Remote crisis: déjà vu all over again and again and again and again …

Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!

Macbeth, Act two, Scene three

I sat down to write a post that considered the recent media stories regarding the ongoing crime wave in the NT, NAPLAN, Closing the Gap, the extraordinary Indigenous unemployment levels in remote Australia and the ongoing and worsening incarceration crisis in the NT including the hyper-punitive response of the current NT Government. Then I realised that in doing so without the necessary contextualisation, I would be entering the perpetual motion machine that controls and shapes our media cycle and ensures that we never stop and ask how did we get here? I haven’t done the detailed research to write such a post, but my intuition told me that it was more important just now to remind readers of the underlying dynamics and forces which are shaping the outcomes that feed into daily life in remote communities, major towns like Katherine and Tennant Creek, and our daily media diet in south eastern Australia.

One way to do this is to list and link to the previous posts I have written on the theme of remote crisis. Below I list most (but perhaps not all) of the posts I have written on this topic since January 2022. I could have gone back further, but there is already more than enough material to digest. For each post, I have selected a short excerpt which illustrates some of the issues in play. The excerpts do not necessarily encompass the major argument of each post, and are not always the key point, but they do make in my view a contribution to providing the context that assists interested readers in forming a judgment of the underlying issues and causes in play when we read about the latest outrage or tragedy. I have left text bolded where I bolded it in the original post. I do recommend readers dip into at least some of these posts.

 

1.    Energy insecurity in remote Australia 13 January 2022 (link here)

The abstract of a recent academic article states:

Indigenous communities in remote Australia face dangerous temperature extremes. These extremes are associated with increased risk of mortality and ill health. For many households, temperature extremes increase both their reliance on those services that energy provides, and the risk of those services being disconnected. Poor quality housing, low incomes, poor health and energy insecurity associated with prepayment all exacerbate the risk of temperature-related harm … We find that nearly all households (91%) experienced a disconnection from electricity during the 2018–2019 financial year. Almost three quarters of households (74%) were disconnected more than ten times. … A broad suite of interrelated policy responses is required to reduce the frequency, duration and negative effects of disconnection from electricity for remote-living Indigenous residents.

 

2.    See How We Roll 24 January 2022 (link here):

It strikes me that this is, more than any other I have come across recently, an important book for policymakers engaged in shaping policy in the Indigenous domain. It shatters preconceptions regarding the distinction between remote and urban contexts, and makes clear the parallels between disadvantaged Indigenous people and other disadvantaged citizens. Most importantly, it should make policymakers question their assumptions and preconceptions regarding Indigenous life choices, and the potential for policy instruments and measures of various kinds to articulate or engage with the altogether different world views and approaches to living of many Indigenous people.

 

3.    The ongoing social and governance catastrophe in remote Australia 8 May 2022 (link here):

In October 2009, Nicolas Rothwell, writing in The Australian, published a scathing analysis under the title ’The failed state’… Rothwell’s opening sentence sums up his argument: ‘The Northern Territory is a lost cause’. He goes on:

There is, though, a failed state in our midst. That state is not Aboriginal north Australia, where the social fabric is in shreds and tatters. No: it is the jurisdiction largely responsible for entrenching this degree of Indigenous disadvantage: the modern-seeming, self-governing Northern Territory.

I quoted these observations in an earlier post in August 2016 (link here)… I would add however that the responsibility for entrenching Indigenous disadvantage is shared with the Commonwealth.

 

4.    Systemic myopia: Public investment challenges in remote Australia.19 December 2022 (link here):

To sum up, over the past two decades at least, public funding in core capital investments related to essential services, social housing, and community infrastructure has been severely deficient. This has undoubtedly reduced the levels of recurrent funding by governments in remote settings, and also limited the opportunities for local employment, and stronger economic development and progress. It is undoubtedly one of the key contributors to limiting the opportunities available to the rapidly growing youth cohort within communities. While reversing the sustained under-investment is not sufficient to address all the challenges facing residents of remote communities, it is a necessary element in any viable transition to a more stable future for remote communities. The onset of climate change is making addressing these challenges even more urgent.

 

5.    Cataclysm and Crisis 10 December 2022 (link here):

The inability of governments to envisage, understand and put in place effective strategies to address the multiple facets of the economic and social cataclysm facing remote communities amounts to a massive and fundamental failure. This failure is in and of itself a crisis; a crisis of governance capability, a crisis of will power, and ultimately a crisis of government legitimacy.

 

6.    Alice Springs crisis: observations on remote policy. 25 January 2023 (link here):

The Alice Springs hospital has 16 beds in its Intensive Care Unit. Minister Burney mentioned that she was shocked to learn that last night, 14 of those beds were taken by women who had been the victims of violent assaults. This window into the lived experience of too many remote women and their families is more than a warning of the seriousness of the rolling crisis across remote Australia. It is more than a prompt for governments to take action. It is more than an indictment on the quality and legitimacy of our systems of governance across northern Australia. It is damning evidence of the complicity and responsibility for these outcomes of those Australians (myself included) who take an interest in public policy. 

 

7.    The ongoing remote housing debacle 5 March 2023 (link here).  

In conclusion, the policy choices made over the past five years in relation to remote housing are retrograde and will have very real consequences: for taxpayers, for the population of remote Australia, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and most importantly for the residents of these overcrowded and under-maintained houses across remote Australia. Over fifty percent of those individuals are under 25 and the overcrowding will have lifelong consequences for the opportunities that are within their reach.

 

8.    The structural underpinnings of the tragedy in Yuendumu 10 March 2023 (link here):

Yes, at the micro level, individuals on both sides of the cultural divide, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, have and had agency. But they were and are operating within an overarching set of institutional structures which have been in place for decades and were either explicitly designed to constrain and control Aboriginal people’s lives, or reflect longstanding and entrenched structures of underfunding that were oblivious to, and independent of the level of need. If we wish to prevent further micro level tragedies, we as a nation must move beyond allocating blame or responsibility at the micro level and also address the macro level issues. Micro and macro are both part of a single social system, one that is responsible for both extensive social and cultural harm, and ongoing mainstream governance failure.

