Mine deal allegations expose the watchdogs and the brokers – time for a must-do Royal Commission into National Native Title Tribunal

Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of The National Indigenous Times - A Royal Commission into the operations of the National Native Tribunal and in the way Native Title is managed in general is the only way according to NNTT insiders and by two former Western Desert Lands Aboriginal Corporation members to properly address explosive allegations of dealings in a Native Title determination for the Martu Peoples of Western Australia. It is now an all too common story, allegations which implicate the National Native Title Tribunal according to sources within the NNTT and which involve a former company of the Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council, Warren Mundine, according to a Fairfax news report and according to former members of the Western Desert Land Aboriginal Corporation.

They back up the claims of Martu whistleblower Darren Farmer.

The allegations emerged in a report published in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers including what involvement Mr Mundine may have had in brokering an agreement that gave a mining company access to an Aboriginal sacred site on Martu Country.

Mr Mundine has denied any involvement in the discussions which finalised the agreement. Following the Fairfax report, The Australian’s Patricia Karvelas reported Mr Mundine was furious at the allegations. Mr Mundine’s response is published below in full. Mr Mundine said that “for much of my professional life I have actively worked to promote good governance in Aboriginal organisations and to counter the bigoted stereotype that Aboriginal organisations and their officers are prone to poor management and corruption.” Mr Mundine has threatened to sue the Fairfax media.

The report in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age claimed Mr Mundine was part-owner of the company which negotiated the agreement which involved large fees being paid for services rendered and no-one being able to confirm why the $50 million to the Martu People for mining rights on their Country has not been seen by the communities of the Martu People.

Despite the $50 million being paid the Martu communities remain living in abject poverty including having to live without basic services such as running water and electricity.

High level sources within the National Native Title Tribunal who have asked to remain anonymous for the time being for fear of retribution if they were identified have been highly critical of the processes adopted by the Tribunal.

“The Tribunal is not what it should be… and cultures supporting the interests of parties who are benefiting from these agreements are people we should not be engaging with,” the sources within the Tribunal said.

“The NNTT cannot be fixed from the inside, it is too late, it can only be fixed by being dismantled and rebuilt but with none of us involved.

“You cannot fix Native Title without fixing the National Native Title Tribunal – at the moment we are Native Title.

“A Royal Commission may be the only way forward but this is unlikely even if it is the best way forward.”

A Royal Commission would ensure everything would be on the public record and effectively protect whistleblowers while collating narratives which one NNTT source said “would ultimately be encyclopaedic, such is the broken record of behaviours that are now our culture.”

Last week, The Age’s reporters Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie brought Martu man Darren Farmer’s story to the nation with his claims about missing millions, carpetbaggers and the exploitation of Martu Country and its people.

The National Indigenous Times spoke with two former members of the Western Desert Land Aboriginal Corporation who also requested he remain anonymous for fear of being physically attacked.

“It is all corruption. It has been an exhausting battle,” the former director said.

“I spent years fighting it all, so did others, people have been kicked off the Board, threatened and assaulted. I have been assaulted a number of times. The Western Desert Land Aboriginal Corporation does not work in the interests of our people but in the interests of others who are not our people.

“Our people live poor despite some good intentions for example by the Martu Trust that is now being closed down and the money held there being redirected.

“We have quite a few language groups and it is easy to exploit and divide us.

“The National Native Title Tribunal should have engaged with us, the common law holders, not Aboriginal Corporations that are not even made up of our peoples.

“There are now missing monies, more than $50 million, while others have secured huge fees of millions of dollars and they have taken off and our peoples still live in the worst poverty.

“We can blame those who come in and act as lobbyists or the proposers of ventures but in the end we need to focus blame on who makes all this happen, the National Native Title Tribunal and also the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC).

“It would not be hard for any reputable investigation to find what has happened to the $50 million. ORIC could do this but they don’t.

“If this was all happening in non-Aboriginal corporations it would be investigated to some extent and something done about it all, but with us, there is no-one to turn to who will be serious about investigating and making the say it is findings.”

