Voice referendum: Andrew Forrest slams do-gooder companies on Aboriginal issues, as he says he voted Yes

Billionaire businessman Andrew Forrest has slammed ‘do-gooder’ and ‘opportunistic’ companies trading off the disparity of Aboriginal standards of living.

Fortescue chairman Andrew Forrest at the opening of the Fortescue WAE manufacturing plant at Kidlington in the United Kingdom. Picture: Jacquelin Magnay

Billionaire Andrew Forrest has slammed “do-gooder” and ­“opportunistic” companies trading off the plight of Aboriginal communities, and has called for Indigenous leaders to have power, but to be made responsible for it, regardless of the outcome of the voice referendum.

In an exclusive interview with The Weekend Australian, Dr Forrest announced he has voted Yes for the Indigenous voice, but said he had remained silent until now because he didn’t want to influence other people.

“I haven’t tried to join any great Yes campaign or high-profile virtue signalling for funding,’’ said Dr Forrest, the executive chairman of the mining giant and green energy giant Fortescue. “I said I will only get involved politically where there is a national security issue or a proper threat to our standard of living. I didn’t see the referendum as that, but I do see it as quite a particular view why I voted yes.”

If the polls are correct and the result is No, Dr Forrest said the country should move ahead regardless “with the ideology” of the voice to give power, employment opportunities, education and training by Indigenous employees, “and not some training agency which charges the government for teaching underwater origami’’.

The 61-year-old added: “The whole dereliction of duty of multiple governments over decades, they have given opportunity (to Indigenous people) and they are too freaking lazy or haven’t thought through or are too electorally scared to give them responsibility.

“Such as handing out welfare without any guidance, such as incentivising people who have children to send their kids to school, and when they don’t send their kids to school they still pay them the incentive.

“So why I voted Yes for the voice is because I want Indigenous people to be given not just the ­opportunity to end disparity but the responsibility to make the hard calls.

“White, well-meaning people have no idea … The past is very clear, we have made a complete mess of it.

“We have gone for electorally easy and business opportunistic plans: so many businesses feeds off disparity. Or just throwing money at the problem, and when you throw money there is a non-Indigenous company to catch it and run off with it and provide some kind service which hasn’t done anything.’’

Growing up in the Pilbara, and speaking the Yamaji language, Dr Forrest has long worked alongside community leaders to provide Indigenous employment opportunities at his mining companies.

Fortescue chairman Andrew Forrest at the opening of the Fortescue WAE manufacturing plant at Kidlington in the United Kingdom. Picture: Jacquelin Magnay

He was interviewed on Thursday after talking to some of the 300 staff of a research and development team at the new $26bn Fortescue WAE plant in Kidlington, England. The staff are working on batteries and zero-emission powertrains for a wide range of applications, including motorsports, mining trucks, and other off-road and automotive applications.

Dr Forrest believes he is ­slightly ahead of his own projections about green hydrogen possibilities, especially using smaller, longer life batteries with hydrogen. His teams have invented pollution-free engines for ships, trucks and trains, and are encouraging others to do the same for aircraft.

“I don’t see a barrier which we can’t pull down in the next few years,’’ he said. “To convert the world to a state where no one is having an excuse to go green – they still might because of lack of character – but the possibilities and the probabilities are there.’’

Dr Forrest is in the midst of a lecture circuit that has taken him from Exeter to Oxford and Cambridge, and this week across to Boston before speaking at various universities and businesses in North America, China and India. His pitch is how high humidity is super charging the world’s energy systems.

“This planet of ours is very vulnerable to rising levels of ­humidity,’’ he said. And as a final salvo after telling Rishi Sunak he has to lead and not follow – when the British Prime Minister had pushed out Britain’s net-zero plans – he had a blunt message for other world leaders. “I say this to every politician who says we can’t change: show some spine.’’