 

9.    Dodge dip and dive: eight ‘data points’ on remote policy 1 May 2023 (link here):

What is clear however is that given the synergistic interactions of multiple policy domains, the current model of policy design and implementation has not worked. This raises the potentially unsettling prospect that, at a fundamental systemic level, governments and policymakers are not incentivised to take the policy decisions that are required to make a substantive difference to the policy challenges that exist. Instead they are incentivised to manage difficult issues, oil squeaky wheels, and engage in a performative ritual designed merely to persuade an electorally significant non-Indigenous constituency (and a less electorally significant, but more animated, Indigenous constituency) that they are doing what is required to address the policy challenges that surface periodically in the public consciousness.

A recent review of a book on Boris Johnson (link here) described his motto for governing as ‘dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge’. As it turns out, this is an extraordinarily apt description of the systemic approach of Australian governments to remote policy challenges.

 

10. The remote community education scandal in the NT 24 September 2023 (link here):

It is time that the Commonwealth accepted that the NT Government is incapable of delivering remote education in a manner consistent with the public and national interest, and in such a way that it actually delivers outcomes. These poor outcomes are feeding directly into the social dysfunction that is endemic in parts of remote Australia, and which I have previously argued is a slow burn catastrophe (link here).

 

11. Looking ahead: the architecture of Indigenous policy in 2050 1 March 2024 (link here)

My advice to First Nations and progressive mainstream interests, and in particular their peak advocacy groups, would be to invest as much as possible in building their capabilities to advocate for Indigenous interests, to focus squarely on the absolute deficits in remote policy outcomes, including education, employment, housing and essential infrastructure, and to pursue a strategy of simultaneously protecting the institutional frameworks that presently exist, while pursing incremental change across the breadth of the public sector. In particular, Indigenous advocacy interests should explore avenues to gain much greater independence from Government funding as it comes with a hidden cost; the silence it implicitly requires reduces the necessary pressure on governments to fix the extraordinary policy problems that exist across the board, and the social and economic catastrophe that exists in remote Australia.

 

12. The ongoing attendance crisis in remote schools 10 September 2024 (link here):

In relation to remote attendance, there is a need for the Commonwealth to step up and acknowledge it for the national crisis it is…. The Commonwealth should work with the states cooperatively on these issues, but devise incentive-based payments to the states and territories rather than indulging in the politically driven negotiation that currently predominate. Robust support to Indigenous community leaders aimed at encouraging and assisting them to raise expectations of parental involvement within their communities are essential. But so too are getting financial resource allocations for schools better targeted, and if necessary increased. Rewarding effective teachers much better and ensuring that the curriculum is focussed on the needs of the least capable cohort of students are both — to use a colloquial expression — ‘no brainers’. This suggests that the adoption of curriculum methodologies (such as Direct Learning) that do not allow any student to fall behind must be a priority.

 

13. Infrastructure shortfalls in Alices Springs town camps 24 December 2024 (link here).

What is particularly clear from the Guide is how exclusionary institutional complacency emerges in myriad instances of quite prosaic neglect: the absence of footpaths, of surveyed lots, of safe play grounds for children, of street signs, of shade and community shelters; in short, this neglect reflects the longstanding and widespread refusal of mainstream institutions such a local governments to see their roles as universal rather than sectional. The details vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but the impacts are longstanding and have a certain consistency….

The authors and publishers of the Guide to Housing and Infrastructure Standards in Town Camps have made an extraordinarily significant contribution to laying the groundwork for better advocacy for remote Indigenous communities on essential services reform both in Alice Springs, but importantly across northern Australia. They deserve wider recognition and indeed acclamation. What is also clear is that without the efforts of Tangentyere and its community leadership over almost 50 years, the progress made to date on the town camps would not have been possible. Their historically significant work is not yet complete; I only hope that it will not be another fifty years before Aboriginal people in town camps in Alice Springs and beyond are included as fully entitled citizens in the provision of essential services.

 

14. Indigenous hyper-incarceration: a remote problem? 24 January 2025 (link here):

One data point quoted stood out:

As of January, the Northern Territory hit a grim milestone. More than 1% of the territory’s total population is now incarcerated in adult prison.

….

It is the case that the process of colonisation turned the world upside down for Indigenous people across the nation, and the people of remote Australia are generations closer to that social cataclysm.

Mainstream Australia cannot undo those social processes, and the world has moved on for all Australians. However, given the clear evidence of deep dysfunction arising from those social processes that were neither chosen nor desired by Indigenous people, and the impacts those changes inevitably imposed and continues to impose, the nation and its policy elites must be prepared to consider policy options that turn established modes of policy formulation upside down. Not to do so would amount to an extraordinary admission of national policy failure. Indigenous incarceration is just one of the impacts that arise from widespread social and economic dysfunction across remote Australia and woven through pockets of urban and regional Australia.

 

15. Misdirected focus: the case for institutional policy reforms to alcohol supply 18 March 2025 (link here):

The subliminal message from the NIAA then is don’t look to the Commonwealth to drive institutional policy reform, its someone else’s responsibility. See this page on their website too (link here). For what it’s worth, I just don’t buy that argument.

The appendix to the NIAA submission ( #140 at this link) which I strongly recommend readers seek out and read very usefully provides a comprehensive and powerful snapshot of the impacts of alcohol on various sectors. Here are a few data points I have cherry picked from the NIAA submission appendix:

… First Nations people were 4.2 times as likely to die from alcohol-related causes as non-Indigenous Australians. They were also 3.8 times as likely to die from alcoholic liver disease, and 4.7 times as likely to die from mental and behavioural disorders due to alcohol use….

AOD are involved in more than half of all police-reported family and domestic violence incidents in Australia, and are likely to be involved in a substantially greater proportion of all family and domestic violence…. For homicides in the period from 1989–90 to 2016–17, 72% of First Nations offenders were under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident, as were 71% of First Nations victims…

If Australia was serious about reducing Indigenous incarceration,…  reducing family violence within Indigenous contexts, … improving Indigenous health status, … [and] improving socio-economic status within the Indigenous community, we would implement significant policy reforms in relation to alcohol advertising, taxation and retail availability.

If Australia was serious about closing the gap, the Commonwealth would step up and lead, and one of its first steps would be to implement significant policy reforms in relation to alcohol advertising, taxation and retail availability.

Unfortunately, it is quite clear from a close reading of this report that neither the Government nor the Opposition are serious about any of these issues.