“Our people are left out in the cold and the NNTT and ORIC and governments turn a blind eye.”

Mr Baker and Mr McKenzie claimed in their article a company part-owned and directed Warren Mundine before he was appointed as the Chairman of the Indigenous Advisory Council helped broker a highly “questionable deal” that gave a mining company access to an Aboriginal sacred site in outback in Western Australia.

The Baker and McKenzie report claimed Indigenous Investment Management Pty Ltd was hired in 2010-11 by mining company Reward Minerals to convince the WDLAC to drop its opposition to mine at Lake Disappointment, a sacred site for the Martu people.

The National Indigenous Times at the time reported of extensive dissent on this proposal among the Martu peoples especially over the prospect of uranium mining.

“Confidential advice to the Western Desert Corporation board from its own lawyers described the mining proposal negotiations as having no validity and stated directors and executives were at risk of breaching their legal obligations to act honestly and not in self-interest,” the report said.

“Fairfax Media can also reveal the deal was compromised because a senior executive from the Western Desert Corporation held a secret stake in Indigenous Investment Management Pty Ltd (the company part-owened by mr Mundine) during stages of the negotiation process and after a mining agreement was reached.”

Mr Mundine was quoted in the Baker and McKenzie report he had no business dealings with WDLAC and he had limited knowledge on the matter.

But The Age report said “corporate documents make clear Mr Mundine’s company at that time was involved in one of the mining deals and he had been involved in businesses with a senior executive from the Corporation and its former Chief Executive.”

The mining deal was for $50 million but the Martu communities have seen none of the money. They are demanding to know what has happened to the $50 million? The National Indigenous Times have been contacted by two former WDLAC directors who insist a public inquiry should be launched into the missing monies.

But there have been some who have benefitted from the mining deal, according to the Baker and McKenzie report.

“The non-profit corporation last year spent $2.4 million on its 10 employees and paid a further $537,000 to its directors. It also authorised $1.6 million in cash payment to individuals, some of which breached Commonwealth laws,” their report in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age said.

“IIM and its Perth affiliate, Azure Capital, according to former director Clinton Wolf, approached Reward Minerals in 2010 to offer their help in reaching a deal with the Western Desert Corporation.

“Company documents show IIM’s directors and shareholders included Mr Mundine, Mr Wolf, who was the Western Desert Corporation’s Chief Executive until 2008 and Azure Capital founder and Future Fund director, John Poynton.

“They also show the Western Desert Corporation’s Chief Financial Officer, Tony Wright held a stake in the part-owned Warren Mundine company at various times during the Lake Disappointment negotiation.

“His interest was obscured by a series of shelf companies registered to his Perth address that also involved Mr Wolf.”

The Baker and McKenzie report claimed IIM and Azure succeeded in getting the Western Desert Corporation to drop its opposition to Reward’s mine proposal and that in 2009 the Native Title Tribunal found in favour of the Western Desert Corporation’s rejection of an initial bid by Reward.

“A confidential July 2011 memo from the Western Desert Corporation’s in-house lawyers, who were unaware of Mr Wright’s secret shareholding, declared the Reward negotiation process invalid and compromised by potential conflicts of interest and improper voting proceedings at meetings,” the Baker and McKenzie report said.

“It is the legal unit’s view WDLAC is in breach of the majority of its legal obligations,” the legal advice stated. “Some examples of these include duty of honesty, acting in the best interests of the corporation and not personal self-interest.

“After the Western Desert corporation approved Reward’s bid in December 2011, the mining company issued five million share options worth several million dollars to IIM’s affiliate, Perth advisory firm Azure Capital, owned by Mr Poynton.”

The report by Baker and McKenzie also highlighted another mining deal it claimed was questionable.

“Another Western Desert corporation deal involved a $21 million payment from Rio Tinto to keep quiet during its sale of uranium deposit in 2008,” the report said.

“A current business associate of Mr Mundine’s corporate advisor Joe Procter was paid a $2.35 million fee by the Western Desert corporation.

