From Schwartz Media. I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven Am on a remote island in the Gulf of Carpentia. There are two towns. One is home to a thriving economy. It has a golf course, cinema and tennis courts. It's the richest postcode in the Northern Territory. Most of the people who live there are white. The other is home to the Aonaliuqua people, the traditional custodians. The locals lived just a few hundred meters from the world's largest manganese mine.
Here life outcomes are worse than anywhere in the country. This stark contrast raises questions about where the royalties of this mine are flowing and why the traditional owners are seeing so little of them return to their community. Now. The National Indigenous Australians Agency has referred the white chief executive of the Anenduiaqua Land Council to the National Anti Corruption Commission over his plan to take a personal time
ten percent steak in a proposed mining project. Today Gunner Kernae and Watchabalic writer Ben abbot Angelo on the plan and the man who stood in its way. It's Wednesday, July twenty fourth. So Ben this story it takes place on Grud Island, which is this beautiful remote island off the Northern Territory coast. Could you begin by telling me a bit about what life is like there.
Absolutely, I mean, the Grud Archipelago is located off the top of the Northern Territory. It consists of fourteen clan groups and they comprise roughly about fifteen hundred people. Now, Grud Island was set up by the Christian missionaries in the early nineteen hundreds and in the nineteen sixties they actually broke it an agreement with BHP to commence manganese mining. So what the region is I suppose most renowned for nowadays is the fact that it actually has the largest
open cut manganese mine of anywhere in the world. It's made a lot of people rich. It has spewed out
many billions of dollars in profits. Some of that money has gone to the anendel Jaqua people, and then lots of other royalties have flown to the Aboriginal Benefits account and the Commonwealth government matches that dollar for dollar, And what happens with the money in that account is that's then redistributed to the land Councils and prescribed body corporates to then invest in community initiatives, economic development, community development,
things that sustain local communities on the ground. What we've seen over the last couple of years, though, is those royalties flow to a very specific number of companies and entities directly linked to Mark Hewitt, who is the CEO of the Land Council.
Okay, So tell me a bit more about Mark Hewitt. What are the allegations against him?
Well, I think to understand Hewart's tenure, we've got to go back to twenty eleven when he was appointed. Now, one of the first things that Hewett was responsible for was actually rolling out a fifteen year strategic plan in twenty twelve, and the central vision of that plan was to establish a culturally rich, sustainable and low cost economy
not dependent upon mining royalty income. So it was a plan that was driven by community elders to, I suppose, reverse the decisions made over the last one hundred years and, as they say in the plan, to reassert control over Anindiliaqua destiny. What was known then was that the gem Co mine was going to close and the money that has flowed onto the community was going to seize, so it's been important for them to think in decades and start to reimagine what a future economy looks like that
can sustain the people. But in twenty sixteen, Hewitt began working towards another vision and that was essentially more mining.
Since then, what we've seen is the establishment of a corporation called winchell Sea Mine, which Hewitt has been appointed to as the co CEO, an intermediary between Winchelsea Mine and the annandil Yaqua Land Council called Grit Holding's Aboriginal Corporation which has also been appointed to as the executive officer, and we've seen tens of millions of dollars of royalty money flow from the Land Council to this mining venture.
Right, So, mark you it is both the co CEO of a company that wants to operate a mine as well as being CEO of the land council that would be allowing that mining to happen. So it seems like there's potential for conflicts d interest here.
There's a lot of conflicts of interest and what the ANAO audit report found a couple of years ago was that those conflicts of interests are endemic. So Hewitt has essentially established multiple corporations and been appointed to the executive of each of them. And what it's meant has been that a disproportionate amount of royalty money has directly flowed
to them. And when I say a disproportioned amount, not including the latest financial year, we're talking close to one hundred million dollars within a very short period of time. So whilst this money has been flowing towards establishing this other mind, what community members, former board members, former staff say is that other core programs and functions across the Groot Archipelago have been sacrificed. Now what do I mean by that. It means social housing for the most vulnerable
people in Australian society. Not going ahead. We're talking about a dialysis unit, which is what actually a large majority of traditional owners are dying from, be sacrificed. We're seeing, you know, really core investments be repurposed to also prop up the mine. So an example of that is a
car service yard. Now, it was agreed upon that they would create a car service center in the town of Anurugu, where all of the traditional owners live and the majority of the cars are well, as one source says that car yard has now been repurposed to actually service the mine. One other example is also a soup kitchen, So that was conceived in response to young people breaking into the tuch shops and the stores at night after what one
source says was due to hunger. Well, that soup kitchen is now the mess hall to serve the Winchell Sea mine. And then if we fast forward to twenty twenty three, not only has he been working towards establishing this mine and then underwrote it with Anendiyakua people's royalty money and being paid multiple salaries along the way. So we're talking about upwards of four hundred k year for the land council. We're talking about sharing within five hundred thousand dollars with
Winch you'll see mining directors annually. We're talking about benefits that has seen his daughter be put through boarding school to the tune of roughly forty five thousand dollars a year. We're talking about the employment of his partner as well, who has received multiple salaries from multiple corporations on the island. That's then culminated with HEWITTT then moving to secure a
ten percent equity ownership in winch'll Sea Mining. So if the Mind was to succeed, we're talking about an equity ownership state that would be worth tens of millions of dollars.