 

16. The Domestic and Family Violence crisis in the NT: a symptom of wider chaos 29 April 2025 (link here):

The Northern Territory is in a state of perpetual governance crisis, where underfunded schools are no longer fit for purpose, jobs are not within reach of young Aboriginal kids, alcohol and drug abuse is rife, as is domestic and family violence, and where violence and mayhem are increasingly spilling into the major towns and cities….

The problems in the NT have been decades in the making and have their roots in the failures of governments at all levels to adequately support the maintenance of a viable social and economic institutional infrastructure in remote communities. Reversing this longstanding policy neglect is not susceptible to some quick fix. In recent years however the systemic dysfunction in remote communities that governments have been prepared to tolerate for decades because they were metaphorically ‘out of sight’ has begun to colonise mainstream Territory cities and towns….

One way or another, remote Australia requires more serious policy attention (as opposed to political froth) from national policymakers. A good first step would be to progressively and incrementally strengthen controls across the board (ie mainstream and Indigenous) over the availability and price of alcohol. But much more than this will be needed to reverse the progressive decline in governance and its silent handmaiden, economic security, that is currently underway and gathering momentum. The alternative to serious reform is progressive decline into systemic chaos not just in remote communities, but across the NT and potentially elsewhere in remote Australia. Unfortunately, it seems things will have to get much worse before the political willpower to reform will emerge either in Canberra or Darwin.

 

1 August 2025

 

Governance Update: ALC and related corporations

 

… we have done but greenly

In hugger-mugger to inter him.

Hamlet Act four, Scene five.

 

In a recent post updating developments on Groote (link here), I noted that Groote Holdings Aboriginal Corporation GHAC) had inexplicably withdrawn its Little Paradise EIS proposal before the NT EPA (link here). I also commented on the termination of the former CEO, Mr Mark Hewitt, in October 2024 and canvassed the possibility that his termination payment which appeared to have been approved by Minister McCarthy included amounts linked to his executive roles with GHAC and Winchelsea Mining Pty Ltd (which is 70 percent owned by the Anindilyakwa Advancement Aboriginal Corporation (AAAC).

Subsequent governance developments included the resignation of Mr Hewitt from his role on GHAC on 1 November 2024, and from his role as CEO and Director of Winchelsea Mining (date unknown). In April 2025, following a selection process managed by Indigenous owned recruitment agency Pipeline Talent based in Canberra, the ALC announced the appointment of a new CEO, Matthew Bonson (link here). A Gurindji, Jawoyn and Torres Strait Islander man, Mr Bonson is a former ALP member of the NT Legislative Assembly and Minister (link here). According to the National Indigenous Times (link here), he took up the CEO role on 29 April 2025.

In February 2025, the ALC approved an updated set of Ministerially approved Board Rules which lay out the processes which apply to the operation of the ALC Board and its meetings (link here). A new requirement which arose from the recommendations of the Bellchambers Barret review was that the Board appoint an Independent Board Adviser (section 16). The Board appointed Yamagigu Consulting, an Indigenous owned advisory corporation linked to Deloittes to act as the Board Adviser and to develop a new governance framework in consultation with the NIAA (link here).

Eight months on from the termination of Mr Hewitt as CEO of the ALC, there is still a cloak of secrecy around the detailed operations of the ALC and NIAA’s somewhat ambiguous and entwined relationship with the implementation of the post ANAO audit governance reform agenda. As yet, there is no publicly available information on the outcome of the Yamagigu work on a new governance framework; perhaps this will be rolled out once the NACC hands down its report into the investigation of the NIAA referral of Mr Hewitt. Moreover, it is becoming increasingly clear that the operations of the ALC and the associated corporations entrusted with implementing and progressing the ALC’s high level strategic agenda for Groote (including the proposed Winchelsea mine) have begun to stall and falter.

Groote Holdings Aboriginal Corporation (GHAC) is responsible for the Little Paradise development and the Aquaculture projects which have been significant recipients of section 64(3) funding from the ALC. According to GHAC’s submissions to the NT EPA, the Little Paradise project is designed to provide considerable logistical and base camp support for the proposed manganese mine being developed on the adjacent Winchelsea Island by Winchelsea Mining whereas all recent descriptions refer to community training facilities and the like.

For reasons that are unclear, GHAC was unable to lodge its 2024 financial statements and hold its AGM in a timely manner. On 12 March 2025, ORIC granted an extension to the required date of 30 November for the AGM (bizarrely and presumably in error the new date was 31 January, predating the letter). The GHAC Directors Report and the GHAC financial statements for the year to June 2024 were signed off on 16 December 2024 but not uploaded to the ORIC website until March 2025. The financial statements, in a section titled “Events after reporting date’ confirm that the former Managing Director of GHAC Mark Hewitt resigned on 1 November 2024 and the newly appointed Acting Chief Operating Officer, Mr Lino Bruno undertook a review of ongoing projects which led to the role of Chief Operating Officer being made redundant. Mr Bruno is listed on the Winchelsea Mining web site as the manager of Marine Services for Winchelsea Mining. According to GHAC ‘s reports to the NT EPA, the Operations Manager was Xiaoli Liu and thus following the decision to make the position redundant she was presumably entitled to a payout. Ms Liu is Mr Hewitt’s spouse. The timing and focus of these developments suggest that a redundancy payment for Ms Liu may have been part of the termination arrangements for the ALC CEO discussed at the 16 October Board meeting and according ot th Senate Estimates brief released under FOI (link here) apparently approved by the Minister in early 2025.

Anindilyakwa Advancement Aboriginal Corporation (AAC) is the majority owner (70 percent) of Winchelsea Mining. According to the ORIC website, AAAC missed the statutory deadline for both the 2023 and 2024 AGMs. A November 2024 letter from ORIC refused to allow a request for an extension of he 2023 AGM, and a March 2025 letter agreed to an extension of the 2024 AGM (strangely with the same date error as in the GHAC letter discussed above). ORIC have not published the correspondence requesting the extension, so the reasons provided to ORIC by AAAC remain unknown. Nor is it known whether AAAC have in fact held the relevant AGM’s.

