Tiwi Islands – Northern Territory

Tiwi elders, plantation company sign jobs deal…

Posted by tiwiccbb on November 22, 2007

Tiwi elders, plantation company sign jobs deal

ABC ONLINE

Posted Wed Nov 21, 2007 2:46pm AEDT

An organisation has been set up on the Tiwi Islands to help line Indigenous workers up with jobs on the island’s timber plantations.

A memorandum of understanding was today signed between Tiwi Island elders and Great Southern Plantations to place local workers in planting jobs on the company’s acacia plantations.

In the first stage, six workers will come from Pirlangimpi on Melville Island to help plant a 184 acres at Maxwell Creek.

Great Southern says in the past backpackers were brought over from Darwin to do the work, but it’s hoped in time Tiwi Islanders will fully replace them.

Tiwi Enterprises has partly been setup using money paid to traditional owners of Nguiu on Bathurst Island for signing a 99-year lease agreement.

 

11 Responses to “Tiwi elders, plantation company sign jobs deal…”

  1. tiwiccbb said

    Are Nguiu TOs from Bathurst Island actually paying $$ so some Tiwi people can work for Great Southern plantations on Melville Island?
    Is the ABA funded Nguiu Township 99 Year leasing payment really being used to employ Tiwi people on Melville Island to “help plant 184 acres at Maxwell Creek.” ?
    Don’t Great Southern usually pay for planters wages, uniforms and training as well as accomodation, food, flights, holidays, grog etc? “In the past” they’ve done that for hundreds of backpackers…(little bloggin bastards!) hello Nikkki…

  2. tiwiccbb said

    Brian Clancy, now “development adviser” with Tiwi Land Council was spokesman for Nguiu 99 year leasing scheme.

    check out link below (see PDF “Launch of Tiwi Enterprises”) and article below that

    http://www.great-southern.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=346#1417

    Ashleigh Wilson | November 26, 2007
    AT least five long-term leases are to be created on the Tiwi Islands, with local residents moving to follow the lead of the nation’s first 99-year lease on Aboriginal land. Following years of negotiations, traditional owners on the Tiwi Island community of Nguiu earlier this year agreed to lease the township for 99 years to boost economic development and individual home ownership. About 10 residents have since applied for subleases after the deal came into force in August. Despite strong opposition by some Nguiu locals about the Nguiu lease, the move has also prompted a rush for new, smaller agreements elsewhere on the Tiwi Islands. According to the Tiwi Land Council, at least five Tiwi Island residents have applied, or are set to apply, for 99-year leases over individual blocks of land near townships. Unlike the Nguiu deal, which was made under the Howard government’s changes to the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, the applications are being sought under the previous legislation that allowed long-term leases. But Tiwi Land Council development adviser Brian Clancy said the new applications had been a direct result of the Nguiu agreement. “That 99-year lease really got people thinking,” he said. Mr Clancy’s wife, Tiwi Islander Jennifer Clancy Ullungura, has applied for a 99-year lease to build a house on Melville Island, the site of a new commonwealth-funded college. “It’s sitting on the minister’s desk waiting to be signed,” he said. Mr Clancy said more than five other applications were being lodged with landowners, before the agreement could be signed off by the commonwealth, for blocks of land across the Tiwi Islands. He said low-interest loans from Indigenous Business Australia, a commonwealth agency, required the applicant to have a lease over the land. “To get a loan, you have to have a long-term lease,” he said. “The catch is that you need to be near services and education to get an IBA loan.”

  3. Niki Maguire said

    no alcohol, uniforms or holiodays payed to the backpackers or anybody else for that matter included… We actually buy such items and time our selves! you forget i payed my big old way all the way to australia.

    Tiwiccbb please please….. keep your chin up anymore of this blogging bastard comments ill have your name searched for defimation of character. behave yourself for the sake of decent readers.

    Niki

  4. Niki Maguire said

    To Tiwiccbb????

    My dear friend… it is far from the case that Great southern do not like me any more i hope your childish comments will pass as im sure many people reading this may see you are mearly sniping at somebody who took a job and wrote stories for his family!

    How does my story affect you?? Clearly i may have fed you some ammunition so as your silly, poorly written comments can live on but i have more education about Aboriginal lands and the Tiwi Islanders than you may think! i lived with the guys for 7 months… as part of great southern we dont just work as a sole trader we support and overly include the local boys, they are however in turn to possibly take over projects happening out there. the team i was with were more than keen for our guys to be leading us in walks and assessments!! i say boys because many of them are my friends now and i still have guys from many of the comunities calling me to see how i am getting on!! what exactly is your relationship with the Tiwi’s. your a shit digging reporter by the sounds of things but many appologies if im wrong! clearly as you seem to know me and my past so well maybe you would share some of what you are actually about. not just a sore internet writer! my contact number is 0432018135…. please please feel free to call me!! i hope you and your family are well!! maybe spend some time writing them comments on there travels maybe?????

    until next time!

