The man who took the fight to Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
I'm Daniel James, and you're listening to 7am.
What is the significance of the Federal Court ruling against Andrew Forrest?
The Federal Court has ordered Andrew Forrest Fortescue to pay the Yidjambadi people over $150 million. It's the biggest native title compensation payout in Australian history. But for Yidjambadi leaders, the judgment is complicated. The payout is historic, but far below the $1.8 billion they were seeking. The case goes back more than two decades, when Fortescue's Solomon Hub mines in the Pilbara were built on Yidjambadi land, without the agreement of the traditional owners.
Why is the compensation payout considered complicated for the Yindjibarndi people?
And the payout includes only about $100,000 for economic loss, despite Fortescue making billions from the mines. So today, we're returning to a conversation we first aired before the court handed down its decision. Journalist Ben Abitangelo tells Ashlyn McGee the story of Michael Woodley, the Yijunbadi lawman who took on Andrew Forrest, and asks what is the true cost of mining someone else's country? It's Sunday, May 24. This episode was originally published in May 2024.
Ben, tell me about Yindjibundi country and this small community of Narawana and the man you met there, Michael Woodley.
So Yindjibandi Country is located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It is a very humble town with a big heart. It has got majestic hills and escarpments that are rich red colours. It's incredibly vast, like the whole of Western Australia, but the Pilbara region itself is... quite an expansive space. And in my mind, it gets to the heart of the Australian story. It is a region that archives some of the earliest human thoughts. There is countless sites that map human occupation back 10, 20, 30, 40, 50,000 years. But at the same time, what's interfacing with that is the everything that we understand to be contemporary. It is the epicentre of resource extraction. It is where, you know, the majority of the world's iron ore is extracted from.
There is offshore gas being plundered out of the waterways. And it gets to, I suppose, the heart of that ancient eternity clashing with the contemporary realities of modernity. So I first met Michael Woodley towards the end of 2020. He's a senior Yindji Bandi lawman and the CEO of the Yindji Bandi Aboriginal Corporation, which is the prescribed body corporate to represent the interests of the Yindji Bandi people. Mate, it's so good to reconnect and it's just been a privilege to, yeah, you're just a remarkable man.
I was fortunate enough to speak with Michael.
He was zigzagging around town, was fortunate enough to get some of his time to hear about, you know, his reflections. And I say this because for most Australians that are aware of who he is, he's known because he's been the person that has stood up to Andrew Forrest.
Okay, and so how did Michael Woodley become this guy who's known for battling Andrew Forrest and his enormous mining interests?
So Andrew Forrest is, I think he's held up in the Australian imagination as, you know, a great Australian bloke.
With a $20 billion fortune, Andrew Forrest is one of Australia's richest people. And as the founder of mining giant Fortescue, he's been a key business figure for decades.
But that wealth that Andrew Forrest has accrued that has transformed him into Australia's richest man, the bedrock of that is exploitation of Aboriginal people's country and specifically the Yindjibandi people's country.
I've had one message I give, and I've been giving this ever since I became a businessman, the more you know Aboriginal people,
The crux of the story is that Andrew Forrest and Fortescue Metals Group in the early 2000s wanted to develop Yindjibandi people's country. The problem for them was that the Yindjibandi had already received native title status. So for Fortescue to legally start developing on their country under native title laws, they had to broker an agreement. So Michael Woodley and Andrew Forrest met in a small Roburn youth centre where Andrew Forrest marched in seeking to broker that agreement with Michael Woodley. Now, what Andrew Forrest came to the table with was essentially a fixed payment of roughly 0.057% of the mine's income.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–0:09
2
What is the significance of the Federal Court ruling against Andrew Forrest?
0:09–0:38
3
Why is the compensation payout considered complicated for the Yindjibarndi people?
0:38–9:02
4
How did Michael Woodley become a prominent figure in the fight against mining interests?
9:02–16:51
Speakers
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