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RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones. This is 7am.

On a remote island in the Gulf of Carpentaria there are two towns. One is home to a thriving economy. It has a golf course, cinema and tennis courts. It’s the richest postcode in the Northern Territory, most of the people who live there are white.

The other is home to the Anindilyakwa people - the traditional custodians. The locals live just a few hundred metres from the world’s largest manganese mine. Here, life outcomes are worse than anywhere in the country. This stark contrast raises questions about where the royalties of this mine are flowing and why the traditional owners are seeing so little of them return to their community.

Now, the National Indigenous Australians Agency has referred the white chief executive of the Anindilyakwa Land Council to the National Anti-Corruption Commission, over his plan to take a personal 10 per cent stake in a proposed mining project.

Today, Gunaikurnai and Wotjobaluk writer Ben Abbatangelo, on the plan and the man who stood in its way.

It’s Wednesday, July 24.

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RUBY:

So Ben, this story, it takes place on Groote Eylandt which is this beautiful, remote island off the Northern Territory coast. Could you begin by telling me a bit about what life is like there?

BEN:

Absolutely. I mean, the Groote Archipelago is located off the top of the Northern Territory. It consists of 14 clan groups and they comprise roughly about 1500 people. Now, Groote Eylandt was set up by the Christian missionaries in the early 1900s. And in the 1960s, they actually brokered an agreement with BHP to commence manganese mining. So what the region is, I suppose, most renowned for nowadays is the fact that it actually has the largest open cut manganese mine of anywhere in the world. It's made a lot of people rich. It has spewed out many billions of dollars in profits. Some of that money has gone to the Anindilyakwa people, and then lots of other royalties have flown to the Aboriginal benefits account. and the Commonwealth Government matches that dollar for dollar. And what happens with the money in that account is it's then redistributed to the land councils and prescribed body corporates to then invest in community initiatives, economic development, community development, things that sustain local communities on the ground. What we've seen over the last couple of years, though, is that those royalties flow to a very specific number of companies and entities, directly linked to Mark Hewitt, who is the CEO of the Land Council.

RUBY:

Okay. So tell me a bit more about Mark Hewitt. What are the allegations against him?

BEN:

Well I think to understand Hewitt’s tenure, we've got to go back to 2011 when he was appointed. Now, one of the first things that Hewitt was responsible for was actually rolling out a 15 year strategic plan in 2012 and the central vision of that plan was to establish a culturally rich, sustainable and low cost economy not dependent upon mining royalty income. So it was a plan that was driven by community elders to, I suppose, reverse the decisions made over the last 100 years and, as they say in the plan, to reassert control over Anindilyakwa destiny. What was known then was that the Gemco mine was going to close and the money that has flowed onto the community was going to cease. So it's been important for them to think in decades and start to reimagine what a future economy looks like that can sustain the people. But in 2016, Hewitt began working towards another vision and that was, essentially, more mining. Since then, what we've seen is the establishment of a corporation called Winchelsea mine, which Hewitt has been appointed to as the co-CEO, an intermediary between Winchelsea mine and the Annandale Land Council, called Group Holdings Aboriginal Corporation, which he has also been appointed to as the executive officer, and we've seen tens of millions of dollars of royalty money flow from the Land Council to this mining venture.

RUBY:

Right. So Mark Hewitt is both the co-CEO of a company that wants to operate a mine, as well as being CEO of the Land Council that would be allowing that mining to happen, so it seems like there's potential for conflict of interest here.

BEN:

There's a lot of conflicts of interest and what the ANAO audit report found, a couple of years ago, was that those conflicts of interest are endemic. So Hewitt has essentially established, you know, multiple corporations and been appointed to the executive of each of them. And what it's meant has been that a disproportionate amount of royalty money has directly flowed to them. And when I say a disproportionate amount - not including the latest financial year - we're talking close to $100 million within a very short period of time. So whilst this money has been flowing towards establishing this other mine, what community members, former board members, former staff say is that other core programs and functions across the Groote Archipelago have been sacrificed. Now, what do I mean by that? It means social housing for, you know, the most vulnerable people in Australian society not going ahead. We're talking about a dialysis unit, which is what actually a large majority of traditional owners are dying from, be sacrificed. We're seeing, you know, really core investments be repurposed to also prop up the mine. So an example of that is a car service yard. Now, it was agreed upon that they would create a car service centre in the town of Anuraguru, where all of the traditional owners live and the majority of the cars are. Well, as one source says, that car yard has now been repurposed to actually service the mine. One other example is also a soup kitchen. So that was conceived in response to young people breaking into the tuck shops and the stores at night, after what one source says was due to hunger. Well, that soup kitchen is now the mess hall to serve the Winchelsea mine. And then if we fast forward to 2023, not only has he been working towards establishing this mine and then underwrote it with Anindilyakwa people's royalty money, and been paid multiple salaries along the way so, we're talking about upwards of $400k a year for the Land Council. We're talking about sharing within $500,000 with Winchelsea mining directors, annually. We're talking about benefits that have seen his daughter be put through boarding school to the tune of roughly $45,000 a year. We're talking about the employment of his partner as well, who has received multiple salaries from multiple corporations on the island. That's then culminated with Hewitt then moving to secure a 10% equity ownership in Winchelsea mining. So if the mine was to succeed, we're talking about an equity ownership stake that would be worth tens of millions of dollars.