Wow. So a deal like this that would make Markwitt and his family extremely wealthy millionaires in fact at a minimum. And this is significant then, because I mean Mark Hewitt, he's not a private investor. He is the CEO of the land count, among other things, and his job in that role is to make sure that money goes to traditional owners and to the community. His role isn't to
try and make money for himself. So tell me a bit more about the case that he was making for that ten percent, about what he said about why he should have it.
So the move for that ten percent ownership in when You'll See occurred late last year, and in board papers that were leaked to us, it says that him and his partner were not only looking to have their contributions recognized but also rewarded, and that they were looking to not just continue to work and prop up the MIND in the years ahead, but also that they were seeking to accumulate tens of millions of dollars in profit over the years to come.
So will the deal go through? That's after the break Ben, we've been talking about the an Indoyaqua Land Council CEO Mark Hewitt, who tried to secure a ten percent share in a mind that he was spearheading a shareholding that would be worth many millions of dollars. So did he succeed? Did he get this ten percent share?
So Hewitt was moving really aggressively and quickly, according to board papers, you know, there was a meeting that was held in late September where he started to lay the groundwork and within a matter of days he'd wanted to have that arrangement locked, loaded and wrapped up. But the plan was thwarted when a young land council lawyer came
across the attempt. The young lawyer, from what we've seen through leaked papers, stood his ground and really attempted I supposed to ensure or that the Undulaqua people not only had time to consider what is a really significant proposal, but as importantly, you know, under their rights of free prior and informed consent, had independent legal advice that could
guide them. Now, before this lawyer had stepped in, Hewitt was using his own personal lawyers that was advising himself and his partner to also advise the Land Council board and also the other relevant power brokers on the island. So there was endemic conflict of interest there. Now, the second legal opinion delivered by Barrister Ron Levy basically confirmed the young lawyer's fears that this was a plan that shouldn't go ahead and thus it didn't.
Right, So that deal it didn't eventuate. But you kept looking into the inn Induyaqua Land Council's finances, So tell me what else you found.
Yeah, Well, we've seen, not including this last financial year, close to one hundred million dollars be directed towards corporations that are directly designed to prop up the Winchal Sea mining venture. We've seen funds from the federal government through the covid Era be directed to supporting the Winch'alsea mine. We've seen a forty one million dollar grant be given from the Sovereign Wealth Fund or that an Induyaqua Mining Trust, you know, to a corporation that is also working to
support the mine. And really critically on this one, that forty one million dollars is yet to be accounted for in other financial records and statements. So there's just a lot of question marks when we really go through those financial statements with a fine tooth comb.
And have you spoken to Mark Hewitt about any of this?
So we sent a whole range of questions to Mark Hewitt. He has decided not to respond to each of those, you know, really direct questions directly, but he has provided a pretty generic response in regards to you know, why this mine is going ahead and what it means for the Ananduliaqua community. So we're still very much open to mister Hewitt responding to those questions and yeah, putting his case forward.
Which he might do. But really, when you think about the way that money has been spent and about what's happened on grid Island, what does all of this mean for those who call it home for the Ininduyaqua people.
It's just really important to note that the Anindiyaqua people live in extreme circumstances and the vulnerability that we are talking about cannot be understated. You know, the overcrowding of housing is really significant. We've got people that are sleeping on the floor, We've got people that are sleeping on the tables. We've got people that are sleep you know, on the kitchen benches. We've got young people that aren't attending school as consistently or frequently as they should be.
We've got really low levels of literacy and numeracy. We've got young people dying, you know, just a mirate of really complex challenges, and with the mind closing at the turn of the decade, that means that every single dollar, every single cent needs to be going as far as it can. There is no room for waste. So to see the waste of money be directed to things that they're not seeing a direct net benefit from is really painful.
Ben, Thank you so much for your time today.
Thanks Ruby.
Also in the news today, Kamala Harris has made her first public appearance since President Joe Biden announced he would not be contesting the next presidential election and would instead be supporting her. In the first twenty four hours of Karmala Harris's campaign, more than two hundred and thirty million US dollars were raised in donations, making it the largest single day of campaign fundraising for a single candidate in US history. And Australia has just recorded the deadliest year
on the roads in more than a decade. New figures from the Australian Automobile Association show there were one thousand, three hundred and ten deaths to the thirtieth of June, which is an almost twelve percent increase from the previous year. I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven am. See tomorrow.