Unlike GHAC, AAAC is yet to lodge its 2024 financial statements and thus remains in breach of the requirements of the CATSI Act. It is unclear what action, if any, has been taken by ORIC to address this non-compliance. The AAAC’s 2023 financial statements show that in the 2022 and 2023 financial years, the ALC provided $12.7m to AAAC in section 64(3) payments for the project design, feasibility and environmental studies required in relation to the proposed mine. The Winchelsea Mining web site (link here) includes a series of undated photographs of the completed GHAC workers basecamp at Little Paradise thus providing further confirmation of the centrality of Little Paradise and GHAC to the proposed mine. As I mentioned in a recent post, in July 2024 the NT EPA requested additional information on an extensive list of issues form Winchelsea Mining and has asked for an updated EIS to be submitted within two years.

ALC CEO: status

On 18 July an anonymous comment was added to a recent post on this blog stating: “looks like ALC have lost another CEO. resigning after 3 months is surely a sign of issues”. I endeavoured to confirm this development and have been advised by a reliable source that the newly appointed CEO, Matt Bonson, has resigned after a disagreement with the Board. I have however been unable to formally confirm Mr Bonson’s departure. There is nothing on the ALC web site, nor has the Minister made any announcement. I have messaged the ALC but have not received a response. I spoke to an adviser in the Minister’s Office on 25 July seeking a comment from the Minister but have so far not received one.

Given the silence, it seems highly likely that Mr Bonson has in fact resigned. If correct, this suggests that the instability inside the ALC continues and is likely worsening. The overwhelming silence and lack of transparency from both the ALC and the NIAA in itself is a sign of a deep and ongoing management crisis. It is worth noting that the existence of the Board Adviser appears to have been of little use in resolving whatever disagreements were in play in the lead up to the resignation.  

There seem to me to be two possible generic reasons for the short tenure of the new CEO. First, perhaps the recruitment process was flawed or there was some level of interference in the process. There is no evidence on the public record that this in fact occurred. Alternatively (or perhaps additionally) the expectations of Council members (and their families) for access to resources or financial benefits may have exceeded the preparedness of the new CEO to approve or facilitate. Available information on the public record suggests the previous management regime at the ALC was prepared to facilitate an extraordinarily generous allocation of resources from various sources to ensure the maintenance of broad support for the ALC’s wider agenda. Such an approach would almost certainly have raised expectations amongst Board members regarding what is normal and their due. It is also possible that there were multiple informal arrangements in place that a new incumbent would not have been aware of or would not have been prepared to continue.

While there is no definitive proof in the public domain, the pervasive conflicts of interest which existed and the persistent criticism emerging regarding the way the ALC operated under the former CEO adds weight to the possibility that expectations of generous access to financial and other resources reached high levels within the Council’s membership. The fact that notwithstanding their extremely light regulatory oversight, the NIAA were ultimately prepared to refer the former CEO to the NACC also suggests financial expectations may have been and may continue to be excessive. The fact that the Council publicly supported the former CEO right up until the NIAA attended the Board meeting of 16 October 2024 and likely directly intervened to force the CEO’s resignation (perhaps based on intelligence shared by the NACC or perhaps by the increasing accretion of worrisome media stories alleging various forms of misfeasance against the former CEO) suggests that the Council and its members were deeply conflicted. It is salient that the NIAA appear to have directed their complaint to the NACC only against the former CEO and not against the Council as a whole notwithstanding that the Council signed off on virtually all arrangements that facilitated any potential wrongdoing. In other words, it appears that the NIAA were operating on the assumption that the Council was co-opted by the former CEO.

In these circumstances the fact that the new CEO has decided to resign is of particular concern. It suggests that the ALC is at risk of reverting to modes of operation that predated the CEO’s termination. I argued in a previous post (link here) that the facts as we know them are consistent with the NIAA in effect coercing the ALC into terminating the former CEO. If this was in fact the case, then the risk of reversion to former expectations and modes of operation are even more likely to eventuate.

Of course, my analysis is constrained by the fact that there is a complete lack of transparency on the part of both the NIAA and the ALC. I may not have adequate information, and this in turn may mean that my conclusions are wrong. In my defence, all I can say is that I am doing the best I can in the circumstances and the analysis I have put forward is consistent with the facts as we know them. Moreover, why is it that the Minister, the NIAA and the ALC are so determined to provide zero information about the activities and operations of a Commonwealth agency established by statute to protect the interests of traditional owners on Groote Eylandt? It seems to me that it is just as likely that I am underestimating the risks and damage to the public interest as overestimating the risks in relation to the ALC’s effectiveness and probity.

It is my considered view that the most important issue here is not whether the former CEO engaged in corrupt conduct, or whether he breached his legislative responsibility. The most important issue by far relates to whether the ALC can effectively undertake its statutory remit. I have absolutely no confidence that the ALC as presently constituted, and operating under a management culture developed over a decade by a person the NIAA has referred to the NACC, has this capability. The former CEO of the ALC clearly bears some responsibility, but the primary responsibility must fall on the Minister and her predecessors who have allowed the ALC to operate in ways which are inconsistent with the intent of the legislation governing statutory corporations in this space, the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (ALRA) and the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA). Responsibility also falls on the Parliament and its committees, in particular the relevant Senate Estimates Committee which has since the publication of the ANAO report on Groote in May 2023 failed miserably to interrogate the issues in play despite considerable evidence being presented to them.

The result has been that the ALC has overseen an ongoing process which privileges the high risk ownership and development of a small mine built on the redirection of substantial section 64(3) royalty equivalents to a narrow constituency of beneficiaries (including select traditional owners, consultants and potential employees who may or may not be Indigenous, and the non-Indigenous co-owners of the Winchelsea mining company) over investments in social, educational, cultural and environmental capabilities across the wider Anindilyakwa community. The reality is that this is not just about whether an economic resource should be developed, it is about whether scarce and finite royalty equivalent payments explicitly designed to compensate local Aboriginal people for the impacts of extensive manganese mining on Groote should be allocated away from Anindilyakwa people to benefit the coalition of largely non-Anindilyakwa interests mentioned above.

In Shakespeare’s time, the word ‘hugger-mugger’ meant ‘secretly, stealthily or furtively’. In more modern usage, it has come to mean disorderly or sloppy. Synonyms include ‘chaotic, cluttered, jumbled, and confused’. The ongoing strategy of the Minister, NIAA and the ALC to avoid informed public discussion about the developments on Groote over the past decade are unashamedly and synergistically hugger-mugger in both senses of the term. The losers will inevitably be the wider Anindilyakwa community on Groote, including future generations, and the public interest more generally.

