Traditional owners have told a parliamentary hearing for a controversial mining and manufacturing project that white ‘idiot’ activists are blocking their economic development opportunities.
Julius Kernan, chairman of the Top End Aboriginal Coastal Alliance, says Indigenous territories face many ‘hurdles’ and siding with interstate environmentalists has previously caused them to ‘miss out’ on the benefits that projects bring .
“It is time for our people to be recognized or identified as people with whom we can interact in a culturally appropriate manner and be given space to have their say without interruption from non-indigenous idiots,” he told a Senate inquiry into the development of the Middenarm in the region. Northern Territory on Monday.
It was in response to NT Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s question about the damaging effect of interstate environmentalists blocking projects that could bring economic development to Aboriginal people.
Traditional owners have told a parliamentary hearing into Middle Arm development (pictured) in the Northern Territory that white ‘idiot’ activists are blocking their economic opportunities
Mr Kernan said the Top End Coastal and Maritime group wants economic development to help improve education outcomes and create jobs for future generations of Indigenous Territories.
“We want them to fill the roles that our people have been missing,” he said.
Renewable energy company Suncable denied helping to greenwash the project, known by the NT government as the Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct.
It is already home to the Santos Darwin LNG and the INPEX Ichthys LNG processing facilities, with plans for gas fracking company Tamboran Resources Limited to acquire a parcel of land at the site near Darwin.
Suncable Managing Director Cameron Garnsworthy said the company was in discussions with the other four “green and forward-looking” future tenants, including potential hydrogen producer Fortescue Future Industries.
NT Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price raised the damaging effect of interstate environmentalists blocking projects that could bring economic development to Aboriginal people
“We don’t see ourselves as greenwashing at all,” he said.
“We want to provide cheap electrons to those customers and we have entered into a number of letters of intent to that end, which underpin the foundation of our future business.”
Outside the hearing in Canberra, committee chairwoman Sarah Hanson-Young, chair of the South Australian Greens, said the $1.5 billion project, which has Commonwealth backing, would contribute to climate change.
“No wonder the local community, the tourism industry, the fishing industry, the schools, the nurses, the doctors and the local traditional owners do not want this project,” she said.
“It’s time the local Darwin community was listened to by representatives here in Canberra.”
The hearing continues.