RUBY:

Wow. So a deal like this, that would make Mark Hewitt and his family extremely wealthy millionaires, in fact, at a minimum. And this is significant then, because, I mean, Mark Hewitt, he's not a private investor. He is the CEO of the Land Council, among other things and his job in that role is to make sure that money goes to traditional owners and to the community. His role isn't to try and make money for himself. So tell me a bit more about the case that he was making for that 10 per cent, about what he said about why he should have it.

BEN:

So the move for that 10 per cent ownership in Winchelsea occurred late last year and, in board papers that were leaked to us, it says that him and his partner, were not only looking to have their contributions recognised but also rewarded and that they were looking to not just continue to work and prop up the mine in the years ahead, but also that they were seeking to accumulate tens of millions of dollars in profit over the years to come.

RUBY:

So, will the deal go through? That’s after the break.

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RUBY:

Ben, we've been talking about the Anindilyakwa land council CEO Mark Hewitt, who tried to secure a 10% share in a mine that he was spearheading, a shareholding that would be worth many millions of dollars. So did he succeed? Did he get this 10% share?

BEN:

So, Hewitt was moving really aggressively and quickly, according to board papers. You know, there was a meeting that was held in late September where he started to lay the groundwork. And, within a matter of days, he wanted to have that arrangement locked, loaded and wrapped up. But the plan was thwarted when a young Land Council lawyer came across the attempt. The young lawyer, from what we've seen through leaked papers, stood his ground and really attempted, I suppose, to ensure that the Anindilyakwa people not only had time to consider what is a really significant proposal, but as importantly, you know, under their rights of free, prior and informed consent, had independent legal advice that could guide them. Now, before this lawyer had stepped in, Hewitt was using his own personal lawyers, that was advising himself and his partner, to also advise the Land Council board and also the other relevant power brokers on the island. So there was endemic conflict of interest there. Now, the second legal opinion delivered by barrister Ron Levy, basically confirmed the young lawyer's fears that this was a plan that shouldn't go ahead and thus, it didn't.

RUBY:

Right, so that deal, it didn’t eventuate, but you kept looking into the Anindilyakwa Land Council’s finances. So, tell me what else you found?

BEN:

Yeah, well, we've seen - not including this last financial year - close to $100 million be directed towards corporations that are directly designed to prop up the Winchelsea mining venture. We've seen funds from the federal government through the Covid era be directed to supporting the Winchelsea mine. We've seen a $41 million grant be given from the sovereign wealth fund, or that Anindilyakwa mining trust, you know, to a corporation that is also working to support the mine and really critically on this one, that $41 million is yet to be accounted for in other financial records and statements. So there's just a lot of question marks when we, you know, really go through those financial statements with a fine tooth comb.

RUBY:

And have you spoken to Mark Hewitt about any of this?

BEN:

So we sent a whole range of questions to Mark Hewitt. He has decided not to respond to each of those, you know, really direct questions directly. But he has provided a pretty generic response in regards to, you know, why this mine is going ahead and what it means for the Anindilyakwa community. So we're still very much open to Mr. Hewitt responding to those questions. And yeah, putting his case forward.

RUBY:

Right which he might do. But really, when you think about the way that money has been spent, and about what's happened on Groote Eylandt, what does it all mean for those who call it home, for the Anindilyakwa people?

BEN:

It's just really important to note that the Anindilyakwa people live in extreme circumstances, and the vulnerability that we are talking about cannot be understated. You know, the overcrowding of housing is really significant. We've got people that are sleeping on the floor, we've got people that are sleeping on the tables, we've got people that are sleeping, you know, on the kitchen benches. We’ve got young people that aren't attending school as consistently or frequently as they should be. We've got really low levels of literacy and numeracy. We've got young people dying. You know, just a myriad of really complex challenges. And with the mine closing at the turn of the decade, that means that every single dollar, every single cent needs to be going as far as it can. There is no room for waste. So to see the waste of money be directed to things that they're not seeing a direct net benefit from, is really painful.

RUBY:

Ben, thank you so much for your time today.

BEN:

Thanks, Ruby.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today…

Kamala Harris has made her first public appearance since President Joe Biden announced he would not be contesting the next presidential election and would instead be supporting her.

In the first 24 hours of Kamala Harris’ campaign, more than 230 million US dollars were raised in donations, making it the largest single day of campaign fundraising for a single candidate in US history.

And,

Australia has just recorded the deadliest year on the roads in more than a decade. New figures from the Australian Automobile Association show there were 1,310 deaths to the 30th June, which is an almost 12% increase from the previous year.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am. See you tomorrow.

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