Tiwi Islanders initially raised no objection to tapping the Barossa gasfield or the pipeline linking it to Darwin. Then the green lawyers rolled in with their academics-for-hire, persuaded a hanful of locals to rewrite their creation myths and stopped the project in its tracks. As the Federal Court has found, that campaign was a gigantic and cynical fraud
A pervasive romanticism about Aboriginal culture is now widespread and underwrites an acceptance, even a belief, by many in the broader community of the sacredness of all aspects of what is presented as‘traditional’ Aboriginal culture and, specifically, of ‘sacred sites’. What isn't sacred apparently, is the notion that legal claims and filings have some basis in fact
The legal obstacles and costly delays inflicted on the Barossa gasfield highlights yet again the exploitation of purported Aboriginal culture by activists in this instance supported by taxpayer dollars to advance anti-development agendas. It is a ploy as simple as it is brazen: tap an Aborigine to serve as plaintiff, assert sacred sites are threatened and then, regardless of expert or community views, count on a sympathetic court to order a halt