Article by Brad Thompson courtesy of the Australian Financial Review.
Western Australia’s Labor government has leant on mining and oil and gas companies to create a billion dollar-plus “community investment fund” with a big chunk of the funds earmarked for an Aboriginal cultural centre in the centre of Perth.
The fund already has commitments of $750 million thanks to donors that include Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, which is reported to have kicked in $100 million.
The biggest contributors are Rio Tinto and BHP with $250 million apiece while Woodside Energy, Chevron and Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources have all made $50 million contributions.
The WA government plans to request donations from dozens of other resources companies in a bid to push the community fund well beyond $1 billion.
The move to hit up the resources sector comes with WA sitting on a $6 billion budget surplus and its finances boosted by more than $12.5 billion in mining and LNG royalties and other payments last year.
Hancock Prospecting last month pulled the plug on its backing of Netball Australia after players in the national team backed indigenous teammate Donnell Wallam who had raised concerns about the $15 million sponsorship deal.
The player concerns centred on comments about indigenous people made decades ago by Mrs Rinehart’s late father Lang Hancock, one of the pioneers of the WA iron ore industry.
WA premier Mark McGowan told The West Australian newspaper the community fund would be used to pay for legacy projects, such as the Aboriginal cultural centre and redevelopments of Perth Zoo and Perth Concert Hall.
“Considering a lot of the indigenous heritage for the state is in the areas that are mined, I thought it was appropriate that the companies that are the beneficiaries of those areas might want to contribute to the Aboriginal cultural centre, which will be a magnificent world-class attraction,” Mr McGowan said.
“And so I contacted some of the major mining companies in person and just said look, this is the idea that we have. There’s nothing in return apart from being good, social and corporate citizens,”
The fund will also be used to provide housing and other infrastructure at remote indigenous communities.
The WA and federal governments have allocated $50 million apiece to the Aboriginal cultural centre expected to cost about $400 million. It is expected to be built on what is now a carpark near the banks of the Swan River in central Perth.
