5 October 2017

Mayor Strelow misrepresents Wangan and Jagalingou

Rockhampton Mayor Margaret Strelow’s ‘thanks’ to the the Wangan and Jagalingou people for ‘our support’ is disingenuous and clearly misrepresents the position of the Traditional Owners of the proposed Carmichael mine area.

We do not support a FIFO (fly in fly out) hub that allows a mass of people who have no respect for our land to fly in and destroy our country and culture, and fly out again.

The Wangan and Jagalingou Traditional Owners Council don’t know who Mayor Strelow is talking to, but it’s clearly not the W&J Applicant or the claim group or our families.

A majority of Wangan and Jagalingou families have consistently rejected Adani’s sham ILUA  for the mine. Adani has no agreement with Traditional Owners and an ILUA has not been registered. The purported ILUA is subject to a Federal Court trial in March 2018.

Our court action in March will expose the underhanded way in which our position on the mine is misrepresented by Adani, and our supposed support was engineered.

We have provided evidence to the court of Adani’s bad faith and we will pursue this constant misrepresentation of our people and our position on the mine until we can demonstrate once and for all we do not and never will support this coal mine or any project or enterprise aligned to it.

Mayor Margaret Strelow’s claim that the FIFO hub announcement “is a generational moment” for Rockhampton is clearly disconnected from our young people and the real world. We do not want marginal low paid jobs in a dirty and dying industry. Nor do we buy yet another one of Adani’s ‘fake it until you make it’ stunts, when we know they do not have our consent or a registered ILUA and they do not have finance for the mine.

Mayor Strelow can hold whatever view she likes on this industrial chimera but she cannot credibly thank the W&J people for our support.

Instead of the crumbs off Adani’s table, and the servitude proffered by Governments, we deserve higher education, jobs in sustainable enterprises of the future, and to freely exercise our right to protect our lands and waters and practice our culture.