In this podcast Michelle and politics + society editor Amanda Dunn discuss the WA government scrapping a controversial law, the government's policy on Palestine, and the fallout from the Lehrmann case inquiry.
WA Premier Roger Cook has apologised to the state for getting the rollout “wrong”, while rejecting suggestions he was under pressure from the federal government to drop it to remove a referendum impediment
Should the capsule not be found immediately, we can’t just write it off as lost. A long term system of monitoring is needed to protect humans and the environment.
A miner silhouetted as he works in the Stan Terg mine in northern Kosovo.
Armend Nimani/AFP via Getty Images
Our prospects of a better, fairer future are inextricably linked with the minerals and metals beneath our feet. Is it time to make peace with the industry that extracts them?
The A Way Forward report addresses the issues of cultural heritage protection in Australia after Rio Tinto destroyed Juukan Gorge. However, achieving change will be far from straightforward.
Local communities near lithium deposits shouldn’t become zones of sacrifice, shouldering the socio-environmental costs of supporting a renewable energy transition.
For Indigenous people, Country is more than a landscape. But climate change, and the natural disasters it produces, present a clear and present threat to Country, culture and heritage.
A child plays in a street in the port village of Paquitequete near Pemba, northern Mozambique. The region suffered decades of neglect, and major gas projects have failed to deliver local benefits.
Photo by Alfredo Zuniga/AFP via Getty Images
Sam Jones, United Nations University and Finn Tarp, University of Copenhagen
The development strategy based on foreign investment in natural resources projects has not delivered economic growth or security. What’s needed is an inclusive vision based on local realities.
The destruction of one ancient rock shelter is devastating. But there’s a greater loss to cultural heritage that is occurring from the ‘cumulative impacts’ of mining operations in WA.
The Juukan Gorge site following its destruction by Rio Tinto in May 2020.
PKKP Aboriginal Corporation
For far too long, mining companies have let their social and cultural heritage commitments slide. The inquiry report should be a wake-up call for the industry.
Participants in the Wintawari Guruma Rock Art Research Project record rock art near Tom Price in the Pilbara region.
Jo McDonald, CRAR+M Database, Photo reproduced with permission WGAC
There are many questions about the inquiry into the destruction of an Aboriginal heritage site, including how it will be conducted, what will be publicly disclosed and who will be protected.
Juukan Gorge photographed May 15.
Puutu Kunti Kurrama And Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation
It’s a devastating loss, but the destruction of a culturally significant Aboriginal site is not an isolated incident. Rio Tinto was acting within the law.