Australia’s resources and energy companies should rethink their approach to Indigenous agreement-making, with an Indigenous affairs expert warning against treating agreements with Traditional Owners as acts of corporate generosity.
Corporate Affairs Australia director Sharon Reynolds said companies needed to recognise the pre-existing rights and interests of Traditional Owners when negotiating access to land.
“One assumption companies need to challenge is that Indigenous agreement-making is an act of benevolence or another form of social investment,” Ms Reynolds said.
She said agreements also needed to address the impacts of development, including compensation where native title and cultural heritage rights and interests were affected.
“That distinction matters. It changes the conversation from what a company is willing to give to what the parties need to agree is fair,” she said.
While employment, procurement and community investment could deliver valuable benefits, Ms Reynolds said these initiatives should not obscure the underlying rights and interests being addressed.
She said land access was not necessarily becoming more difficult, but there was greater recognition of Traditional Owners’ rights, cultural heritage and the need for meaningful participation in decisions affecting Country.
“For companies that have not historically engaged deeply with these issues, that can feel more complex or daunting,” she said.
However, Ms Reynolds said the extent of development across the resources and energy sectors demonstrated that agreement-making remained achievable.
She said companies needed to engage early, respect Traditional Owners’ decision-making processes and be prepared to respond to what they heard.
“Engagement becomes much harder once the project is already designed, and the expectation is that Traditional Owners will simply accommodate it,” she said.
Ms Reynolds said meaningful engagement needed to influence decisions about project locations, design and development timelines.
In some circumstances, this could require companies to redesign projects or leave culturally significant places undisturbed.
However, reaching an agreement was only one measure of success.
Ms Reynolds said a significant challenge was the gap between the resources invested in negotiating agreements and those allocated to implementing them.
“The greatest disconnect is often between the effort invested in negotiating an agreement and the effort invested in implementing it,” she said.
Ms Reynolds said Traditional Owners judged companies by their decisions, conduct and whether they followed through on commitments, rather than simply what was promised in an agreement.
She said successful agreements required clear responsibilities, appropriate resourcing and mechanisms to resolve disagreements, with commitments continuing to be honoured despite changes in leadership or commercial circumstances.
Companies should also work with Traditional Owners to measure success beyond agreements signed and approvals secured, including whether cultural values were protected, communities had meaningful influence over decisions and benefits were contributing to their aspirations.
“A company should not be the sole judge of whether a relationship is successful,” Ms Reynolds said.
Corporate Affairs Australia founder and director Simon Corrigan said corporate affairs needed a greater role in resources and energy project development.
Mr Corrigan said companies had traditionally focused on technical and engineering challenges. However, social licence, community impacts, government expectations, and relationships with Traditional Owners are increasingly make-or-break factors in project development.
He said this was one reason for establishing the inaugural Resources & Energy Corporate Affairs Summit (RECA26), which would provide a forum specifically for the sector professionals responsible for these disciplines.
Ms Reynolds and Mr Corrigan will both appear at the Summit, being held at the Ritz-Carlton Perth on November 18 and 19.
The two-day program will cover government policy, industry reputation, media relations, social licence, Indigenous engagement and community partnerships, alongside practical sessions on government relations, communications and social performance.
Ms Reynolds will participate in a Day 2 panel examining land access, heritage and agreement-making.
For more information or to buy a ticket, visit www.recasummit.com.
