This Month
Big US companies are pulling back diversity policies
Facing a legal, social and political backlash, America’s diversity, equality and inclusion industry is starting to reassess and rebrand.
- Taylor Telford and Julian Mark
Stefanovic’s Indigenous teen clanger, brought to you by Sportsbet
The online bookmaking giant turned the 19-year-old into a walking sandwich board for the company, showing (once again) it just can’t help itself.
- Mark Di Stefano
- Opinion
- Indigenous justice
The great success story of Indigenous enterprise is missing
Indigenous businesses have proven robust and resilient against all the odds – that should be included in the Closing the Gap reports as well.
- Michelle Evans and Cain Polidano
April
Captain Cook’s first Australian souvenir returned to Indigenous owners
Cambridge University has surrendered a set of spears taken the momentous day when Sydney’s Indigenous people first set eyes on their eventual colonisers.
- Hans van Leeuwen
Truth-telling risks inflaming community conflict: report
Amid heightened scrutiny on community cohesion, a new report says 60 per cent of Indigenous Australians have major concerns about a Makaratta process.
- Tom McIlroy
Forrest met YAC leader in a park to conclude $1b dispute
Fortescue’s billionaire founder boss, Andrew Forrest, met Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation leader Michael Woodley in a Perth park to resolve the legal dispute.
- Brad Thompson
Rio and BHP’s massive US copper mine faces religious freedom challenge
Resolution Copper would be the largest development of its kind. Native American groups opposed to it have found new financiers for legal action against it.
- Peter Ker
March
Rinehart boss blasts Labor’s ‘nature-positive’ agenda
Gina Rinehart’s business empire has hit out over what it argues are flawed plans to rewrite national environmental laws.
- Brad Thompson
PwC seeks buyers for prized Indigenous consultancy
The embattled firm wants bidders for PwC’s Indigenous Consultancy, a key provider in government procurement.
- Mark Di Stefano
From a Darwin backroom to centre stage in Melbourne
Northern Territory’s Anglican Diocese could be $120,000 richer when it sells a painting given to it almost 30 years ago by artist Ginger Riley Munduwalawala.
- Elizabeth Fortescue
February
Lowitja O’Donoghue, ‘the greatest Aboriginal leader’
Indigenous trailblazer Lowitja O’Donoghue is being celebrated as a giant of modern Australia after her death at the weekend.
- Michael Pelly
Santos sets up $110m ‘Aboriginal future fund’ for Barossa gas
The move comes days after the deadline for any appeal to January’s Federal Court ruling rejecting a challenge by Tiwi Islanders to the Barossa pipeline.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
January
Woodside spent decades on Indigenous relations. Then a whale arrived
Aboriginal fables are being given the power by courts to disrupt nationally significant energy projects.
- Aaron Patrick
Victorian opposition backflips on treaty support
The proposed treaty would pave the way for legally enforced Aboriginal consultation on future Indigenous-related decisions.
- Melissa Meehan and Rachael Ward
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Green defenders overreach themselves in the Tiwi Islands
In a pushback against environmental lawfare, a Federal Court judge has seen through attempts by expert witnesses to manipulate spiritual beliefs and push their own agenda.
- Updated
- The AFR View
EDO lawyer slammed by judge in Santos case moves on
An Environmental Defenders Office solicitor found by a judge to have distorted the words of an Indigenous witness has left the organisation.
- Ben Potter and Aaron Patrick
‘Damage has been done’: Broader hit from Santos’ Barossa gas case
Santos has not changed the budget for its Barossa gas project, but some analysts expect the legal and regulatory delays could add $700 million to $800 million.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
- Updated
- Gas
‘Made up’: Judge slams green activists in Santos gas case
Federal Court says “cultural mapping” evidence presented by Environmental Defenders Office is “so lacking in integrity that no weight can be placed” on it.
- Hannah Wootton and Ben Potter
Merged Woodside and Santos LNG output could slide as projects stall
Approval delays would extend a dip in production and complicate due diligence on a mooted $80 billion deal that would create a global oil and gas giant.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
Investors ‘flying blind’ over climate lawsuit risks
Polluting companies could be liable for trillions in damages from climate cases, but investors and regulators are overlooking the risks, academics warn.
- Gus McCubbing