Andrew Bolt The Herald Sun December 19, 2024
Australians identifying as Aboriginals have used heritage laws to try to stop 30 mining and pipeline projects but just – surprise! – two green energy schemes. Let me put it this way. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act has been used against 30 projects since 2012 which make money and two which cost it. And that should have consequences for Aboriginal groups which stop the very projects needed to keep Aboriginal communities afloat.
News Corp reporter John Rolfe has discovered Aboriginals used this race-based heritage law against coal, gas, gold and other deposits, but just once against a wind farm and once against a solar farm.
That’s odd given how much land is affected by wind farms, and how many protests we’ve had against them by white locals.
We can only guess why, but here’s one suspicion.
Activist groups which help fund Aboriginal heritage claims would much rather fight a coal or gas project than a green one.
Take the Environmental Defenders Office, part funded by the Albanese government, which helped some Tiwi Islanders fight a Santos plan for an underwater gas pipeline they claimed would disturb sacred areas long drowned by the sea.
A Federal Court judge savaged the EDO and its hired experts, accusing them of “subtle coaching” of the Aboriginals, of “confection”, and of preparing maps of virtually no credibility.
Does anyone believe the EDO would have tried so manically to stop a wind farm?
This EDO also helped people identifying as Aboriginals get Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to effectively ban a NSW gold mine they claimed would disturb a blue-banded bee, even though the local Aboriginal Land Council in Orange said the site wasn’t sacred and this Dreaming was unknown.
But what of Aboriginal activists themselves?
Again, many come from the Left, with its anti-capitalist and anti-mining prejudices.
Why should we be stopped by what is essentially Stone Age mysticism that for too long trapped Aboriginals in a Stone Age standard of living?
So let me suggest this: if some people use race-based laws to stop projects that could bring wealth to us all, they should also share the cost.
Block a gas project that would earn us billions, then lose from your grant a proportionate amount, in recognition that cultural taboos cost.
Make culture count.
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1/ Australians identifying as Aboriginals have used heritage laws to try to stop 30 mining and pipeline projects: Scott Powick
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