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Skids 
Quitting drinking will be one of the best choices you make in your life.
Joined: 11 Sep 2007
Location: Joined 3/6/02 . Member #175
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| Post subject: Mining royalties paid to Indigenous Australians (not!) |  |
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I recently travelled to a remote aboriginal community in central WA to quote on the installation of some reticulation for a vegetable patch.
About 50 people live there, the school is excellently set up. A lot of the housing is in need of repair and the maintenance of the infrastructure leaves a bit to be desired.
On the journey there with the Aboriginal community co-ordinator, a discussion about the locals royalty fund set up came up.
I was surprised to find out that the fund (around $15 million) was controlled by a white fella who lives hundreds of kilometres away in Geraldton. Now, this bloke gets 10% of the funds in commission  . He has complete control of the money to do with as he pleases. He therefore invests the money, making the fund, and his commission increase.
Meanwhile he pays the mob, who's money it actually is, a quarterly 'allowance'.
I also found out that he charges $50 per phone call received from anyone inquiring about their payments.
Some money was recently released to build 20 new houses in town. When they're completed, the people who move in will be charged rent by this bloke.... paying rent for something they actually own 
I asked a few questions about who oversees the funds and found out it's basically nobody... these royalty funds, and there's hundreds, if not thousands of them.... are controlled by..... well, we don't really know.
How can so much money sit idle while people live in sub standard conditions? I'm baffled 
| Quote: | Who should control the financial resources generated from mineral resource extraction on Aboriginal land? Who is benefiting from the status quo? How can Aboriginal people wrest control of the ABA from the Commonwealth to ensure that it works in their best interests and according to their priorities?
If complete Aboriginal control of the key financial institution of land rights was accepted unanimously as a desirable objective in 1984, why is this not the case in 2016, 40 years after the passage of ALRA? |
https://newmatilda.com/2016/05/05/the-half-billion-dollar-black-slush-fund-controlled-by-nigel-scullion/
| Quote: | The Groote Eylandt Aboriginal Trust is registered under Northern Territory legislation designed for sporting clubs, despite being worth several tens of millions of dollars.
Accounting firms Deloitte and KPMG and corporate law firm Minter Ellison face civil action, brought by GEAT’s new managers, over alleged failure to detect evidence that GEAT’s money was being wasted on cars, boats and trips to the casino over a three-year period. Former GEAT public officer Rosalie Lalara, the only person criminally charged in relation to the scandal, recently pleaded guilty to misappropriating about $500,000.
The Australian revealed last week that three Groote Eylandt Aboriginal corporations, including GEBIE, had allegedly misspent hundreds of thousands of dollars as regulators sought to clean up the GEAT scandal.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion said Groote had “zero” to show for the revenue mining generated. “White people stealing money from Aboriginal organisations is high on my agenda,” he said. “They seem to know they can take advantage.”
An ALC representative confirmed the documents were authentic, but declined to comment. |
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous/millions-in-mining-royalties-fail-to-deliver-basics-to-groote-aborigines/news-story/9bdfa79663fa2b7d7245329ad3a1077f
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Mugwump
Joined: 28 Jul 2007
Location: Between London and Melbourne
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Very interesting, Skids. I am astonished that these funds are not directly administered by government. Isn't that what the Aboriginal Affairs Department is actually for ?
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Two more flags before I die! |
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David 
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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On the face of it, it sounds like an extraordinarily questionable arrangement to say the least. I wonder how this originated and why more hasn't been made of it.
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All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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Skids
Quitting drinking will be one of the best choices you make in your life.
Joined: 11 Sep 2007
Location: Joined 3/6/02 . Member #175
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| David wrote: | | On the face of it, it sounds like an extraordinarily questionable arrangement to say the least. I wonder how this originated and why more hasn't been made of it. |
I'll definitely be asking more questions next week.
I too was amazed and asked who these trustees are accountable to. Nobody as far as he knew.
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Don't count the days, make the days count. |
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Tannin 
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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Sounds like a perfectly normal common or garden financial adviser to me. Sitting around doing nothing and taking a gigantic rake-off is what they do. (Ask anyone anywhere with some super or other investments.)
They are greedy scum for the most part, but not in the slightest racist. They couldn't give a rat's arse about the colour of your skin, they are only interested in the colour of your money.
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�Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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Mugwump
Joined: 28 Jul 2007
Location: Between London and Melbourne
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I had to smile at the quote from Scullion that "white people stealing money from Aboriginal Organisations is high on my agenda'. As opposed to black people stealing money from Aboriginal organizations, presumably...
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Two more flags before I die! |
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Skids
Quitting drinking will be one of the best choices you make in your life.
Joined: 11 Sep 2007
Location: Joined 3/6/02 . Member #175
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I'm not sure if I'm reading this correctly?
He's $1million up & no gaol term?
Ex-finance officer to compensate Murchison Regional Aboriginal Corporation
Abul Fazad Mohammed Abdus Shahid funnelled $1.37 million from Murchison Regional Aboriginal Corporation’s accounts into his own over 117 separate transactions between July 2011 and November 2014.
The Federal Court in Perth ordered Shahid on Friday to pay the corporation $207,956, a $100,000 penalty to the Commonwealth and legal costs, and he has been disqualified from managing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations for seven years
https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/ex-finance-officer-to-compensate-murchison-regional-aboriginal-corporation-ng-b88931745z
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Don't count the days, make the days count. |
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stui magpie 
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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Hang on a minute, does he have to give back the $1.37M as well?
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Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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luvdids 
Joined: 22 Mar 2008
Location: work
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Skids
Quitting drinking will be one of the best choices you make in your life.
Joined: 11 Sep 2007
Location: Joined 3/6/02 . Member #175
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Cheers 
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Don't count the days, make the days count. |
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