Rio has no real links with the Pilbara: Ben Wyatt

The cull of senior Rio Tinto executives over the Juukan Gorge caves does nothing to address the key problem of a London-based company board with no connection.

‘Executives come and go … but it is really at the board level there needs to be an understanding of the area in which they operate’: West Australian Treasurer Ben Wyatt. Picture: AAP

The cull of senior Rio Tinto executives over the destruction of the ancient Juukan Gorge caves does nothing to address the key problem of a London-based company board with no connection to the remote Pilbara communities where the miner makes most of its billions, says Western Australia’s Indigenous Affairs Minister and Treasurer Ben Wyatt.

Mr Wyatt defended on Friday the right of mining companies and traditional owners to make deals. But he wants to see Aboriginal faces on the boards of global miners including Rio Tinto, once recognised as the leader in partnerships with Aboriginal people.

He said the iron ore miner had somehow lost its links to the Pilbara­, which left it exposed in the caves crisis. Rio Tinto was essentiall­y a Pilbara company because­ 75 per cent of the $30bn it made last year came from its Pilbara operations, yet no one on the company board was from there or had meaningful ties there.

“Executives come and go … but it is really at the board level there needs to be an understanding of the area in which they operate. Rio Tinto doesn‘t have that at the moment,” Mr Wyatt said.

Rio Tinto blasted the Juukan caves in May for $135m worth of iron ore. This was part of a 2013 deal with traditional owners, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people. Both parties knew the caves held significant artefacts and, by agreement, hundreds were retrieved. The items of importance removed and stored proved human activity dating back 46,000 years and included a belt made from human hair.

PKKP people and their representatives expressed concern over the caves’ planned destruction several times and tried to halt the blasts in an 11th-hour phone call to the office of federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley.

Chief executive officer of Rio Tinto Ltd Jean-Sebastien Jacques. Picture: Bloomberg

On Tuesday, some PKKP people met Rio Tinto chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques in Perth. Mr Jacques is one of three senior executives who have resigned in the fallout of the caves’ destruct­ion. “We will continue to work with Rio Tinto in the aftermath of the Juukan Gorge disaster,” the PKKP said in an emailed comment to newsrooms on Friday.

“We cannot and will not allow this type of devastation to occur ever again.”

Prominent Indigenous acad­emic Marcia Langton, who has conducted extensive research in the Pilbara, including into land-use agreements between miners and Indigenous people, said Rio Tinto set high standards for other miners in its unprecedented agreements with Indigenous people in the 2000s.

But Professor Langton said she detected more than a decade ago that some senior people inside the company failed to understand the critical importance of cultural heritage to Aboriginal people.

The result was disastrous, she said. There was now “a mess of thousands of items, materials, rock art and other important objects stored in shipping containers on Rio Tinto sites across the Pilbara­,­ and that has to change”.

“The apology from Rio Tinto that is advertised on the internet for destroying the caves is not adequate­. I want a genuine apology as an Australian citizen.

“Then there must be reparations to the PKKP involving compensation and a commitment to never do it again.”

The National Native Title Council chief executive Jamie Lowe. Source: Twitter

The National Native Title Council described the resignations of the executives announced on Friday as a sign that Rio was prepared to take the crucial first step towards accountability.

“I think we are all in agreeance that the initial measures doled out by the Rio board in cutting executive bonuses did not go far enough,” said the council’s chief executive Jamie Lowe. “Tradit­ional owners are not anti-econo­mic development. They just want to be able to protect their most significant cultural heritage sites.”

Draft WA Aboriginal heritage laws will require companies such as Rio Tinto to consult traditional owners early over a proposal to alter or ­destroy an important site.