Native title groups hosting Australia’s iron ore industry are holding more than $1 billion of net assets in trusts, but after 32 years of the native title regime, there is little to show for the vast majority of Indigenous Australians.
Native title groups hosting Australia’s iron ore industry are holding more than $1 billion of net assets in trusts, but after 30 years of the native title regime, there is little to show for the vast majority of Indigenous Australians.finds 45 per cent of Australia’s landmass is now covered by a native title determination and the regime has generated billions of dollars of income for a few groups, particularly those in the nation’s north-west.
The big six collectively had $820.5 million of net assets in charitable trusts, which rose to $995.3 million of net assets once the General Gumala Foundation Trust – an entity that stores additional funds for the Banjima, Yinhawangka and Nyiyaparli – was included.More than $1.07 billion of net assets was held in trusts linked to 13 native title groups in the Pilbara, and those groups have additional funds stored in less transparent discretionary trusts.
The accumulation strategies are designed to achieve an asset pool of a sustainable size that can eventually replace incomes from mining. ”The flow of funds into Aboriginal hands out of those trusts is so small that there is no opportunity to invest, whether it be local projects on country, or broader investments across Australia and the globe that significant investors might want to invest in.
A spokesman for the PKKP – whose assets held in charitable trust have more than doubled since 2017 – says the organisation is trying to balance immediate needs such as housing with the desire to create an “intergenerational legacy”. In 2001, the Eastern Guruma people decided to funnel royalties earned from Rio Tinto into a charitable trust that has recently hoarded a large proportion of income generated. Net assets in the trust rose from $7 million to $137.3 million between 2013 and 2023.
He says the direct benefits trust did not accumulate funds, and 100 per cent of money paid into the trust each year was distributed to members. Distributions to members from the direct benefits trust in 2022-23 totalled $5.2 million. Indigenous people in West Pilbara local government areas like Ashburton Shire, Karratha Shire and Port Hedland Shire reported higher weekly median wages than the Australian average, and close to double the national average for Indigenous people.
Between 70 per cent and 88 per cent of Indigenous people in the Pilbara live in rental accommodation; well above the national average of 30.6 per cent.The trend for Indigenous groups to hoard the majority of their income in trusts rather than swiftly distribute it into their communities looks set to continue, based on moves by the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation to set up a new charitable trust in February.
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