From 2016:
#TraditionalOwners in Katherine and #Ngukurr regions threaten legal action over #GasExploration deal
TRADITIONAL owners in the Katherine and Ngukurr regions are threatening legal action to halt a historic and much-heralded gas exploration deal involving #GinaRinehart’s #mining companies
ZACH HOPE
June 28, 2016
"TRADITIONAL owners in the #KatherineNT and Ngukurr regions are threatening legal action to halt a historic and much-heralded gas exploration deal involving Gina Rinehart’s mining companies.
"The NT News can reveal traditional owners from the #Alawa, #Kelweyi and #Mangarrayi land trusts will today use a scheduled #NorthernLandCouncil meeting to demand a review of the agreement and accuse the #NLC of failing to properly consult.
"NLC chief executive #JoeMorrison rejected the accusation as the work of #environmentalists fostering a 'rising tide of confusion' among traditional owners.
"The exploration deal for Hancock Prospecting’s #JacarandaMinerals and #MineralsAustralia over more than 6500sq km of #Aboriginal-owned land in the #McArthurBasin was announced in March last year as the first gas exploration permit on NLC-managed Aboriginal land.
"It was promoted by the NT Government as a win for jobs and the economy, and as a breakthrough in co-operation between traditional owners, mining companies, government and the NLC. But traditional owners soon after began calls for a review of the consultation and demanded copies of the deal they signed.
"'We are in agreement that the process and risks of onshore #ShaleGas #fracking and the scope of work plan was not explained to us. We believe there has been a failure to undertake proper consultation,' read the most recent of several letters signed by traditional owners and sent to the NLC and Chief Minister Adam Giles since April last year.
"Northern Territory #FrackFreeAlliance spokeswoman Lauren Mellor said traditional owners and members of the land trusts were refused copies of the agreement."