  5. On the ground said

    Quote tiwiccbb Says:
    November 22, 2007 at 7:11 pm
    Don’t Great Southern usually pay for planters wages, uniforms and training as well as accomodation, food, flights, holidays, grog etc? “In the past” they’ve done that for hundreds of backpackers…

    You wouldn’t have a clue what goes on dude! Their employers (sub contractors doh!!) pay for their flights, food and wages. Not GS..The rest holidays and grog hahahaha? keep stirring the pot. I bet you wouldn’t say any of this to a group of tiwis face to face on bathurst or melville..
    look forward to more of your crap, what is your agenda?

  6. tiwiccbb said

    http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/City-of-Darwin/blog-211934.html

    poor nikkki – did GSL bullies accuse him of being a greenie? check out his frightened little quote at the end of the link above “For the guys on Melville I worked with you should know this….. I had no clue some guy was going to use my blogs and I was certainly not working with him in this report…!!!”
    And check out his pix. Company fuelled beerfest every night?… btw nothing against poor nikkki – but really, GSL should employ genuine experts not frightened unqualified backpackers on the “environmental” team.
    And check this out from one of poor nikkki’s comments above (sorta looks like someone else told you to write this nikkki?) “…as part of great southern we dont just work as a sole trader we support and overly include the local boys,…” Its called digging yourself deeper Great Southern.

    o no! here’s another bloggin backpacker… (and there’s more to come 🙂 )
    http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rbisset/rtw05-06/1148170380/tpod.html

  7. tiwiccbb said

    http://www.abc.net.au/tv/australiawide/video/default.htm?program=austwide&pres=20071123_1639&story=6

  8. niki maguire said

    its funny you think this. that a brummy lad would need the help of Gsp to frame a little comment to someone as narrow minded as you pal!! have the bollox to ring me you prat or leave this shit alone… you know fuck all about it!! i find it ammusing you have so much time and effort for my bloggs and others maybe you can get out into the big wide world and write your own stories!! your a mug mate …… dont reply to soon though ay… people will think your a computer nerd….. peace out rabbit!!!

    Nik

    On the grouond….. god knows who you are but im sure we eill have worked together… tiwiccbbddttggaajjee?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?! hasnt a clue…. fair enough he is very knowledgable in the back ground but really is only educated in what he has read on these types of sites!! im just interested in where hes cutting and pasting his info from?!?!?!?! Wickapedia maybe????? play nice now kids im off to enjoy my travels for abit!!! Tiwi ccbbddttyyddjjff???? i have lots of female friends should i set you up???? muppet!

  9. tiwiccbb said

    The Australian

    Brough walks the talk in islands
    Paul Toohey | February 08, 2008

    MAL Brough is far from dead to Aboriginal Australia. He’s back, working on a project on the Tiwi Islands he says will see him “walking the walk after talking the talk”.

    Mr Brough, the Howard government indigenous affairs minister who championed the Northern Territory intervention before losing his seat in the election, has been sighted on the Tiwi Islands, north of Darwin, being escorted by the Tiwi Land Council.

    Yesterday, he told The Australian reluctantly that he was seeking to make a profit from – and lend a hand to – the islanders in yet-to-be-finalised joint-venture projects on the islands.

    “I’ve travelled up there several times,” Mr Brough said from Queensland yesterday.

    “If you can make economic development work, it’ll become an unstoppable force for change. We’ve travelled to the Tiwis and put proposals to them and the aim of it is to try and help them realise their potential.”

    The township of Nguiu, on the Tiwis’ western-most Bathurst Island, was the only community that signed up to Mr Brough’s 99-year lease arrangements during his tenure as minister. The lease means Nguiu has effectively become public land, with no permit required to enter. Locals can now look to buy their own homes – and outsiders can scope the town for business opportunities.

    “It’s not about me earning a dollar,” Mr Brough said. “If businesses don’t make money, it becomes welfare. The idea is to make a profit in joint-venture partnerships. I’m trying to walk the walk after talking the talk. I’ve got people willing to lend their knowledge and expertise.”

    Mr Brough’s final concession speech on November 24, after he lost his federal seat of Longman in Queensland, was heavy with sadness at what he feared would be Labor winding back his intervention to tackle abuse of Aboriginal women and children.

    “The work we have commenced in the Northern Territory – I just hope and pray it continues,” he said at the time. “I took the chance during this campaign to go back out to places like Hermannsburg and Mutitjulu, and I saw in the eyes of the women out there their desperate need for this to continue.

    “So I have a plea to Mr Rudd: I know you don’t agree with much of what I’ve done out there, but not for me, not for some ideology, but for the children of the next generation, please give them a chance, give this a chance to work.”

    In an interview with The Australian on December 19, Mr Brough flagged his determination to work with indigenous communities.

    “We have long advocated economic independence, and the best way to achieve that is with individuals and family groups establishing themselves in viable businesses,” he said. “I want to work in joint ventures with the aim of building the skills base and assisting people to start sustainable business and giving them the skills to stand on their own.”

    Mr Brough said yesterday he had in mind “a range of things”.

