SOCIAL COMPACT

HEADS OF AGREEMENT
Between North Queensland Land Council
Native Title Representative Body Aboriginal Corporation
and Signatory Unions

PRESS RELEASE
Attention: Workplace, Indigenous Affairs and Business reporters
Cairns, Townsville and Mackay media outlets

6 October 2010

Sharing the benefits of economic development

1. Four mining and transport unions to sign
inaugural Queensland Compact with an ATSI land council
2. No more corporate lip-service
to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights

Four Queensland mining and transport unions will this Friday (8 October) sign an historic agreement with
the North Queensland Land Council (NQLC), which will see unions work more closely with Land Council
representatives during project and wage negotiations involving developments on Aboriginal land.

The Social Compact, between the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), Electrical Trades Union (ETU), Australian
Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), CFMEU-Mining and Energy and the NQLC, is the first of its type in
Queensland. It is likely that other Queensland unions will join this and future Compacts.

It will apply across all industries, but will have most impact in Queensland’s $50 billion mining and minerals
processing industries, as well as tourism, forestry and fishing. The Queensland Compact is based on
agreements signed at the project level by Western Australia unions and the Kimberley Land Council and
extends the concept to a more permanent, broader formal relationship.

It is expected this Compact will provide a template for similar agreements across Queensland and the rest of
Australia. Once extended across Australia such Compacts will have their most immediate impact in Australia’s
$180 billion mining industry, as well as various tourism, fishing and forestry locations.
 Compact signing details
Date: Friday, 8 October 2010
Time: 12.30pm

Venue
Mooroobool Youth Centre
156 Irene St Cairns

Attendees
North Queensland Land Council – full board
Ian Bray, MUA assistant national secretary
Peter Simpson, ETU Qld & NT secretary
Jim Valery, CFMEU-Mining and Energy Qld secretary
Andrew Dettmer, AMWU Qld and NT secretary
Kimberley Land Council representatives

Maritime Union of Australia assistant national secretary, Ian Bray, said it is time to stop paying lip-service to the rights of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as we plan the nation’s economic development.

“It has become increasingly obvious to ATSI and union leaders that many companies, including those that have enjoyed
the benefits of Australia’s rich natural resources and assets, have done very little to genuinely advance the rights of and
opportunities for the traditional owners of many of those resources and assets.

“Through this Compact the signatory unions have decided to do something about that and will join with the North
Queensland Land Council, whenever development projects or employment and training agreements are being negotiated,
to ensure the traditional owners get a fairer share of the benefits of any development that goes ahead or is underway.

“We have already been doing many of the things listed in the Compact on an informal basis, but it is time to make the
arrangement more formal and give it more teeth. For 150 years unions have been the main agents for spreading the
benefits of economic development across the community. Through Compacts such as this we hope to do a better job of
spreading those benefits across ATSI communities and closing the gap on Indigenous disadvantage,” Mr Bray said.

ETU secretary, Peter Simpson, said many mining and minerals processing companies have done a poor job, despite plenty
of nice words, of providing meaningful and skilled employment for ATSI people.

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“Through this Compact we will be working to get more ATSI people into apprenticeships and trades and put
a stop to the corporate practice of using ATSI people in unskilled roles as a means of meeting employment
requirements on traditional lands,” Mr Simpson said.

NQLC chair, Terry O’Shane, said the Compact will usher in a new era of partnerships between Aborigines and
unions.

“All the parties here have worked in accord with one another to give meaning to the COAG’s principles
on Closing the Gap. It means employment and training will be taken out of the compensation regime of
Indigenous Land Use Agreements and similar negotiations and will be treated as a right.

“Employment and training is a very important component in addressing the social and economic circumstance
of our people, but we are past the days where trading of our Native Title rights and interests will include these
fundamentals.

“We are now in partnership with unions in pursuit of social justice and this is just the first step,” Mr O’Shane
said.

Media inquiries: Terry O’Shane (NQLC) on 0417 764 992

Ian Bray (MUA) on 0403 325 376
Peter Simpson (ETU) on 0419 721 041
Jim Valery (CFMEU-Mining & Energy) on 0427 415 708
Andrew Dettmer (AMWU) on 0419 899 345
or Christine Howes (media liaison for NQLC) on 0419 656 277
or John Moran (media liaison for the unions) on 0410 603 278

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