2009 NT Intervention Report shows slow but steady progress

The Federal Government has just released its monitoring report (pdf) on the NT Intervention for the second half of 2009. The report shows much has been achieved in health, education and crime reporting since the Intervention started though critics still say there is not enough evidence yet to support its rollout.

The Northern Territory Emergency Response was a Howard Government initiative announced in June 2007 in response to reports of abuse and neglect of children outlined in the “Little Children are Sacred” report and supported by the Rudd Government when it took office five months later. The legislation period of NTER is five years and it commits the Government to actions to “close the gap” between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal key health indicators. The key objectives of NTER are ensuring the protection of women and children, reducing family violence, improving education, improving health, and promoting positive behaviours and personal responsibility.

In 2009, the Rudd Government attempted to remove some of the more odious elements of the NTER with legislation that is now before the Senate to reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act. This was done after many in the 73 NTER communities felt they had been hurt, humiliated and confused by the often discriminatory way in which the original legislation was pushed through. However the same people admitted children, women and the elderly were were all feeling safer, better fed and clothed, and that there was less humbugging for alcohol, drugs and gambling.

There have been some good recorded improvements. The Government has built eight of nine promised new crèches and upgraded 11 out of another promised 13. Average school attendance has increased from 60.1 percent to 62.2 percent in 12 months. However this is still down on the 62.7 percent figure recorded in 2007. A school nutrition program is up and running staffed mainly by Indigenous people while over 140 new teaching positions have been funded in the NT. Another 173 health professionals are on the books covering nursing, GP, dental and allied health. Outreach teams have made 110 visits to 66 remote communities.

88 community stores were licensed to sell alcohol and out of 190 monitoring visits just one store had its licence revoked. Alcohol Management Plans are in place in Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Palmerston and Katherine and on their way in Borroloola, Maningrida, Gunbalanya, Elliot, Tiwi Islands and Groote Eylandt. The Government created 2,200 new jobs still leaving almost 17,000 on welfare quarantine known as “income management”. 96 percent of these spent $133 million on food and clothing using BasicCards.

The instance of child abuse cases increased over the 2009 reporting period giving the ABC its gloomy headline when discussing the report. The numbers of child abuses cases from 72 in 2007 to 142 two years later. However with 62 additional police deployed to communities, there is an obvious increase in reported crime, while the actual incidence of crime may have remained unchanged or have fallen. The numbers of alcohol related incidents went up 31 percent while the number of drug related incidents went up 23 percent while reported incidents of domestic abuse went up a staggering 75 percent between 2007 and 2009.

But undoubtedly problems still remain in the communities. Last year NT Indigenous children were six times as likely as other children to be the subject of a substantiation of a notification of abuse and neglect. Neglect remains the main crime (43 percent) followed by physical abuse (26 percent) and emotional abuse (24 percent). Sexual abuse accounted for less than 10 percent of cases and since July 2007 27 people (including 4 non-Indigenous people) have been convicted for child sexual assault.

Response to the report has so far been limited in the media and virtually non-existent in the blogosphere. Apart from the ABC article noted above, the NT News also picked up on the increased stats angle, The Australian published an article by Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin, while ANU’s Jon Altman in Crikey called the state of progress “disturbing”.

However what is truly disturbing is the mainstream lack of interest in the report and its contents other than for its political conflict value. Altman makes good points about some of the ways we have gone backwards since 2007. However, until there is a concerted hue and cry on behalf of white Australia to really follow through on the initiatives, nothing will change. Our media is failing us with this task. For those interested, Part 2 of the report provides detailed information and analysis by sub measure.

An Awkward Truth: the story of the 1942 Darwin bombing

I finished reading Peter Grose’s engrossing An Awkward Truth a few weeks ago but only now have had the time to review it. Written in 2009, the book is a thorough examination of the catastrophic Japanese bombing of Darwin in February 1942. The book opens up with an anonymous poem of soldiers’ doggerel “Bloody Darwin” that has eerie parallels with John Cooper Clark’s 1980s British urban classic Evidently Chickentown. “This bloody town’s a bloody cuss/No bloody trams, no bloody bus/And no one cares for bloody us/Oh bloody, bloody Darwin.” The poem is apt as the story of Darwin’s first bombing (it would be attacked a further 58 times) is one of official incompetence, wilful neglect, looting, desertion and failure of leadership that cast a dark shadow on Australia’s war record.

