Gnaala Karla Booja CEO Bruce Jorgensen expresses frustration over lack of government consultation guidance

The head of one of the South West’s leading Aboriginal corporations has expressed his frustration at the lack of guidance from State and Federal governments about what companies proposing big projects should do to engage with traditional owners. Gnaala Karla Booja chief executive Bruce Jorgensen also called for more innovation in the way First Nations engagement is conducted as part of a panel at the Innovative Industries of the Future conference on Tuesday. He was joined by First Nations Clean Energy Network steering group member Kado Muir and Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA South West regional officer Jason Mennell. Mr Jorgensen said his office was a “continuous revolving door” of businesses coming through with renewable energy proposals, and proponents telling him they wanted to engage with First Nations people. He said “where the challenge lies” was the Federal and State governments telling the proponents to engage with First Nations people on country, but not providing a framework for how to do so. “We welcome that (engagement) — the problem is that no one is telling anyone what that engagement is supposed to look like,” Mr Jorgensen said. “There’s no quantity, there’s no qualification of that engagement and what the outcome should or shouldn’t be.” He also raised issues with what he described as “political correctness” whereby people were too scared to talk about their ideas out of concern of upsetting the group, and proponents who hoped to get away with “bare minimum” engagement. “(There’s been) over 200 years of dispossession of Noongar people on this country who have missed out of the West Australian powerhouse that is mining and resource discovery through that disposition, so it’s really important that as we go forward into these innovative industries that we find innovative ways to engage and to get a fantastic outcome for people on our country,” Mr Jorgensen said. Mr Muir backed those calls and said the proponents behind projects needed to do more to engage First Nations people during the clean energy transition. “A traditional approach to land is one where you do a heritage survey, environmental survey and a reconciliation action plan,” he said. “Now that’s not good enough in this day and age. What you need to be looking at is how do you get participation in the ownership of a project.” The First Nations Clean Energy Project is working to get more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander involvement in renewable energy generation, with Mr Muir saying the big question for major projects was where traditional owners fitted in terms of participation. “Are you there as a rent taker, or a contributor or producer?” he said. “My answer is you can’t have this project without the land, so that’s the biggest equity contribution that we are making?”