    “A large component will be in the construction field, but it goes way beyond that. I have no expertise in construction, but I will bring people to the party who have the right attitude and want to make it happen. We’re not seeking publicity. I don’t know who’s talked to you or why. I’m not grandstanding.”

    He confirmed he had two partners whose identities would become apparent later, and a company he preferred not to name. “Two years ago, I went around the country talking to business people and now I’m saying to them, ‘Here’s your opportunity’,” he said.

    “My partners will be public knowledge when we’ve got contracts. Our goal is that we set out as a group to secure 50 full-time jobs for Tiwi Islands people before January 1, 2009. Our job is to create 50 non-welfare-dependent, non-CDEP jobs for Tiwi Islander people by year’s end.”

    Mr Brough said he did not regard the enterprise as his new job. “No, it’s not a job,” he said. “I’m working with the Tiwi Islanders. The bottom line is people have fire in their belly and can choose to own and live in their own economy, export back to the mainland, and we’ve got the people willing to put time, money and effort in.”

    —————————————————————
    PROGRAM: 105.7 8DDD FM MORNING PROGRAM
    TIME: 8.30AM
    DATE: Monday 11th February 2008
    REPORTER: JULIA CHRISTENSEN
    INTERVIEWEE: BRIAN CLANCY
    RE: TIWI ISLANDS BUSINESS PROPOSAL

    If you thought that you’d seen the last of former Aboriginal Affairs
    Minister, Mal Brough, well he’s now looking to intervene in a more
    private manner on the Tiwi Islands. There are reports that he’s been
    spotted on the Tiwi Islands speaking to the land council about a
    business development. I spoke earlier to Brian Clancy who’s the
    spokesperson for the Nguiu people about what exactly Mal Brough is
    proposing.
    CLANCY It’s basically a construction idea to build affordable
    houses using Tiwi labour and he’s got the backing and we’re checking them out, you know, we’re having a look at it at the moment, but he’s certainly got
    some quality backing. The whole idea is, you know, Mal’s idea of
    solving indigenous disadvantage is through economic development and jobs
    and I think he’s in a position now where he wants to walk the walk.
    He’s talked the talk, now it’s time to walk the walk. REPTR So he wants
    to build private houses does he for Tiwi residents?
    CLANCY Not necessarily, just housing. It’s very early days and
    we’re looking at it, but you know, the leaders for years, the Tiwi leaders
    have been saying they want to get out of the welfare cycle and they want
    real jobs and that’s the way to do it. REPTR Will this be using
    Commonwealth government money?
    CLANCY I think the idea would be, you know, there’s millions of
    dollars that have to be spent on indigenous housing over the next few years and the idea that, you know, rather than for years, we’ve had non indigenous
    people come into communities building houses and then taking that
    Commonwealth money away, not creating long term jobs for indigenous
    people. This idea is basically to get Tiwi jobs and keeping the money
    in the community. REPTR I’ve heard there’s also talk of building a sort
    of motel and accommodation centre there and an office centre for
    visitors to the Island. Is that part of Mal Brough’s proposal?
    CLANCY Not directly, but certainly the traditional owners who
    signed off on the 99 year lease have got the money now to be in the game and they’ve got the land. So they’re projects that traditional owners are lookingat, yeah.
    REPTR What sort of backing does Mal Brough have?
    CLANCY Oh he’s got a couple of fairly high profile people, they’re
    business people and they’re doing it for the right reasons.
    REPTR Are they Territorians or from interstate?
    CLANCY The two at the moment are from interstate.
    REPTR So would they and Mal Brough make money out of this enterprise?
    CLANCY Well they’re businessmen, so they’re certainly not going to
    lose any money.
    REPTR And of course these opportunities come up because of the 99 year
    lease that was signed by the people of Nguiu opening up a range of
    different business opportunities. That was pushed by Mal Brough, now
    he’s set to make a profit from it. Is there any opposition on the basis
    of possible conflict of interest there?
    CLANCY As I said, it’s very early days, but whoever’s going build
    the houses, if it’s non Tiwi contractors as I said, what we’ve had for the
    last 20 years, then with no Tiwi mob actually making any money of it,
    this may be an opportunity and as I said, we’ve got to have a look at
    it, but maybe an opportunity for jobs and money to remain on the Tiwi
    islands.
    REPTR So it’s kind of like a joint venture?
    CLANCY That’s the proposal yeah.
    REPTR So what’s the process from here Brian?
    CLANCY Well we’ve got to look at his one and we’ve got another
    couple of proposals that we’re looking at and the leaders through directors of
    Tiwi enterprises will sit down, go through them all and work our way
    through there, yeah. REPTR And how long do you think that might take?
    CLANCY Everything we do, we call Tiwi time. I’ve really got no
    idea.
    REPTR Alright, well there is something coming to closure. You’re about
    to travel to the new school that’s opening on the Tiwi islands. Last
    time we heard the borders were going to be staying in tents. How’s it
    looking now?
    … Thanks for your time this morning Brian.
    CLANCY Thanks Julia.
    ENDS.

  10. youssef said

    I would like to know were to get a plants list of Tiwi Irland thanks youssef

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