The governance of agreements between Aboriginal people and resource developers: Principles for sustainability

Abstract

"Research over the past decade in health, employment, life expectancy, child mortality, and household income has confirmed that Indigenous Australians are still Australia's most disadvantaged group. Those residing in communities in regional and remote Australia are further disadvantaged because of the limited formal economic opportunities there. In these areas mining developments may be the major--and sometimes the only--contributors to regional economic development. However Indigenous communities have gained only relatively limited long-term economic development benefits from mining activity on land that they own or over which they have property rights of varying significance. Furthermore, while Indigenous people may place high value on realising particular non-economic benefits from mining agreements, there may be only limited capacity to deliver such benefits. This collection of papers focuses on three large, ongoing mining operations in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory under two statutory regimes--the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 and the Native Title Act 1993. The authors outline the institutional basis to greater industry involvement while describing and analysing the best practice principles that can be utilised both by companies and Indigenous community organisations"--Publisher's description Foreword / John Nieuwenhuysen -- Contestations over development / Jon Altman -- Indigenous communities, miners and the state in Australia / Jon Altman -- Data mining: Indigenous Peoples, applied demography and the resource extraction industry / John Taylor -- Aboriginal organisations and development: The structural context / Robert Levitus -- The governance of agreements between Aboriginal people and resource developers: Principles for sustainability / David F. Martin -- Corporate responsibility and social sustainability: Is there any connection? / Katherine Trebeck -- Indigenous entrepreneurialism and mining land use agreements / -- Mining agreements, development, aspirations, and livelihoods / Benedict Scambary.