 27 July 2025

A spokesperson for Minister Malarndirri McCarthy has provided the following comment:

The Minister has been informed by the Anindilyakwa Land Council that Mr Bonson has resigned from his position.

28 July 2025

Misdirected focus: the case for institutional policy reforms to alcohol supply

                                            To weep with them that weep doth ease some deal,

                                        But sorrow flouted at is double death

Titus Andronicus, Act three, Scene one.

The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Sport has recently released a report titled Issues paper relating to the health impacts of alcohol and other drugs in Australia (link here). The report is effectively an interim report and is designed to form the basis of a more comprehensive report assuming the next Government is prepared to renew its terms of reference. While the terms of reference span mainstream society, the report unsurprisingly addresses Indigenous issues at various points.

Like most Parliamentary reports of this nature, this Issues Paper carefully navigates its way through what is a complex and at times prickly thicket. Its value in the Indigenous policy context is to remind readers of the multitude of ways in which AOD, the report’s acronym for alcohol and other drugs, impacts indigenous people and communities. Thus, there is mention of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FASD), criminal justice, numerous health impacts and in passing the potential influence of poor social and environmental infrastructure in driving AOD use and abuse. It is not my intention to seek to summarise the report, but rather I intend to cherry pick a number of propositions as a stepping stone to further discussion.

The report provides an excellent introduction to the overwhelming numbers of research activities, advocacy NGOs and treatment and service providers all operating across the mainstream system.

In the Chapter on AOD services, at paras. 4.19 to 4.36, the report provides an extended discussion of Indigenous issues related to AOD use, relying in large measure on submissions from NACCHO and the Queensland based Institute for Urban Indigenous Health.  These submissions were largely premised on arguments for community-controlled service provision based on evidence that Indigenous people are over-represented in the statistics depicting the adverse impacts of AOD abuse. At para 3.58, the Committee records this plea:

The Institute for Urban Indigenous Health submitted that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led research and evaluation of AOD services must be recognised as a separate, dedicated stream of research and evaluation component of the AOD system. Such an approach would recognise that AOD has a disproportionate effect on Indigenous communities. According to the Institute, more Aboriginal Australians die due to drug and alcohol-related causes than any other disease group, including suicide and cardiovascular illnesses. Among young Aboriginal people aged 15 to 24, alcohol is the number one contributor to the burden of disease.

In a discussion of the links between AOD use and the prison population generally, the report notes (para 459):

People entering adult prison are more than four times as likely to report recent illicit drug use than people in the general community, and seven times more likely to drink to excess, according to the Legal Aid Commission of New South Wales (Legal Aid NSW). Mental health conditions also tend to be over-represented in the prison population.

Given the over-representation of Indigenous citizens in the prison system, these correlations are likely to apply to that subset too.

Chapter Five of the report deals with preventing and reducing harm caused by alcohol and other drugs. This strikes me as the crucial set of issues for policymakers. At para 5.18, the report notes a submission arguing:

 there is growing evidence to support a shifting of focus away from the law enforcement response, ‘especially with regard to communities disproportionately impacted by policing, including LGBTQ+ people, but also First Nations communities and people experiencing complex mental distress’.

The crucial issues for reducing the harm of alcohol across the community are somewhat buried within the report. At para 5.18 and following, there is a discussion of regulatory oversight policy issues including product labelling. At para 5.100, there is an important point made by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education regarding the extent to which the current regulatory regime in Australia is out of date and in effect unfit for purpose. At para 5.97, the report notes:

Multiple submissions, … drew the Committee’s attention to the World Health Organization’s three key strategies … in the regulation of alcohol beverages to reduce health harms from drinking: • restricting exposure to alcohol advertising • increasing excise taxes on alcohol beverages, and • restricting the physical availability of retailed alcohol.

There is discussion in the report in relation to each of these points, albeit largely anodyne and descriptive. There is no criticism of the fact that advertising of alcohol appears to be largely based on industry formulated schemes. As is the way with these reports, the views of diverse interests are laid out without detailed analysis or critique. It is largely an exercise in ‘He said / she said’…. Perhaps we are meant to be reassured by the Committee’s observation (para 5.123) that:

In their submissions to the inquiry, industry representatives highlighted that the majority of Australians were drinking responsibly and in moderation.

The Committee’s final commentary (para 5.131) is carefully framed to acknowledge the range of points raised, but it assiduously steers clear of suggesting that there may be a role for government in controlling alcohol advertising, and crucially in limiting access to alcohol or in raising taxes to reduce demand and to remove inconsistent volumetric rates for tax on alcohol. The Opposition members’ addendum goes further making very clear that the current report has no status whatsoever and is merely an issues paper. They go on to make crystal clear that commercial interests must be engaged before reaching any substantive policy positions:

In chapter two, in relation to the regulation and effects of alcohol there is a need to hear from both sides before coming to any concluded views. In chapter three there are a range of controversial observations that have been made about harm minimisation and the approaches of law enforcement—these need to be tested with evidence from state and territory police. In chapter five, a range of highly contested policy responses are raised. It will be important that the Committee receives submissions and takes evidence from a much wider range of stakeholders to test the evidence, on all matters contained in that chapter, before reaching any conclusions.

For Indigenous interests, this report provides a case study which should cause them to rethink their advocacy strategy in relation to alcohol. The advocacy voices representing Indigenous prison inmates, Indigenous victims of family violence, Indigenous families of individuals suffering acute health issues, Indigenous children growing up in alcohol induced poverty and trauma are either non-existent or severely muted. Instead, the Indigenous interests making submissions to this inquiry are service delivery organisations with a particular focus on accessing the resources necessary to ensure service delivery is effective. These are important and legitimate interests, but they are not the whole picture. The consequence is that the report is able to effectively ignore these hidden or muted perspectives in favour of a focus on service delivery. This amounts to a structural blind spot that will only be filled when Indigenous interests adopt a broader advocacy strategy. In my view, the Coalition of Peaks (which I acknowledge is fundamentally under-resourced) should make addressing these systemic issues a priority for its advocacy efforts. The absence of such a broader systemic perspective in Indigenous advocacy leaves the field open to those mainstream interest groups arguing against reform.

