Juukan Gorge traditional owners blast Rio Tinto for executive shuffle
Rio Tinto’s attempts to mend its damaged relationship with traditional owners has suffered a major setback.
Rio Tinto’s attempts to mend its damaged relationship with traditional owners has suffered a major setback with chairman Simon Thompson accused of reneging on pledges made after Rio destroyed ancient heritage sites.
Rio’s decision to blast 46,000-year-old heritage sites at Juukan Gorge against the wishes of the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people, the site’s traditional owners, wrecked Rio’s international reputation and cost chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques and iron ore boss Chris Salisbury their jobs.
But despite recent progress towards mending the shattered relationship, last week’s leadership reshuffle at Rio has sparked fresh anger within the PKKP after acting iron ore boss Ivan Vella was moved to a new role in Canada running the mining giant’s aluminium assets, starting in March.
The PKKP says that breaches a personal commitment given by the Rio chairman that Mr Vella would lead the reconciliation.
A letter from acting PKKP Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Grant Wilson, seen by The Australian, says Mr Thompson made the commitment at a “highly emotional” November 24 meeting between the Rio and PKKP boards that laid the foundations for reconciliation work.
“The PKKP board relayed to the Rio Tinto board that one of the fundamental problems with establishing, nurturing, and maintaining relationships is that accountability and personnel within Rio Tinto seem to change frequently. This approach makes it difficult to build robust relationships that are fundamentally grounded in trust,” the letter says.
“In seeking this consistency, we explicitly requested your chairman, Simon Thompson, to clarify who in Rio Tinto would have responsibility for the repair of our relationship. Mr Thompson was unequivocal in his response; Ivan Vella was nominated as having full board imprimatur for repairing the relationship from a Rio Tinto perspective. This responsibility was to have lasted from that meeting through to the conclusion of the repair.”
Although Mr Vella was only acting as the head of iron ore, and had warned traditional owner groups his permanent appointment was not assured when a new Rio boss took control, the PKKP said leadership change within the iron division risked disrupting efforts to repair the relationship.
Despite the Rio chairman assuring the PKKP at a joint board meeting in November that the company was committed to consistency, stability and repair in its reconciliation efforts, the PKKP says it only found out about the leadership changes through the media, and Mr Thompson has still not made any formal contact to explain the changes and their impact on the reconciliation process, a week on from announcing Rio’s new leadership structure.
The PKKP says that while it accepts it does not decide who runs Rio’s business units, the Rio chairman gave a personal commitment to its board Mr Vella would remain responsible for the repair process until its conclusion, and the decision to “renege” on the promise calls into question other commitments made by Rio and risks shattering the fragile trust built up over the last five months.
Since taking up the role running Rio’s Pilbara iron ore behemoth five months ago, Mr Vella has played a key and personal role in rebuilding relationships with traditional owner groups including the PKKP, to the point the two groups released a joint statement in late December — a week after Jakob Stausholm was appointed as Rio’s new chief executive — hailing the progress that had been made.
It is understood Mr Vella made personal contact with PKKP leaders and elders in the wake of the announcement, to reassure them Rio’s commitment to repairing the relationship remained unchanged, and attended a meeting between Rio and traditional owner groups to discuss the matter on the day the leadership reshuffle was announced.
The PKKP letter accepts that traditional owners don’t determine Rio’s leadership team, or “how Rio Tinto runs its business”, and says it has no criticism of incoming iron ore boss Simon Trott. But it says the rapid abandonment of a personal commitment given by the Rio chairman suggests its relationship with traditional owners remains “an afterthought”.
“Rio Tinto has reneged on this agreement despite PKKP publicly stating that progress was being made. PKKP’s public support was only provided after deep internal debate and significant trust being placed in Rio Tinto’s new approach, and the relationship with Mr Vella. It now appears that this trust has been breached via unilateral and irreversible decisions within Rio Tinto,” Mr Wilson said.
“PKKP has shown nothing but good faith, making real and meaningful efforts to repair our relationship, while every action by Rio Tinto to date, including the latest announcement under your leadership, rings hollow. Many PKKP members and other stakeholders will perceive a continuation, under the new executive team, of Rio’s ‘business as usual’ that led to the Juukan Gorge tragedy — that Aboriginal stakeholders deserve no consideration or inclusion and should not get in the way of doing business.”
A spokesman for Rio said rebuilding its relationship with PKKP remained a priority for the company.
“We are encouraged by the progress on the planning for the remediation of the Juukan Gorge area but readily acknowledge we have a lot more work ahead of us,” he said.
“We value an honest and open dialogue with the PKKP as this is critical to all enduring relationships. Rightly, the relationship with all traditional owners in the Pilbara, including the PKKP, is led by the chief executive of the iron ore business. We are confident that ongoing engagement with the PKKP will help maintain the momentum built over recent months.”
More Coverage
