The Queensland MP Billy Gordon, in his first public political foray since being forced out of the governing Labor party, has called for a review of how a Swiss mining giant won backing for a bauxite mine against the wishes of Indigenous landowners.
Gordon has called on the Palaszczuk government to investigate whether the former Newman government had “not trampled on” the legal rights of the Wik and Wik Way people by favouring Glencore for the mine project.
The former Liberal National party government said Glencore was the “preferred proponent” last August, shortly before the Wik people signed a land use agreement for the proposed mine with a local company, Aurukun Bauxite Development (ABD).
In his first statement as an independent addressing matters outside his own political controversies, Gordon called on the state government to suspend the approval process for the mine while it examined what regard the Newman government gave to traditional landowners’ rights.
“I am very concerned that critical due process may not have been administered by the Newman government in its oversight of such a significant and symbolic project,” Gordon said.
Gordon has sought an “urgent briefing” from the state development minister, Anthony Lynham, about the actions of the former government and the former LNP minister Jeff Seeney, and “whether due process has occurred and that the legal rights of the Wik and Wik Way people have not been trampled upon”.
He called for an “independent review to examine the legal and administrative processes that have been undertaken by the Newman government to ensure that there is transparency, accountability, integrity and respect for Indigenous rights in the decision that has favoured Glencore and excluded the Wik and Wik Way people as registered land owners.”
Gordon said he met Wik and Wik Way representatives last Friday at state parliament. They had “travelled to the state capital to share their concerns and frustration over the previous Newman government’s actions and behaviour”.
Gordon said he “felt humbled in their presence given the very significant role that [they] played in critical native title considerations in our nation”.
In 1996 the Wik fought successfully in the high court to have native title rights recognised beside certain pastoral leases granted since the occupation of Australia by Britain in 1788.
Gordon quit the Labor party last month after the premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, threatened to have him expelled over his undisclosed criminal history and after she referred domestic violence allegations against him to police.
Gordon has rejected calls for him to quit parliament saying he had a legal right to withhold a criminal history that had been expunged and denying the allegations made against him.
