This Month
High Court rejects Crown immunity for sacred sites damage
The custodians of Kakadu National Park have won a test case in the High Court over a walking track at picturesque Gunlom Falls.
- Michael Pelly
- Opinion
- Indigenous justice
The great success story of Indigenous enterprise is missing
Indigenous businesses have proven robust and resilient against all the odds – that should be included in the Closing the Gap reports as well.
- Michelle Evans and Cain Polidano
April
Captain Cook’s first Australian souvenir returned to Indigenous owners
Cambridge University has surrendered a set of spears taken the momentous day when Sydney’s Indigenous people first set eyes on their eventual colonisers.
- Hans van Leeuwen
Truth-telling risks inflaming community conflict: report
Amid heightened scrutiny on community cohesion, a new report says 60 per cent of Indigenous Australians have major concerns about a Makaratta process.
- Tom McIlroy
March
Rio Tinto’s ERA takes on traditional owners in Kakadu stoush
ERA has formally applied to extend a mining lease in the Kakadu region only one day after it was slammed by traditional owners.
- Anthony Macdonald
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Rio Tinto’s reputation clean-up faces a $1b uranium test
The miner did well out of uranium in Kakadu for years – now it is paying for it. The prospect of writing a cheque to fund rehabilitation is raising questions.
- Anthony Macdonald
Albanese pledges $4b for Indigenous housing
Anthony Albanese and Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney will visit the NT on Tuesday to announce a major package for remote homes.
- Tom McIlroy
AFL inclusion boss says Paul Keating was wrong on the Voice
Eight years into her role, and still recovering from the amputation of her lower right leg last year, Tanya Hosch keeps pushing on in a job where there is no finish line.
- Simon Evans
February
How a tiny NT school became an exemplar for Indigenous education
The town of Gunyangara, 11 hours east of Darwin, decided to take education into its own hands. The results have been stunning.
- Julie Hare
Federal Labor leaves Indigenous treaties to the states
The government will pursue the creation of a Makaratta commission for Indigenous truth-telling, but won’t negotiate a national treaty agreement.
- Updated
- Tom McIlroy
Indigenous jobs reboot to replace Abbott-era program
Federal Labor will tear up the national Indigenous employment program, with new rules expected to create 3000 jobs over three years.
- Tom McIlroy
Half of all kids attend school regularly. Parents are to blame
Lax school attendance is “a national issue” that should be taken with greater seriousness by families, the head of an independent education evidence body warns.
- Julie Hare
‘Bureaucratic gobbledegook’ holding up Closing the Gap
Indigenous policy researcher Michael Dillon says state and federal governments are flooding their Closing the Gap reports with a ‘grab bag’ of information.
- Gus McCubbing
Lowitja O’Donoghue, ‘the greatest Aboriginal leader’
Indigenous trailblazer Lowitja O’Donoghue is being celebrated as a giant of modern Australia after her death at the weekend.
- Michael Pelly
Aboriginal rights trailblazer Lowitja O’Donoghue dies
Aboriginal rights trailblazer Lowitja O’Donoghue, who played a pivotal role in native title laws and was the first Aboriginal person to address the UN, has died.
- Updated
- Steven Deare
Santos sets up $110m ‘Aboriginal future fund’ for Barossa gas
The move comes days after the deadline for any appeal to January’s Federal Court ruling rejecting a challenge by Tiwi Islanders to the Barossa pipeline.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
January
Battling Santos, a university scientist lied to Tiwi Islanders
Climate geoscientist Michael O’Leary wanted to help Indigenous Australians stop a gas pipeline. A judge found he and other outside experts went too far.
- Aaron Patrick
- Opinion
- Energy transition
Tiwi travesty underscores the need for better offshore regulation
There should be an investigation of the EDO to underline that vexatious claims cannot be the way to halt gas projects.
- Samantha McCulloch
- Updated
- Gas
‘Made up’: Judge slams green activists in Santos gas case
Federal Court says “cultural mapping” evidence presented by Environmental Defenders Office is “so lacking in integrity that no weight can be placed” on it.
- Hannah Wootton and Ben Potter
December 2023
Big miner lauds WA reforms after premier cooks greenies
WA Premier Roger Cook has doubled down on comments that well-resourced environmental groups were working to split up Indigenous landowners.
- Tom Rabe
