By Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook
Ever since Rio Tinto (legally) blew up 46,000-year-old sacred rock caves in Western Australia’s Juukan Gorge in 2020, the multinational mining company has been on a long campaign of image rehabilitation and woke-washing.
The scandal cost former chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques his job, led to now-repealed cultural heritage laws in WA and led to Rio spending millions supporting Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s failed Indigenous Voice to parliament.
Archaeological work at Juukan Gorge found evidence of continuous human occupation for more than 46,000 years.Credit: PKKP and PKKP Aboriginal Corporation
Now, Rio Tinto is set to contribute funding to the University of Melbourne’s forthcoming Eddie Mabo Centre, named after the pioneering land rights campaigner who was the plaintiff in the famous 1992 High Court case that brought an end to the doctrine of terra nullius and paved the way for native title.
The centre is billed as a “transformational joint initiative of the National Native Title Council and the University of Melbourne”. It will “support Traditional Owners in this transition and First Nations youth to become community leaders and drive economic change in their communities”.
The university already houses the Rio Tinto archives.
Co-chairs of the centre will be Professor Marcia Langton and Professor Paul Kofman, from the university, and Jamie Lowe, chief executive of the National Native Title Council.
Rio Tinto was kryptonite in the native title sector after the Juukan Gorge scandal, which devastated the traditional owners, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) Aboriginal Corporation and earned the company worldwide condemnation.
That feeling was shared by more than a few people at the Melbourne Uni.
“The responsibility for this disaster rests squarely with the company,” wrote University of Melbourne legal academics Jeannie Paterson and Elise Bant. “And, far from revealing a series of unfortunate mistakes, Rio Tinto’s systems and processes suggest a very different corporate ‘state of mind’. Indeed, from this perspective, Rio Tinto’s conscience looks black indeed.”
Rio Tinto declined to comment on how much it was donating to the university. A university spokeswoman said: “University of Melbourne conversations with donors and recipients of philanthropic support are confidential.”
Quite the test for the brand new vice chancellor, Professor Emma Johnston, and chancellor Jane Hansen.
Get the dogs
Before Justin Hemmes’ long march south reached Melbourne, where he has grand plans to turn a CBD car park into an Ivy 2.0, the billionaire pub baron had already conquered the pint-sized South Coast hamlet of Narooma.
Hemmes’ Merivale empire owns four establishments in town, including Lynch’s pub, and fish and chip shop The Inlet, the acquisition of which ticked off a few locals unhappy at being priced out of an old favourite.
Hemmes also owns a sprawling estate at idyllic Glasshouse Rocks beach, bought for $7.5 million in 2017 before he’d kicked off his pub-buying spree.
Merivale chief executive Justin Hemmes.Credit: Steven Siewert
It’s almost like Hemmes owns the place. And indeed, his dogs certainly seem to think so.
Posts about a pair of white Maremma sheepdogs seen wandering around town are now a regular occurrence on Narooma Facebook groups.
Said posts are typically followed by numerous comments identifying the dogs as belonging to Hemmes. By now, the pair of pooches has acquired a degree of infamy around town, owing to their free-range lifestyle. They live on the Glasshouse Rocks estate but are regularly spotted out on the streets.
Far from his South Coast idyll and his long-awaited assault on Melbourne’s nightlife, Hemmes has faced a difficult few months after an investigation by this masthead revealed numerous allegations of exploitation of female staff at Merivale’s Ivy penthouse.
Bench buddies
What do you do after winning the “the defamation trial of the century”?
In the case of Nick Owens, the ex-silk who fronted this masthead’s successful defence of a defamation claim by former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith, it was off to the Federal Court, where he was appointed to the bench last December.
Owens had his official welcome in Sydney last Friday, attended by several past and present High Court judges including Chief Justice Stephen Gageler and top jurists from various jurisdiction, several leading silks, solicitors and others from the legal profession.
The BRS case, which culminated in Federal Court judge Anthony Besanko finding that the Victoria Cross recipient had committed war crimes in Afghanistan, was top of mind during Owens’ welcome. All speakers, including Chief Justice Debra Mortimer, Australian government solicitor Matthew Blunn, NSW Bar Association president Ruth Higgins SC and Law Society of NSW president Jennifer Ball all paid lip service to the trial of the century.
Once formalities wound up, Nine’s BRS legal team of Owens, barristers Lyndelle Barnett and Chris Mitchell, and MinterEllison’s Peter Bartlett, Dean Levitan and Tess McGuire caught up for a quick reunion.
Roberts-Smith’s appeal was heard for 10 days by three Federal Court judges last February. More than a year on, all parties are still anxiously awaiting a decision.
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