Gov wants to change Native Title Act for Adani coal mine

A recent federal court decision means that all owners of native title must agree on a decision about the use of their land. This directly impacts the Adani coal mine as there were only 7 out of 12 people who signed the Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) with Adani, leaving the door wide open to a challenge to Adani in court over it's use of the land for a coal mine.

However now George Brandis wants to change the Native Title Act with an "Adani Amendment" to avoid this court challenge. An extraordinary length to go to to protect the mining company Adani. All this for the biggest coal mine in the southern hemisphere contributing to global warming, to be shipped through the middle of the Great Barrier Reef after the reef is dredged. Absolute insanity. If it gets off the ground that is.... 

Brandis said the draft legislation would be ready by as early as Monday afternoon.

The announcement came on the same day W&J opponents lodged a fresh federal court action to strike down the Adani deal.

The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, had last week authorised the introduction of “urgent legislation to legislatively reverse the effect” of the WA decision, Brandis said.

It would restore the previous legal “status quo” established by the Bygraves decision of 2010, that majority decisions by a claimant group guaranteed a deal, he said.

Brandis said the laws would uphold not only 123 ILUAs currently registered with the National Native Title Tribunal, but also agreements that were not yet registered.

Adani has applied to the tribunal to register its ILUA, which represents the traditional owner consent it needs to gain funding from most international financiers.

The National Native Title Tribunal announced it was reviewing the impact of the ruling on existing ILUAs. The Guardian

Needless to say, the W&J people are outraged. This from the email:

The document Adani is trying to pass off as an Indigenous Land Use Agreement with our people is a sham. It’s illegitimate because it was engineered through rent-a-crowds, deceit and dishonest tactics.

We launched legal action last year to expose their ruse, and now we are taking action in the Federal Court to have this fake agreement struck out.

We are working hard to knock out Adani’s claim that it has the consent of the W&J Traditional Owners for its proposed Carmichael mine. It never has. It never will.

 Adani and their backers are terrified about our defence of country succeeding. So much so that they’ve asked their mates in the Queensland mining lobby to demand the Feds change the Native Title Act to get around us. And that’s exactly what the coal-loving Turnbull Government is trying to do!

But they’re missing the point. Regardless of what dodgy deal the Liberal National Parties and Labor try to pull in Canberra, we still have grounds to continue our action in the Federal Court to have Adani’s fake ILUA struck out!

We will never give our consent to this mine on our country. We will fight this proposal until it is defeated.

There will be no surrender of our land rights or our dignity as a people. 

Update: