Mining rights as a component of Aboriginal land rights : an economic assessment / P.J. Lloyd.

Abstract

This paper examines the economic consequences of the mining rights component of Aboriginal and Land Rights legislation. Section 1 sets out the differences between the mining rights on Aboriginal Land in the Northern Territory and those which hold elsewhere in Australia. Section 2 outlines the historical and economic basis of public ownership of mineral resources in Australia. The different regulations on Aboriginal Land derive from the recommendations of the Woodward Report (the Aboriginal Land Rights Commission) and the Fox Report (Ranger Uranium Environmental Inquiry). The main features of the Woodward-Fox Scenario are outlined in Section 3 and they are criticised strongly in the following Section. The fundamental difficulty is that these reports were not clear as to the objectives of government policy. The choice of veto powers to the Land Council and the associated power to negotiate royalties have several adverse effects. They impose substantial costs of regulation on the mining companies. For the aboriginal groups they do not provide the mining companies with an incentive to reduce the damages which mining may cause to Aboriginal groups, and do not ensure that the royalty payments correspond to the value of the damages done to the Aboriginal groups - which was the basis of the provisions in the Aboriginal Land Rights Act relating to mining. The author recommends the substitution of a damage tax liability for the present veto powers and royalty payments, plus other measures to improve the real incomes and welfare of all Aborigines on and off Aboriginal Land alike.