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Friends, a moment of relief. Together we pushed back on [Attorney General] George Brandis’s ill-conceived ‘Adani amendments’, and encouraged the Labor Opposition to hold a line on decency. More than 6,000 supporters contacted [Labor leader] Bill Shorten’s office  over the last two weeks in response to Labor’s apparent capitulation to pressure from the mining lobby and native title bureaucrats. It was an overwhelming and positive demonstration of concern and integrity by Wangan & Jagalingou supporters, and a demand to do what’s right.

And at the end of two weeks of sittings in which the Senate was expected to carry Brandis’ amendments, the government failed to pass its bill.

We have fought hard against this change to the native title law. We lobbied in Canberra, ran media, prepared legal analysis, made detailed submissions and appeared before the Senate inquiry. We met the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

And with you, [the supporters] we mobilised to demonstrate just how much people in this country care about Aboriginal rights and the protection of our lands and waters. And how much they don’t want Adani’s horrid mine proposal. 

This is a major setback for Adani, the Queensland government, and their backers in the mining lobby, who thought the amendments would help them circumvent the legal challenge we have mounted to their sham land use deal.

The Adani Board is apparently set to make a decision within the next two weeks on whether to push on with the mine project. But it still faces our court actions.

Right now, their purported ‘Indigenous land use agreement’ is worthless.

It is clear this controversial bill does not sit well with many Labor and crossbench Members of Parliament - and the incompetent rush with which Attorney General Brandis went about it added insult to injury.

While we welcome Labor's resistance on some elements of the bill, which has prevented its passage through the Senate, it doesn't diminish their unacceptable support for the key measures.

And Labor are still ready to back dangerous native title changes. If the changes they do support are passed in the next sitting of parliament, it will strip away protections and hand mining companies like Adani the means to divide and conquer us and traditional owners around the country.

We must continue to fight against the winding back and removal of our rights. 

The parliament must go back to the drawing board on Native Title reform and deliver a just outcome that protects the integrity of our decision-making and our right to self-determination.

Please follow up with Bill Shorten, Mark Dreyfus and Pat Dodson to encourage them to turn their resistance into a positive new move for native title reform and land justice. And Cc us, of course, so we can share your concerns with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Send your messages to -

Bill.Shorten.MP@aph.gov.au

Mark.Dreyfus.MP@aph.gov.au

senator.dodson@aph.gov.au

And Cc us at -

UN-SR-IP-via@wanganjagalingou.com.au

The government, Adani and the mining lobby are overconfident in their power to subordinate the rights of Indigenous peoples. What they don’t understand is how resolved we are, and how much support in the community we have, to defend our rights.

Now that the [one seat majority] Turnbull government’s divisive Native Title amendment bill is languishing in the Senate, we will redouble our efforts. We should not have our rights violated by a land use deal that we do not agree to, which would open the way to the mass destruction of our country. 

We will fight this bill and the Adani mine. Our fight is far from over.

Thank you for your phenomenal support,

Adrian Burragubba & Murrawah Johnson

for the Wangan & Jagalingou Traditional Owners Council

P.S. As always, our need for funds to sustain our effort is ongoing. Please donate when you can to assist with our long struggle. And also, visit our web site for detailed information and share our Facebook page so others can learn about our campaign.

Previous coverage

“9,000+ anti-Adani campaigners to occupy work sites, chain themselves to machinery and clog phone lines”  -  Australia’s biggest green alliance formed to fight Adani's Reef-killing coal mine  -  Adani hopes to start mining in Queensland in August, state Premier confident  -  "Miners and other rich developers will have even better tools to divide and conquer us"   -  Last chance to stand up for indigenous land rights!  -  Australian banks under mounting pressure to shun coal  -  First Nations form green energy alliance to beat govt. electricity corruption  -  Australian Conservation Foundation vs Adani 1  -  Australian Conservation Foundation vs Adani – in court today  -  "One of the vilest racist acts we've seen"  -  Rallies outside Westpac branches to protest against funding Adani  -  1,000 Australians tell Westpac bank to stop funding Adani  -  Land rights not mining rights  -  Adani's puppet Turnbull  -  Adani’s  bribery, vandalism, corruption, money laundering  -  Changing native title law to facilitate 200 km2 monster  -  The real showdown begins  -  ‘This will dwarf the Franklin blockade’