Yet while Grose is not afraid to talk of what then Territories minister Paul Hasluck called in 1955 a day “of national shame”, he also uncovers another story of personal heroism and dogged counter-attack he says deserves a place in the record books. The force that attacked Darwin on 19 February 1942 was the same one as that attacked Pearl Harbour two months earlier. Led by renowned “Tora Tora Tora” pilot Mitsuo Fuchida (who lived until 1976), the force learned from their Hawaiian mistakes and caused more damage in Darwin, taking more civilian casualties and sinking more ships. At the time Darwin stood with Coventry as one of the biggest air attacks of the war. Its death toll of around 300 people remains the deadliest single event on Australian soil.

The chief villain of the book is not Fuchida but Charles Aubrey Abbott a former NSW Country Party politician who dabbled with the extreme right. He was appointed NT’s administrator in 1937. When war arrived in 1939, the town of Darwin accepted it apathetically believing it was still half a world away. But by 1941 things had changed as Japan looked like entering on the Axis side. Darwin was suddenly a target. On 7 December Japan launched a double strike hitting out at Pearl Harbour while launching a large ground based invasion of Malaya supported by a bombing campaign from Hong Kong to Singapore. Disaster followed disaster. McArthur’s indecisiveness cost the Philippines, Guam fell as did the citadel of Singapore. Japan could now turn its attentions to its real target: Java’s oilfields.

Across the sea in Darwin, authorities drew up plans for its evacuation. But Abbott sat on the plans and argued a state of emergency would cause unnecessary panic. Most women and children were eventually taken out by boat in a chaotic evacuation. Darwin’s port was transformed into a supply base for the defence of the Dutch East Indies. Ships piled up in the harbour as its inefficient design and strike-prone wharfies made for painfully slow loading and unloading. There were also fighting ships from the Royal Australian and US Navy making a total of 45 ships in the harbour at the time of the bombing.

On 19 February, the Japanese Nagumo Force with its four aircraft carriers rendezvoused in the Timor Sea south of Maluku, 350km north of Darwin. It unleashed 188 aircraft, five more than in the first wave at Pearl and set a course for Darwin. They flew southward in the gap between Bathurst and Melville Island before turning in a loop to approach Darwin from the south-east. This had the double advantage of having the sun behind them and being the least likely direction of attack.

They arrived in Darwin without warning around 10am. They divided into two groups one attacking the port while the other strafed the airfield. The bombers exerted maximum damage on the port locomotives, railway trucks and scattering oil lines which caught fire in the water killing those who had dived in for safety. The town lay just beyond the port and suffered heavy damage. A direct hit took out the post office and communication building killed nine civilians inside.

Anti-aircraft guns did their best to return fire but lack of practice and problems with the shells in the tropical heat meant they were mostly ineffective. Over at the airfield, the second force strafed and bombed knocking out planes and communication equipment. Out on the harbour ships struggled to get away from the carnage. The US ship Peary sank with 91 dead aboard. 15 more died on the William B Preston, also sunk and 12 died on the hospital ship Manundra though it did not sink and continued to accept casualties. By the end of the raid, Darwin was a smoking mess.

After the all clear was sounded, dazed Darwinians emerged to survey the damage. But the Japanese were not finished yet and 54 aircraft arrived for a second attack two hours later. They concentrated on the airfield dropping 13,000kgs of high explosives before flying off at 12.20pm. It was from this point on that local officials displayed their incompetence. Neither Abbott nor the army commander took control of the situation. Abbott directed police away from rescue efforts to pack his valuable glass and china and take it south to safety.

Then there was the “Adelaide River Stakes”, a mass exodus from Darwin as rumours filled the void left by the absence of any official information. A convoy of vehicles set off to Adelaide River about 120kms to the south based on the false rumour civilians had been ordered to leave town. Anything that could move, did and the road jammed as drivers groped their way blindly in the red dust. Meanwhile the Army neglected to start a salvage operation, blowing any chance of giving the surviving aircraft a chance if the Japanese came back. With no orders transmitted, army units dispersed to other parts of the Territory.