The clear if implicit message from the major parties is that they do not wish to upset the apple cart vis a vis the major alcohol industry interest groups. Instead of policy reforms aimed at reducing access to alcohol and other drugs, the major parties will focus on the provision of health services and other supports. The report made no attempt to address the particular issues facing remote Indigenous communities (but see para 6.4) notwithstanding that they arguably bear the brunt of lax regulation and encompass the most vulnerable subset of the Indigenous population. The submissions to the Committee by NACCHO and the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (available on the Committee website link here) were premised on making the case for community-controlled service delivery and largely ignored the importance of institutional reforms to reduce easy and cheap access to alcohol, and the issues associated issues around incarceration and domestic violence. The NIAA submission ( #140 at this link but not available on its website) focusses on its financial support for AOD treatment:

Through the IAS, the NIAA provides approximately $70 million annually to deliver around 90 AOD activities across Australia. IAS AOD funding is supplementary to Health and state government funding and prioritises treatment that is culturally safe and tailored to First Nations clients. These services offer evidence based, and trauma informed models of care for First Nations people and their families. This includes individual and group based therapeutic care, client-based family support, case management, referrals, and AOD prevention and education activities.

In relation to regulation, the NIAA states:

There are various regulations, laws and restrictions that aim to reduce alcohol related harms in jurisdictions around the country. While some laws, such as the legal drinking age, are in place across Australia, the majority of alcohol regulation is the responsibility of the states and territories. The weight of evidence suggests measures to reduce the availability of alcohol through strengthened controls on price and promotion can contribute to reducing harm and improving public safety.

The submission’s conclusion states:

While substance use impacts all Australians, it disproportionately affects First Nations people. The NIAA emphasises the importance of working in partnership and taking a strengths-based, trauma informed, culturally safe and holistic approach to addressing harmful AOD use. It is critical that First Nations voices are elevated throughout the Inquiry, and that the Committee’s recommendations are informed by the unique histories, cultures and experiences of First Nations people.

The subliminal message from the NIAA then is don’t look to the Commonwealth to drive institutional policy reform, its someone else’s responsibility. See this page on their website too (link here). For what it’s worth, I just don’t buy that argument.

The appendix to the NIAA submission ( #140 at this link) which I strongly recommend readers seek out and read very usefully provides a comprehensive and powerful snapshot of the impacts of alcohol on various sectors. Here are a few data points I have cherry picked from the NIAA submission appendix:

… First Nations people were 4.2 times as likely to die from alcohol-related causes as non-Indigenous Australians. They were also 3.8 times as likely to die from alcoholic liver disease, and 4.7 times as likely to die from mental and behavioural disorders due to alcohol use….

AOD are involved in more than half of all police-reported family and domestic violence incidents in Australia, and are likely to be involved in a substantially greater proportion of all family and domestic violence…. For homicides in the period from 1989–90 to 2016–17, 72% of First Nations offenders were under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident, as were 71% of First Nations victims…

If those data points don’t make the case that a national crisis exists and is ongoing for Indigenous communities in relation to the use of alcohol, then what will?

For those still unpersuaded or just interested in exploring the issues further, the following posts deal with various aspects of alcohol policy in remote Australia (link here, link here, and link here). The consistent theme of these posts has been to point out the excessive influence of the alcohol industry in shaping remote alcohol policy, to encourage the Commonwealth to engage proactively in driving reforms including in relation to the accessibility of alcohol.

Conclusion

If Australia was serious about reducing Indigenous incarceration, we would implement significant policy reforms in relation to alcohol advertising, taxation and retail availability.

If Australia was serious about reducing family violence within Indigenous contexts, we would implement significant policy reforms in relation to alcohol advertising, taxation and retail availability.

If Australia were serious about improving Indigenous health status, we would implement significant policy reforms in relation to alcohol advertising, taxation and retail availability.

If Australia were serious about improving socio-economic status within the Indigenous community, we would implement significant policy reforms in relation to alcohol advertising, taxation and retail availability.

If Australia was serious about closing the gap, the Commonwealth would step up and lead, and one of its first steps would be to implement significant policy reforms in relation to alcohol advertising, taxation and retail availability.

Unfortunately, it is quite clear from a close reading of this report that neither the Government nor the Opposition are serious about any of these issues.

 

18 March 2025

The Missing $41m payment from AMT to ARAC: a trust deficit

 

Round and round the cauldron go;

In the poisoned entrails throw….

Sweltered venom, sleeping got,

Boil thou first i’th’ charmed pot.

Macbeth, Act four, Scene one.

 

In my previous post (link here), I provided commentary on a number of the Questions on Notice asked by Senator David Pocock. I mentioned in that post that I would deal with this question in a separate post. Unfortunately, it involves both a convoluted narrative of events and some accounting issues. The bottom line however is much simpler: a Senator asked a question in good faith based on allegations made in correspondence from residents of Groote Eylandt, and received a dismissive, misleading and probably substantively incorrect response from the NIAA which we must presume had the endorsement of the Minister which raises more questions than answers.

Here is the question and answer provided:

Senator David Pocock’s Question #8

In an article dated 20 July 2024, The Saturday Paper referred to correspondence to your predecessor signed by dozens of Groote residents which alleged that an amount of $41m was paid from the Anindilyakwa Mining Trust (AMT) to the Anindilyakwa Royalties Aboriginal Corporation (ARAC) but which has not been accounted for. A recent review of the relevant publicly available financial statements pertaining to ARAC appears to confirm this. There is also explicit evidence that the ALC effectively controls ARAC and has a direct role in managing ARAC finances. Is the Minister/NIAA aware of the $41m payment and if so has the matter been investigated? If not, will the Minister instruct the NIAA or ORIC to advise her regarding the $41m payment and the circumstances of its payment by the AMT and receipt/utilisation by ARAC?

NIAA Answer #8

The NIAA has made enquiries regarding the recognition of payments made from the Anindilyakwa Mining Trust (AMT) to the Anindilyakwa Royalties Aboriginal Corporation (ARAC) and has been informed that reporting differences arose because of the entities recognising these transactions in different financial years. The NIAA notes that the accounting records of both entities are subject to independent audit. Detailed questions regarding the recognition of financial transactions of the ALC and associated entities should be directed to the ALC.

