Australian miners get human rights policies

A native title lawyer says mining, oil and gas companies are increasingly developing human rights policies to help manage the impacts of their projects on Indigenous populations.

Charles Gregory, from McCullough Robertson Lawyers, addressed the National Native Title Conference in Alice Springs this week, attended by more than 700 people.

He says while company human rights policies are still rare in Australia, they are becoming more common particularly within multinational companies.

"In Australia, we have a very weak human rights background and we don't talk about human rights a lot," he said.

"We don't have a human rights act, or have a constitution that recognises human rights.

"However, because of the impact its had Europe, America and South America, human rights have come to be incorporated into mining company policies, setting out the rights of Indigenous people and specifically the responsibility of companies when they are developing projects on lands owned by Indigenous people."

Mr Gregory says the policies are largely voluntary, and have largely been developed in countries where there are a lack of laws outlining how mining companies should negotiate with Indigenous people.

"For example, for a client working in South Africa, a significant majority of its workforce has HIV or AIDS," he said.

"It was clear by doing a human rights assessment under its own internal policies that it needed to ensure that its staff had access to the necessary health services.

"They developed particular health care policies, and that was directly related to their human rights policies.

"As larger multinational companies incorporate human rights like this policies overseas, they will have to incorporate them into their Australian operations as well."

Mr Gregory says human rights policies may be particularly applicable in Queensland or Western Australia where Indigenous people have no veto right over projects.

(2013-06-06/abc)