“The Rio deal required the Western Desert corporation and Martu people to stay silent while the mining giant sold its uranium deposit to a Canadian miner for about a$500 million.” Whoever has done what here, what remains true is that despite hundreds of native title determinations and more than 900 Indigenous Land Use Agreements, Aboriginal corporations, which are mostly run by non-Aboriginal executives, are seeing tens and hundreds of millions come through their operations and trusts, but the thousand to several thousand people they represent in general continue impoverished. A Royal Commission into Native Title is long overdue, if only to get Native Title right.

WARREN MUNDINE ISSUES STATEMENT DENYING ALLEGATIONS
Chairman of the Indigenous Advisory Council, Warren Mundine has angrily denied allegations published in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers claiming he was involved in questionable dealings between a mining company and the Martu People of Western Australia.
Mr Mundine had published in the Australian newspaper a statement denying the allegations.
His statement is published in full below:
The allegations against me published in Fairfax Media last weekend are false. Fairfax’s claim that I have been in any way involved in dealings between WDLAC and Reward, Rio or any other
company is untrue.

What’s more, Fairfax’s insinuation that I am connected to any subsequent operations of WDLAC, its financial dealings, use of funds or conduct of members meetings is unprofessional and disgraceful journalism. Neither I nor any of my businesses were involved in negotiations or discussions between Reward and WDLAC or the Martu people, either directly or behind the scenes. I have not received any money, shares, options or other benefits in connection with those dealings and nor has Indigenous Investment Management Pty Ltd (IIM). Richard Baker was told this before his article was published.

IIM was set up to pursue an unrelated proposal which did not involve Martu land. The proposal did not go ahead the company was deregistered 17 months later in February 2012. Winding up of IIM commenced months earlier in September 2011. Fairfax, Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie have defamed me and I will be pursuing all legal and other actions against Fairfax, the journalists personally and any other person involved in manufacturing these allegations.

For much of my professional life I have actively worked to promote good governance in Aboriginal organisations and to counter the bigoted stereotype that Aboriginal organisations and their officers are prone to poor management and corruption. I am appalled that Fairfax Media and the journalists involved would invoke these stereotypes to peddle untrue allegations against me and others.

Fairfax has a history as one of Australia’s great media companies. It is disappointing to see it resort to gutter journalism to promote its circulation. There seems to be a lack of editorial control, thorough fact checking and due diligence.

If I was on the Fairfax board I would be demanding that management explain how its leading mastheads could publish such defamatory and blatant fabrications.

This matter is now in the hands of my lawyers.

LINKS to the stories by Baker and McKenzie:
The sorry tale of Lake Disappointment, the missing mining millions and Warren Mundine - July 10, 2014
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/the-sorry-tale-of-lake-disappointment-the...
http://www.smh.com.au/national/the-sorry-tale-of-lake-disappointment-the...
These deals had brought about $50million into the corporation, a non-profit prescribed body corporate that is meant to use the money to benefit all Martu. But little of the money had gone into improving Martu townships.
Farmer kept on with his questions. Why had the Western Desert corporation spent $7million in four years on its handful of employees and paid directors more than $1million? How had well-connected corporate advisers pocketed millions, while much of the Martu mob lived in poverty? Why had the views of senior elders on mining proposals been ignored? Everyone at the meeting that day could tell it was not going to end well.

Mine deal allegations against Warren Mundine and Aboriginal corporation
http://www.smh.com.au/national/mine-deal-allegations-against-warren-mund...
The lawyers warned the Western Desert corporation's directors and executives they risked criminal and civil prosecution due to the conduct of the Reward negotiations.
"It is the legal unit's view that WDLAC is in breach of the majority of its legal obligations," the legal advice states. "Some examples of these duties include … duty of honesty, acting in the best interests of the corporation and not personal self interest."

Whistleblower, money is missing - July 11, 2014
http://media.theage.com.au/news/national-news/whistleblower-mining-money...

Questions and Answers - full transcript from WDLAC
http://www.smh.com.au/national/questions-and-answers-full-transcript-201...