'Iron and dust': Native title law reform calls intensified

Preview - ABC News Sydney

Karen Michelmore ABC News July 18, 2011

Calls for native title law reform have intensified after negotiations between a Western Australian Indigenous community and an Australian iron ore mining giant became mired in bitter dispute.

The Pilbara region's Yindjibarndi community has been in talks with Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) since 2007 over access to their country, which contains billions of tonnes of iron ore.

The ABC's Four Corners program has been given access to hours of footage of negotiation meetings.

FMG is offering a fixed annual package of $10.5 million, including $4 million in cash and the rest made up of training and jobs with FMG, staff housing and business opportunities, in return for all future mining activity on Yindjibarndi land.

Mining magnate and FMG chairman Andrew Forrest says the company doesn't believe in overly generous cash payments.

"We've seen what welfare in any shape or form, mining or corporate or government welfare does to communities," he tells Four Corners.

"I can take you back to Halls Creek ... or Fitzroy Crossing or Roebourne is probably the worst example where a preponderance of cash and not responsibility, not opportunity attached to responsibility slowly but insidiously decimates communities and we can't support that.

"Yes, it means that the headline cash figure is always less at Fortescue but all other contributions which we make to housing, to employment, to training, to skilling up everywhere in that community, our overall commitment is total."

But Indigenous leaders told Four Corners that, despite the hopes raised by native title legislation nearly 20 years ago, they believe miners maintain the upper hand in negotiations.

Under the legislation all mining companies are compelled to give native title holders is a hearing. If after six months of negotiations there is no agreement, the miner can apply to the Native Title Tribunal for approval - and in almost every case the mining lease has been granted.

Last year, after talks had disintegrated between the two parties, the Yindjibarndi community split. Those who wanted to take the FMG deal formed a group known as the Wirlu-murra Yindjibarndi and in March they held a meeting to win support for the agreement.

The March meeting also won apparent backing to take legal action against any native title claimants who refused to sign the deal, to try to strip them of their authority.

The Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) has disputed the result of the meeting, which it described as invalid, and later posted an edited video of the fiery exchanges on the internet.

"Most people I speak to ... across the Pilbara region think native title is a joke," says Michael Woodley, head of the YAC and native title claimant.

"At the end of the day it forces you to participate in the process and then it forces you to concede to some of these poor agreements that they put on the table.

"They say if you don't accept this agreement now then you can have the possibility of getting nothing because the granting of the licence would be made anyway."

Native title expert Ciaran O'Faircheallaigh, of Griffith University, says Australia's Native Title laws should be amended to improve the system.

"The system is set up in a way that does not create a level playing field between mining companies and Indigenous people," he says.

"It systematically creates and an advantage for companies in dealing with Indigenous people. That means that the benefits that are available are often much less than they could be otherwise and because the benefits are small, that intensifies conflict."

Four Corners Monday 18th July 2011 on ABC 1 at 8:30pm.