Worse was to follow when those left behind decided Darwin was ideal for a spot of looting. Army personnel including military police were involved taking goods away by the truckload. By nightfall matters turned violent within drunken military personnel firing over the heads of crowds as they gathered to leave Darwin. There were no sanitary services and all the wharfies had fled leaving surviving ships with no way of unloading. The military police were out of control but as Grose writes “the Administrator’s port, sherry and other fine wines were in safe hands. Otherwise, Darwin was a mess.”

On the day after, the military finally took control. They took eligible men from Adelaide River and signed them up for the army back in Darwin. Non essential people were evacuated and a week later the whole of the NT was placed under Army control. There just remained the tricky problem of what to tell the world.

Unlike Roosevelt after Pearl, the Curtin administration would not trust Australians with the truth. At the time Curtin was engage in a furious row with Roosevelt and Churchill about withdrawing Aussie troops from the middle east. The three journalists in Darwin had splashed the news of the attacks but the Government was keen to underplay the news. Initially they reported the death tally as 19 with damage as minimal. Abbott also pretended in his communications Darwin was back to normal.

By the end of March the secret Lowe commission to investigate the attack reported back to Curtin that 240 died but censors made sure newspapers did not make much of it. Curtin’s secrecy policy backfired as the Japanese went on to attack Broome, Wyndham and other towns but used the excuse of the “national interest” to avoid any further comment or scrutiny. Darwin disappeared from public gaze. As Grose concluded “The full horror of the attack on Darwin was [the government’s] best chance to jolt Australians out of their apathy. Unwisely it chose not to take it.”

Blue Mud Bay: Yolngu win takes Wik to the water

Today's Northern Territory election is proving a surprisingly tight contest with a wafer-thin majority in the former Labor leader’s seat now likely to decide the election. Labor were expected to win comfortably but have lost four seats already. They will retain government only if they can hang on in a close contest for the seat of Fannie Bay, formerly held by Clare Martin. With the highest participation of amateur fishing in Australia, Labor may have suffered a backlash in the wake of the Blue Mud Bay land rights case, despite fighting it in the courts. Labor lost that case to the Yolngu people. A landmark ruling in the High Court last month awarded them custody of 7,000 kms of lucrative coastline.

As Paul Toohey wrote in The Australian, neither major party congratulated the traditional owners for their historic court triumph last month. The angling industry is up in arms: the ruling means non-indigenous fishermen will probably have to pay a fee to fish for recreation and commercial purposes in Blue Mud Bay. Commercial fishers will need to apply to an Aboriginal land trust for licences to fish in tide-affected rivers, deltas and coastline. Amateurs will be relying on the Territory Government to do a deal with traditional owners and acquire free one-off permits on their behalf to enter Aboriginal owned inter-tidal zones.

Blue Mud Bay is Yolngu country in East Arnhem Land, a couple of hundred kilometres south of Yirrkala. Yirrkala is some 600km and a ten hour drive from Katherine in the dry season, and is cut off in the wet. Despite their remoteness, the Yolngu had encounters with non-Aboriginals well before the First Fleet arrived in Sydney. But the contact was with Islam not Christianity. The Muslims to the north knew about Australia as early as the year 820. Persian mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi drew a map of the Sea of Java which showed Cape York Peninsula, a "V" shaped Gulf of Carpentaria and a curved Arnhem Land.

From the fifteenth century, trade grew rapidly in the Indonesian archipelago. Macassan sailors from the island of Sulawesi (Celebes) began trading with northern Aboriginal fishermen. The Macassans came in search of trepang. Otherwise known as bêche-de-mer, sea cucumber, or sea-slug, trepang was a delicacy in China, where it could be traded for profit. The Asian impact transformed the lives of the coastal Aborigines.

The language of the traders became the lingua franca for many tribes from the Gulf of Carpentaria to the Kimberley. Their own languages became dotted with Macassan words. In places like Groote Eylandt, Macassan elements became incorporated in local rituals. Aspects of Islam infiltrated Dreaming ceremonies. It is likely a few traders settled there intermingling their blood into local populations.

This neighbourly relationship was brought to a rude end by the colony, and then state, of South Australia which ruled the Northern Territories until 1911. The British first came to northern Australia with the establishment of Fort Dundas in 1824. Dundas was too remote and failed but other fortications followed. The new masters didn’t like the trade between the local blacks and the heathens across the sea. They eventually prohibited the selling of trepang in 1906 ostensibly because it encouraged smuggling. The real reason was to restrict Asian economic endeavours to protect new White capitalist initiatives in Adelaide and elsewhere in the south.