Below I set out my detailed commentary on the answers to the question and various related issues:

Comment mcd #8

I have previously posted contextual comments on this issue in three posts. The posts were titled Royalties, flawed governance and non-transparency: a potent brew (link here) dated 26 July 2024; The Anindilyakwa Royalties Aboriginal Corporation: micro accountabilities; macro policy implications (link here) dated 3 August 2024; and Annual Reports on Groote: an unconventional assessment (link here) dated 18 January 2025. I strongly recommend that readers keen to understand the context within which the AMT, ARAC and the ALC operate read these posts, especially the first two.

In the light of the NIAA answer provided above I sought to revisit the financial statements for the relevant periods. I was surprised to find that the 2022 Audited Financial statements for ARAC had been removed from the ORIC website without explanation. I find this somewhat strange especially given its relevance to the issues raised by the correspondents form Groote referred to in the Saturday Paper article. I requested a copy and was provided one, but as of 24 February 2025 it has not been published on the website. Financial statements for the previous years which I had obtained from ORIC in 2024 have still not been published on the ORIC website. Given that section 35(2) of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 requires land councils to distribute section 64(3) royalty equivalent payments on to CATSI corporations, there would seem to be substantial merit in the Registrar ensuring that the financial statements of CATSI corporations in receipt of such payments are published on the ORIC website. In any case, should readers wish to read the relevant financial statements I cite below, I suggest you contact ORIC direct.  

The basic facts are as follows.

The 2022 AMT financial report lists under the heading Grants a payment to ARAC of $41,324,957.

The 2022 audited financial statement for ARAC under the heading Revenue records a s.64(4) grant from the ABA of $9.6million (which would have been approved by the Minister) and a grant of $14.3m in s.35 payments from the ALC (the equivalent amount in 2021 was $34.8m). Total income is listed as $23.0m. There is no record of any grant being received from the AMT.

The 2023 audited financial statements for ARAC identify a series of grants and other revenue, including $31.9m in section 64(3) payments from the ALC.  Total income for 2023 is $40.2m. In addition, an amount of $8.1m in investment income is recorded. There is no record of a grant or payment for $41.3m being banked in the 2023 year.

In neither ARAC financial report is there a line item showing a payment of $41,324,957. The explanation provided to the Senate by NIAA that the payment was recognised in a different financial year is thus prima facie incorrect. Moreover, it has the effect of misleading the Senate and the wider community. That is not to say there may not be a perfectly appropriate explanation, but without a forensic audit that identifies the bank account(s) into which the AMT payment was deposited, we will never know.

The comment in the NIAA answer about the financial affairs of the relevant entities being independently audited reeks of either naïveté or an attempt at gaslighting. Auditors can make errors or be provided with incorrect information.

As pointed out in my previous post on ARAC (link here) and extracted in the Appendix below, the ARAC 2022 financial statements identify the cancellation of an infrastructure debt commitment (for $39m) from AMT to ARAC. Whether the auditor was misinformed or failed to follow up the issue, it is clear that the $41m was not deposited in the 2022 year (and not in a later year) and that this is reflected in black and white text in the 2022 financial statement. This reinforces the conclusion that the unidentified person who the NIAA consulted regarding the transaction has misled them; they in turn have misled the Minister and she in turn has misled the Senate (given that Ministers approve or are responsible for answers to Questions on Notice).

Rather than focussing on the independence of auditors while providing incorrect information, NIAA should perhaps focus on the persons who do have the requisite knowledge, namely, the Directors of ARAC. The Directors of AMT and of ARAC were identical and apart from independent Directors were also ALC Board members (see the discussion in my earlier post ‘a potent brew’ (link here). Both the AMT and ARAC Boards considered and formally resolved to approve and certify as true and correct the financial statements for the respective entities in the 2022 year. Prima facie (even on a hypothetical assumption that the NIAA explanation is correct) there appears to have been a failure of the ARAC Board to identify the absence of the $41m grant in ARAC’s revenue for 2022 and 2023. Has the Minister or NIAA requested the Registrar of Aboriginal Corporations to investigate this prima facie error? In this context, see the comments in my recent post on annual reports (link here) related to the ARAC Board’s decision to purchase at considerable cost (sourced from funds notionally provided for the benefits of traditional owners) personal liability insurance for the Directors. Did this decision raise any concerns with the Registrar or the NIAA when it was reported in the ARAC financial statements? And if not, why not?

The assumption that in the face of allegations of a missing $41m, that NIAA, the ALC’s regulator, would ask a person they fail to identify for an explanation and then accept that explanation without being taken through the detailed figures that would allow the allegation to be put to rest, seems at best naïve and incompetent. The fact that this explanation is confidently provided to the Senate as if there is nothing to see here is extraordinary. It reeks in my view of indifference, deliberate disregard, obfuscation and disrespect.

The whole purpose of the Estimates process is to allow Senators to obtain an explanation from the Executive arm of the activities of agencies and corporations within a legislative framework that is entirely the responsibility of the Minister. If the NIAA can’t provide the assurance the Senate seeks, they should themselves take the action necessary to obtain it for Senate. ARAC is not an entity that appears before the Estimates Committee and is incorporated under the CATSI Act that comes within the Minister’s portfolio. The ALC which appears to exercise effective control over ARAC and assists with its bookkeeping and preparation of financial statements is within the Minister’s portfolio. The former CEO oversighting ARAC’s bookkeeping has been dismissed by the ALC at a meeting attended by the NIAA on grounds which the Minister has seen fit not to make public. The former CEO’s spouse (who has not been mentioned in any of the public statements related to the termination the CEO by the ALC and the Minister) was at various times an employee of the ALC working in the Royalty Development Unit that assisted corporations such as ARAC with their finances and operations.

Conclusion

Given the complex web of potential and actual conflicts of interest in play, and the fact that there is a missing $41m also in play, the Minister and the NIAA have an obligation in my view to do much better than they have with this answer and the others discussed in my previous post.

Indeed, given the extraordinary refusal to agree to commission an independent forensic investigation (bearing in mind that not all malfeasance will necessarily be corrupt or criminally illegal), it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Minister and NIAA are, through their inaction and deliberate obfuscation, contributing to the social and economic harm that will inevitably emerge once the full ramifications of the maladministration on Groote becomes apparent.

