alternative is locking
the money away at bond rates of
interest.
The broader action for govern-
ments is to confirm that current
policy is to honour Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander culture and
identity,andempowerindigenous
communities to protect, preserve
and indeed strengthen that cul-
ture and identity while taking
their rightful place in the econ-
omic and social fabric of modern
Australia.
A tangible way of marking that
change is for there to be appropri-
ate Constitutional Recognition of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islandercommunities.
RioTintoisnotadvocatingany
Page 1 of 2
09 Nov 2015
The Australian, Australia
Author: Phil Edmands • Section: Business News • Article type : News Item
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model for indigenous consti-
tutional recognition. Indigenous
communities must decide that for
themselves. But we have shown
our strong support for the Recog-
nisecampaign.
At a more individual level, Rio
Tinto adopts a partnership model
with indigenous communities. A
primary objective we have is to
drive indigenous workforce
participation across the whole
spectrum of employment oppor-
tunities.
We are involved in early learn-
ing, school retention, vocational
training, tertiary study, business
mentoringandcadetshipsupport.
Our partnerships with schools
and school programs have helped
improve attendance, retention
andgraduationoutcomesforindi-
genous students. And in Arnhem
Land we have contributed to the
Knowledge Centre as a teaching
centre and showcase for Yolngu
culture and art. We are also
contributing to the mine training
centreinArnhemLand.
We additionally seek to
improve local economies. In the
Pilbara we have issued contracts
to indigenous contracting
companies worth more than $3
billion. And we have ceded a
significant bauxite lease to an in-
digenous corporation at Gove,
and are assisting them to develop
it.
Finally, we recognise that
language is culture and supported
a major digitisation of indigenous
languages by the State Library of
NSW.
These few examples are part of
a broader win-win partnership
model — one we are convinced
leads to better commercial out-
comes while supporting preser-
vation of culture and identity, and
the wellbeing of indigenous com-
munities.
PhilEdmandsismanaging
directorforRioTintoAustralia
andaBusinessCouncilof
Australiadirector.
A primary
objective we have
is to drive
indii digenous
workforce
participation