The loss of trade was devastating for the Yolngu. Already suffering from the occasional massacre and their lack of immunity to European diseases, they descended into poverty and became, like all other Aboriginals, “wards of the state”. They continued to fish, however, and in the early 1930s were party to an extraordinary encounter that would have significant reverberations still felt today.

Japanese fishermen also prized the bêche-de-mer and they entered Yolngu lands without a permit in 1932. Between three and five of them were speared to death by locals at Caledon Bay. Japan protested to Australia over the killings and a police party was sent from Darwin to look for suspects. They kidnapped four women all of whom disappeared. After one of the police party was speared in revenge along with two white trepangers, anger mounted in Darwin. There was a growing desire to “teach the uppity blacks a lesson”.

But coming shortly after the cover-up of the Coniston massacre, the idea of a punitive expedition was put down. Protest meetings in Sydney and Melbourne raised a collection to send missionaries to Woodah Island. There, they persuaded several Yolngu leaders to come to Darwin, where they were promptly arrested. One of their members, Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda, was charged with the murder of the policeman. The white jury found him guilty even though there was a glaring lack of evidence and no witnesses. Dhakiyarr (named “Tuckiar” by the court) was sentenced to hang. His defence appealed to the High Court which quashed the conviction. He was freed from Fannie Bay Gaol and was taken to Darwin. A missionary arranged to meet him but Dhakiyarr missed the appointment and was never seen again.

In 2003, Dhakiyarr’s family held a reconciliation ceremony in the presence of the Chief Justices of Australia and the Northern Territories. The ceremony began with a ritual symbolising the cleansing tides of a tidal surge, before moving inside the Darwin Supreme Court building to install ceremonial poles. The legal importance of the seawater symbolism would become more apparent in the years to come.

In 2005, the Federal Court of Australia ruled on the Blue Mud Bay case. The issue at stake was whether the Bay's traditional owners could exclude fishermen and others from tidal areas of the claim zone under the Native Title Acts. The court ruled in their favour on the grounds of their continuous association with the land. With 80 percent of their lands now off limits, the angling industry protested. On their behalf, the Territory government, supported by the Federal Government appealed to the High Court.

The Canberra court found in favour of the Yolngu. The High Court decision followed in the logical paths of the Mabo and Wik decisions on native title. The doctrine of “Terra Nullius”, the land without owners, was a myth. Despite the annexation of Australia in 1788, the Colonial Office clearly recognised the Aboriginals retained a proprietorial title to their land which had not been extinguished by the claim of sovereignty.

The court confirmed Aboriginals as legal owners of 7,000 kms of Yolngu country around the north-east Arnhem Land coastline. As a result, an estimated 45,000 anglers who use the bay will no longer be able to fish there for free. Local white conservatives are furious. Country Party Liberal leader and fisherman Terry Mills says his rights have been infringed and he won’t apply for a permit. "The freedoms Territorians enjoy have been challenged by this decision,” he said.

Mills was keen to make Blue Mud Bay an election issue. Meanwhile Labor, who took the Yolngu to court, wanted to be seen as practical peacemakers. Last week Chief Minister Paul Henderson said it would comply with the High Court ruling but also sought “the capacity for recreational fishermen to go fishing on affected waters without charge or need for an individual fishing permit”. With a narrow win, or a possible hung parliament on the cards, Henderson will need to place great store than ever on “the willingness of Territorians to resolve these matters.”

Indigenous groups suspicious of Howard's emergency response

A group of 90 indigenous and welfare groups have accused Prime Minister John Howard of using the child sex abuse emergency as an excuse for a land grab. The group made the claim in a letter to Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough. They said the move to take control of Aboriginal communities in NT is “totally unworkable” and a “Trojan horse” to take over Aboriginal lands. The letter said the proposals went well beyond an emergency response and solutions must be developed with the communities not prescribed from Canberra.

Howard announced the intervention last week, declaring abuse of children in indigenous communities a national emergency. Howard argued the plight of children overrode concerns of intervention in the territory which he dismissed as “constitutional niceties". He urged the states to co-operate on similar measures and offered to cover any expenses they incur.

