Heritage laws have been weaponised against Indigenous progress

At the 2024 Garma Festival, ­Anthony Albanese stated that he saw economic development as the way forward for Indigenous Australians.

Within weeks, his government placed the uranium-rich Jabiluka mining region into Kakadu National Park, ensuring there will never be mining at Jabiluka, now or in the future, and then vetoed the $1b goldmine near Orange, NSW. The Jabiluka mineral deposit is one of the largest high-grade uranium deposits in the world. The lease, held by Energy Resources Australia, was granted in 1982 following an agreement with the Northern Land Council, representing the traditional Aboriginal owners. The agreement included royalties and other payments to traditional owners and covenants that no Aboriginal sacred sites would be disturbed.

Feasibility work, approvals and preliminary work had taken place but no mining had commenced. There has been a campaign by Mirarr traditional owners against renewing the lease which expired in August. ERA applied for a lease renewal on the basis there would be no uranium mining unless the traditional owners changed their minds. On advice from the Albanese government, the NT government refused the renewal.

First, as an Aboriginal man who has fought for decades for traditional owners to have the right to determine what happens on their land, I respect the Mirarr people’s rights and decisions for their own traditional lands. But I do oppose the Albanese government’s decision to prevent uranium mining there for all time.

The Mirarr leadership today opposes mining. But this decision by the federal government has been made, not just for them, but for all Mirarr people now and in the ­future, even if their children and grandchildren have a different view.

A uranium mine at Jabiluka would put the Mirarr people at the centre of global energy discussions and policy and the push for emission reductions and a clean energy future. The Mirarr people would have had a seat at the table in regional, national and global decisions that impact their lands and the world. They would also have been positioned at the centre of their own economic prosperity and the energy economy. This could have delivered real empowerment and real self-determination for this and future generations of the Mirarr people.

The world is moving rapidly to a nuclear future to combat climate change and the reduction of carbon emissions and needs energy that is both decarbonised and abundant. Demand for uranium is rising as more nuclear power plants are built to meet that ­demand.

The development of safe, clean, heritage protected uranium mining at Jabiluka and uranium exports would provide a strong economic base for the Mirarr people, the Northern Territory and Australia. This would benefit all, providing more funding for the building of schools, hospitals and infrastructure and, most importantly, jobs and business creation in remote northern Australia providing opportunities for the Mirarr people to participate in the real economy on their own lands.

The decision to fold the Jabiluka uranium deposits into the Kakadu National Park means it will be near impossible for these opportunities to be reopened. This decision was made, not by the Mirarr people, but by politicians in Canberra. In doing so, the Albanese government has removed the agency and rights of the Mirarr people – the right to change their minds and the right of future generations to take the Mirarr people in a different direction.

The Jabiluka decision is not an isolated case but part of a theme by the Albanese government to treat Aboriginal people as passive recipients of welfare, not as active agents of development.

A few weeks ago, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek sided with Greens activists and vetoed the proposed site of a tailings dam using a protection under the Indigenous Heritage Act. The effect has been to prevent the Orange goldmining project going ahead after the operator said the project was no longer financially viable.

Plibersek ignored the advice of Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council, which has the legal cultural authority over the site, advising that the dam would not have impacted any sites of cultural significance. Plibersek apparently preferred a submission from a ­Wiradjuri artist whose objections to the tailings dam have included false claims of the river being poisoned and comments about how “the ancestors” feel about it.

The Orange goldmine would have created meaningful jobs for hundreds of people in the regions, including Aboriginal people. And it was not opposed universally by local Aboriginal people. Roy Ah-See, Wiradjuri leader and former chair of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council, said the decision made a “mockery of our people’s culture”.

This is yet another example of green-left activists, in this case backed by the Environmental Defenders Office, successfully weaponising the Indigenous Heritage Act to block projects that have otherwise achieved environ­mental approvals.

This is just the latest in the long battle of green lawfare that is harming Indigenous communities throughout regional Australia.

The activists do not care for Aboriginal communities; they care only for stopping projects. Once they succeed, they move on to stop the next project, leaving Aboriginal communities in their wake lacking the access to jobs, businesses, economic prosperity, they so urgently need. We’ve seen this before in James Price Point.

Jobs are critical in regional Australia.They are critical for Aboriginal communities to drive empowerment and address welfare dependency. The activists, secure in well-paid jobs, dress up their protest in cultural concerns but have no regard for the mess they leave behind in the community.

Albanese is correct that economic development is the only the way forward for Indigenous Australians. He just has no idea what it is or what is required to achieve it.

Nyunggai Warren Mundine is Indigenous Forum director at the Centre for Independent Studies. He was chair of the Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council from 2013 to 2017. He is chair of Fuse Minerals and non-executive director at Aura Energy.