IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2017 - 39
Socio-Ethical Impact
backbone of their workforce being
locally employed, or on fly-in-fly-out
operators spending money in their
townships - are coping. It brings
into focus the wider impact that this
automation will have, beyond the
immediate economic or environmental concerns of citizens:
Mining has had an impact on many
Aboriginal communities in Australia
since the first occupation of white
settlers arrived, digging like wild rabbits and mad dogs seeking fame
and fortune.
Irene Wilson, Committee Office,
Department of the Senate, in April
1997 produced a large report titled
"Impact of Uranium Mining on Aboriginal Communities in the Northern Territory" [11]. The report outlines social
impacts on communities, payment of
royalty equivalent monies, and discusses Aboriginal control over, and
pressure to consent to, mining; communication, and consultation. The
report also addresses development
of social impact statements for mining proposals.
A decade later, according to the
Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy
Research (CAEPR), in a 2006 report
titled "Indigenous People and the Pilbara Mining Boom":
"The Mabo case, the Native
Title Act and engagement with
the mining industry have
changed the assumptions of
that (welfare dependent) paradigm and catapulted Aboriginal people engaged in the
mining industry into the mainstream economy. I have worked at mine sites and witnessed this extraordinary change
... Mining offers many Indigenous populations a significant
source of employment and
contracting opportunities, as
well as an alternative t o
the welfare transfers upon
which many remote and
regional Aboriginal communities depend."
"...The basic message conveyed is that little has been
achieved over the past four
decades in terms of enhancing Indigenous socioeconomic status in the Pilbara" [12].
Professor Marcia Langton AM [14]
"...For the Western Australian
Government to now dispossess and displace the Peoples
of these homelands is de signed to facilitate an expeditious expansion of mining
interests and other developments" [15].
As mining companies sublease
[16] land back to the communities
who have lived on that land for
40 000 years, while elsewhere total
virtual control of mining operations
continues unabated from a capital
city 1200 km away [17], the trajectory for dystopic future scenarios
are vivid.
Picture for a moment an international consortia-led operation
controlling a fleet of tens of thousands of vehicles autonomously
mining the entire continent of Australia. If the trajectory of automated
and associated wearable technologies are to continue unabated,
persuaded by the allure of wealth
and fortune that an insipid and vile
Contrar y to Professor Marcia
Langton's assertion, it is not by choice
that Aboriginal communities are
dependent on government
welfare handouts, nor by
choice that they are made
dependent on the mining
sector (which exploits the
Mining has had an impact on
very country that Aboriginal communities are customany Aboriginal communities
dians of). Rather, we have to
in Australia.
question whether Aboriginal communities also have
a choice in what automation, ar tificial intelligence, and
mining royalty and its misguided
faceless international consortia will
cronies stockpile, then the scenario
bring in the near future.
could well become a (virtual) realAlso, in direct contrast to Proity, in turn having a marked effect
fessor Marcia Langton's assertion
on country, traditional owners, and
that mining is a welfare alternative,
their communities.
A few years later in the Journal of
Energy & Natural Resources Law
an article titled "Indigenous Employment in the Australian Mining Industry" states in abstract that:
"...research data from two
large mines with substantial
Indigenous workforces show
that there is potential for positive outcomes to be delivered for Indigenous people
who do obtain work in the
sector" [13].
Almost 8 years have passed as
we examine how one of many communities - who once counted on the
SEPTEMBER 2017
Ghillar Michael Anderson, leader of the Euahlayi people and
ambassador of the Aboriginal Tent
Embassy in Canberra, posits that
for remote communities the very
act of closure:
∕
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE
39
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