The Prime Minister’s announcement came in the wake of the release of the NT Government’s “Little Children are Sacred” report (pdf). The 316 page report was produced by the NT board of inquiry into the protection of Aboriginal children from sexual abuse. The title of the report reflected the traditional law of the Yolngu people which says that “little children are very sacred because they carry the two spring wells of water from our country within them. The eight month inquiry reported to NT chief minister Clare Martin on 30 April and examined the extent, nature and factors contributing to sexual abuse of Aboriginal children, focussing especially on unreported abuse.

The report found that sexual abuse is endemic across the Territory. Its two major findings were that Aboriginal child sexual abuse in NT should be seen as a matter of urgent national importance and that the NT government provide strong leadership on the issue. The inquiry said that sexual assault is no more acceptable in Aboriginal society than it is elsewhere. However due to a major breakdown in Aboriginal culture, Indigenous communities face particular difficulties in dealing with the problem. Consumption of alcohol, other drugs and petrol sniffing have led to excessive violence which in turn have led to sexual abuse of children. Family breakdown, the weakening of traditional values and lack of employment opportunities are all contributing factors. The report said the federal government’s multi-billion dollar surplus should be used to address these problems.

The report’s authors, lawyer Rex Wild, QC, and Aboriginal (Alyawarr) leader Pat Anderson, travelled more than 30,000 kilometres visiting 45 communities in NT, where they were told of rampant child sexual abuse in every community. They recommended changes in 12 key areas: alcoholism, education, poverty, housing, substance abuse, gambling, pornography, unemployment, government agency response, law and justice, and rehabilitation of offenders. Education was identified as the key to solving the problem. Education ought to explain what sexual abuse was, confirm that sexual contact between children and adults was not normal, and insist that attending school be compulsory. It also insists that parents take responsibility for their children in terms of school attendance, cleanliness, care and abiding laws.

The report made 97 specific recommendations after the inquiry found that sexual abuse is rampant in virtually every Indigenous community in the Territory. The recommendations fall across the areas of leadership, government responses, family and children’s services, health – crisis intervention, policing, bail, offender rehabilitation, prevention, family support services, education, community awareness, alcohol, other substance abuse, community justice, the role of communities, employment, housing, pornography, gambling and implementation of the report.

It took two further months for the NT government to release the report after which the Howard Government immediately swung into action. It planned to introduce widespread alcohol restrictions on NT Aboriginal land for six months. This involves banning the sale, possession, transportation, consumption and will also monitor takeaway sales. The Government announced it would bear the cost of medical examinations of all indigenous children under the age of 16 and change welfare payments so that 50% can only be used for the purchase of food and other essentials. The plan links income support and family assistance payments to school attendance.

One of the more controversial proposals is in the area of property rights. The government plans to take control of townships through five year leases to seek improvement in property and public housing. The permit system for common areas and road corridors on Aboriginal lands will be scrapped. X-rated pornography in prescribed areas will be banned and all publicly funded computers will be examined for evidence of pornography.

All states except WA have agreed to provide 10 police officers for immediate deployment. They will be backed by military logistics officers. The Australian Crime Commission will be asked to locate and identify perpetrators of sexual abuse of indigenous children in other areas of Australia. While there is broad-based bi-partisan support for the move, the Howard response has been criticised in some quarters as paternalistic, and a form of apartheid. While the Prime Minister had no control over of the timing of the "Little Children" report, the timing does smack of electoral opportunism and leaves him open to the charge of orchestrating a "Tampa 2". However unlike the Tampa, this is a genuine emergency and deserves the chance to succeed. But unless he gets the indigenous community onside, it will go down in the long litany of failed government initiatives to ease the plight of Aboriginal Australia.

Northern Territory approves McArthur River Mine expansion

Northern Territory Chief Minister Claire Martin has seriously upset her three indigenous caucus members after passing controversial retrospective legislation Thursday to allow expansion of a McArthur River zinc mine. The expansion had been stalled by a Supreme Court decision earlier last week. The indigenous Labor members were particularly angered by the insensitivity of the Government’s timing because the law was changed two days before the funeral of an Aboriginal elder who was a key leader in the campaign to save the McArthur River.

The elder, who for cultural reasons can only be identified as Mr Timothy, was buried at Borroloola on Saturday. He was a leader of the long fight by the Yanyuwa people against the expansion of the nearby McArthur River Mine. He died suddenly in Katherine, aged 43, two weeks before the Supreme Court handed down its judgement that declared the Territory’s approval of the mine expansion illegal. The man is believed to be the brother of Barbara McCarthy, one of the three Indigenous members who crossed the floor to vote against the Government.