The Minister and her agency are accruing a substantial trust deficit through her unwillingness to be transparent on what has transpired within the ALC and its associated entities. Given the standard of answers provided to the Senate in response to Senator Pocock’s questions, that trust deficit will inevitably continue to grow unless decisive action is taken. My recommendation is that the Minister should immediately request the ANAO to undertake or commission a comprehensive and independent forensic audit of the operations of the ALC and its associated entities over the past seven years.

Without such decisive action, the levels of distrust will at some point reach a tipping point where wider political consequences will take hold and potentially destroy the current institutional framework of land rights as we know it. In the meantime, the fallout will inevitably have adverse impact not just on the constituents of the NT land councils, but on those nominal servants of the public interest who have been prepared to look away while the cauldron of distrust boils over.

 

Appendix

The following text is taken from my previous posts and provides more contextual detail on the information above. It has been lightly edited.

Extract from Royalties, flawed governance and non-transparency: a potent brew

The AMT/ARAC financial transactions

The notes to the 2016 Financial statements for the AMT which are available on the on the ACNC website (link here) include the following text:

12 Commitments During the year ended 30 June 2016, Anindilyakwa Mining Trust committed to contributing $3,500,000 to the Economic Development Unit (which has been established by the Anindilyakwa Land Council) on or prior to 30 June 2018. The first instalment of $500,000 was made during the 2016 financial year. 

The notes to the 2017 AMT Financial Statements state that the first instalment of $500,000 was made during the 2016 financial year and the second instalment for the first year of $500,000 and the first instalment for the second year of $750,000 was made during the 2017 year.

The notes to the AMT 2018 financial statements comment:

12 Commitments During the year ended 30 June 2016, Anindilyakwa Mining Trust committed to contributing $3,500,000 to the Economic Development Unit (which had been established by the Anindilyakwa Land Council) of which $1,000,000 was paid during the 2016 financial year and $750,000 was paid during the 2017 financial year. During the 2018 financial year, an instalment was made for $1,250,000. Therefore, as of 30 June 2018, the Trust has a $500,000 outstanding commitment.

During the year ended 30 June 2017, Anindilyakwa Mining Trust committed to contributing $51,122,311 to Anindilyakwa Royalties Aboriginal Corporation (ARAC) for costs associated with the purchase of infrastructure and funding of the operational budget. During the year, $6,000,000 was paid to ARAC. Therefore, as of 30 June 2018, the Trust has a $45,122,311 outstanding commitment. [mcd comment 24 Feb 2025: it is worth noting that the payment of $6m from AMT to ARAC was transparently listed in ARAC’s revenue for the 2018 FY. A clear contrast with 2022 and 2023.]

The 2019 AMT financial report included a note indicating in relation to the 2016 commitment, a further instalment of $500,000 had been paid thus meeting that initial commitment. The note also states that in relation to the 2017 commitment, the AMT had paid an instalment in the 2019 FY of $5,975,000, thus leaving an outstanding balance to be paid of $39,147,311.

The 2020 and 2021`AMT financial reports note that no payments had been made and the outstanding commitment remained at $39,147,311. The Notes to the 2021 AMT financial report note that the outstanding amount was paid in FY 2022; this suggests the payment was made in the first half of the financial year. The 2022 AMT financial report lists under the heading Grants a payment to ARAC of $41,324,957. No rationale is provided for why the amount has increased from $39m to $41m.

There are no further payments reported in the 2023 AMT financial report.

The 2022 financial statement for ARAC was previously available on the Registrar of Aboriginal Corporations website. It has been taken down (link here). Under revenue, it records a s.64(4) grant from the ABA of $9.6million (which would have been approved by the Minister) and a grant of $14.3m in s.35 payments from the ALC (the equivalent amount in 2021 was $34.8m). Total income is listed as $23.0m. There is no record of any grant being received from the AMT. Nor is there any record of such a grant being banked in the following financial year.

That a payment of $41m appears to have disappeared is somewhat strange. It is even stranger when one considers that the AMT has no staff and its administration appears to be undertaken by Mutual Trust, an established and highly experienced financial services firm, that ARAC has no staff (see the 2022 ARAC General Report) and its office is at 58-62 Macleod Street Cairns, the same address where the Commonwealth transparency portal lists ALC’s Finance and Royalty Development Unit (RDU) employees being located. The staff servicing ARAC Board meetings and probably implementing Board decisions (including managing income and payments) are likely part of the ALC’s Royalty Development Unit, a small team in Cairns. Clearly a forensic audit is required to determine the reason for the apparent disappearance of these funds. I should acknowledge that I was alerted to the issues around the missing $41m by the recent story in the Saturday Paper (link here).

 

Extract from The Anandilyakwa Royalties Aboriginal Corporation: micro accountabilities; macro policy implications

Each of the six ARAC financial reports from 2017 to 2022 inclusive include a statement, signed by two Directors and resolved by the Board, outlining the corporation’s purpose as follows:

The Corporation's operations purpose [in its first year] has been, to hold assets and manage statutory royalty equivalents and negotiated royalties in such manners as determined by the Anindilyakwa Land Council, consistent with its goals for effective, responsible and sustainable use of such royalty flows [emphasis added].

This statement appears to make plain that the ALC exercises direct control over the operations of ARAC….

… In my previous post I noted that the payment of $41m from the AMT to ARAC did not appear to be accounted for in the ARAC 2022 financial statements. With the availability of the previous year’s reports, it was possible to track the recording of an amount of $39,147,311 as an ‘AMT infrastructure debtor’ in the ARAC 2020 and 2021 financial reports. In 2022, the year that the AMT paid ARAC $41,324,957, there was no record in ARAC’s Financial statements of any such grant being received. However, there was a line item now called Payment in Advance (whereas it was previously termed AMT Infrastructure Debtor) which showed an outstanding debt of $39,147,311 in the previous year, but nil in the current 2022 FY. Rather than resolving the problem, this treatment of the outstanding commitment, whether intentional or not, obscures the recipient of the payment while acknowledging that the commitment no longer applies. [The discrepancy between the amount of $39m and $41m appears to be related to differing CPI treatments of the original commitment by the AMT and the ALC].

 

24 February 2025