Media Release: Brown calls for Royal Commission into Rio Tinto blasts.

Prime Minister Morrison should order a Royal Commission into the destruction of the globally-significant Juukan Gorge Aboriginal rock shelters in the Pilbara, former Greens leader Bob Brown said today.

“The fact that both the federal and Western Australian ministers charged with responsibility for Aboriginal culture and well-being knew that Rio Tinto was about to dynamite the 46,000-year-old shelters, but did not stop it, is a national tragedy,” Brown said.

“There are many more ancient Aboriginal sites threatened, from the Tarkine to the Galilee Basin to Karratha, and the destruction will continue while ever Indigenous communities can be bought off, split, worn down or deceived by corporations or individuals putting dollars ahead of the most ancient spiritual places in Australia.”

“The federal legislation is a toothless joke. It needs to have serious penalties, including jail, for executives and others who destroy or connive to destroy such sites.”

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John Lister commented 2020-06-06 23:36:59 +1000
While working at Rio I did cultural awareness training every year or two. It was mandatory, we were told this is “The way we work” It was used to instil us with the companies values, or, at least the values that they wanted to project. I took it at face value, okay our behaviours need to reflect those values. I didnt realise that the shiny bums in their tower offices could pick and choose how and when these values were to be used. Silly me! No wonder I was just one of the “Worker Bees” B-zzzzzzzzz.
Christine Biggs Dale commented 2020-06-05 15:35:04 +1000
Thank you Bob, Adrian J Dale’s timeline recent post spoke to this national tragedy with specific references to criminal activity as outlined in the last paragraph. Together, justice must and will be served.