The McArthur River Mine is 80km south of Borroloola. It is one of the largest zinc mines in the world. It was opened by MIM Holdings in 1995 and operated as an underground operation. It has a workforce of 350 people and contributes $350 million each year to the NT economy according to its own website. In its early years it yielded 320,000 tonnes of lead and zinc annually in bulk concentrate form.
Swiss based global mining giant Xstrata bought out MIM in 2003 and inherited the mine.

The underground operation is now aging and running out of rich ore. Last year the mine’s output shrunk to 135,000 tonnes of zinc. After lobbying from Xstrata, the NT Mines Minister Chris Natt authorised a $66 million mine expansion which would change the operation to open-cut in order extend the mine’s life by another 25 years. The change required a 5.5km diversion to the McArthur River.

The Yanyuwa, Mara, Garrawa and Gurdanji people are the traditional owners of the land. They came together with the Northern Land Council (NLC) to take the Government to court, concerned by the environmental impacts of the river diversion. They argued that approval of the mine expansion failed to follow proper procedures under the Mines Management Act. Last Monday the Supreme Court handed down its judgement and found in favour of the traditional owners. Justice David Angel found that the authorisation went beyond what McArthur River Mining had applied for. The authorisation did not specify an open cut mine and was, therefore, illegal. The Government complained the judgment was merely a narrow technicality but decided not to mount a challenge.

However the decision forced Xstrata to immediately stop work on the mine. Three days later, Martin rushed through a government bill to overrule the court decision and retrospectively validate the proposed redevelopment. The bill passed 17 votes to 5 late on Thursday night. The Opposition Country Liberal Party supported the bill. The five who voted against the bill were two independents and three indigenous Labor members, Alison Anderson, Karl Hampton and the local member Barbara McCarthy. McCarthy condemned the timing of the bill in parliament saying the local indigenous people were mourning the death of a prominent leader (her brother), and “to pass the Bill in the middle of sorry business is the worst sign of disrespect to them”.

Martin claimed it was necessary to push the bill through quickly to prevent hundreds of mine workers from being stood down. She was also concerned by government liability. Xstrata moved immediately on Friday to resume mining. According to Martin, the benefits will be substantial in the next few years of the mine operation. “We needed to get it back and running as quickly as possible,” she said.

The original expansion approval provoked national protest from environmentalists. The McArthur is a major tropical river. It begins at Anthony Lagoon then skirting the Barkly Tableland, through jungle and swampland for 250 km before emerging at Port McArthur to empty into the Gulf of Carpentaria. The river is a haven for dugongs and turtles. In 2001, an NGO called Environment Centre exposed the mine’s practice of dumping contaminated water into the river and communities have noticed sickness in dugongs and turtles downstream of the mining operation soon after the mine began operating.

The mine has proved to be an ongoing political disaster for the Territory’s Chief Minister. Her case was not helped by a leaked Treasury document which showed the mine has operated consistently as a loss and therefore never returned any mineral royalties to the Government. Instead the company gets a $5 million subsidy to cover electricity costs. The mining company has also consistently failed to negotiate an agreement with or pay royalties to the traditional owners who possess the land title.

The local Indigenous community are now examining their options. They have returned to the courts and issued a challenge in the Darwin Federal Court against the federal Environment Minister decision to approve the mine. Then minister, Ian Campbell signed off on the proposal after the NT Government approved it in October. NLC lawyer Neil Williams said Senator Campbell failed to consider public submissions as well as ignoring the effect the radical river diversion would have on the environment. Williams told the Federal Court “There was an obligation to comply with the assessment procedures under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and that was not done”.

Opponents have cited concerns such as acid mine drainage, sedimentation, heavy metal contamination, and the impacts of disturbance and pollution on 43 species of fish including the endangered freshwater sawfish. Environment Centre Northern Territory (ECNT) spokesperson Emma King says the flaws, information gaps and environmental risks submitted to the Environmental Protection Authority showed the mine could not be responsibly approved. “It appears that the brinkmanship of the mining company – effectively saying that if this plan is rejected it will close its operation - is winning out over scientific, environmental, economic and cultural concerns,” she said. The fight goes on.