Marion Scrymgour slams greens for using Aboriginal people

A senior Labor politician has claimed activists took advantage of Aboriginal people to block a crucial development. Read how this happened.

Federal Labor MP and decorated Territorian Marion Scrymgour has used a Mining Club speech to condemn activists for taking advantage of Tiwi Islanders to wage war against the Barossa gas project.

Speaking in Darwin, the Lingiari MP claimed Aboriginal people had been “used” by environmental groups.

She was critical of “greens or others” who use Aboriginal people “for their own means”.

She said media too had a role to play in ensuring traditional owners and elders interviewed formally held the positions they claimed.

Lingiari MP Marion Scrymgour in Alice Springs on Wednesday. Picture: Liam Mendes / The Australian

Ms Scrymgour said confusion around Aboriginal geneology and lineage meant spokespeople claiming to be Tiwi elders or traditional owners were not entitled to speak in those roles.

During a panel discussion also involving former Aboriginal Affairs minister Ken Wyatt and former Kimberley Land Council chief executive Wayne Bergmann, event moderator and Minerals Council NT chief executive Cathryn Tilmouth asked Ms Scrymgour whether “there is an unfair celebration by media of Aboriginal people who are anti-development compared to those that aren’t”.

Ms Scrymgour said she hoped the legal delays that dogged Santos’ bid to get the greenlight to run a pipeline 8km from the Tiwi Islands coast would be avoided in the future.

She took particular aim at University of Western Australia academic Mick O’Leary who was excoriated by federal court judge Natalie Charlesworth for fabricating a kangaroo dreaming story on the Tiwis to stop the Barossa project.

“To have a university external to the Northern Territory misleading and providing information about that has certainly hurt a lot of the Tiwi elders and my mob,” she said.

“It was with some crankiness that I was watching certain people being called Tiwi elders and Traditional Owners and they had very little connection to the Tiwi Islands.

NT Minerals Council chief executive Cathryn Tilmouth

“It also makes me cranky with the greens and others who get involved in this who for their own means will use Aboriginal people to be able to run a narrative that ... Aboriginal people don’t want development and that Aboriginal people are against all of this.”

In an earlier address, Ms Tilmouth, whose father Tracker was a leader in the Territory’s Land Rights movement, questioned whether environmental conservation protection was the only mechanism for preserving Aboriginal land and culture.

“In the Territory in particular, it is rare for an environmental cause that has gained the attention of the media to not include in their narrative the Aboriginal voices that are on ‘their side’ of the argument,” Ms Tilmouth said.

“Any Aboriginal voice that is pro development is to be ignored or portrayed in a less virtuous light.

“A flagship example of this quandary is the Federal Court finding in the Santos Barossa case that highlighted how activists misled traditional owners from the Tiwi Islands, distorting and

manipulating their instructions.

“That deceit was not only unethical but also damages the genuine concerns about preserving the cultural heritage of Aboriginal communities and casts doubt on the authenticity and

significance of their cultural stories and connections used in similar legal proceedings. Cultural stories and connections must be preserved and not weaponised.”

Originally published as Marion Scrymgour slams greens for using Aboriginal people