Bougainville President in-depth on new mining legislation and more

ABC Radio Australia

Bougainville’s President, John Momis is set to introduce groundbreaking legislation into the Bougainville parliament next week.

The legislation is the first in the world to see landowers share sub-surface mineral rights with their government and the legislation also allows them to veto exploration.

Bougainville President John Momis explains in this in-depth interview.

Presenter: Jemima Garrett
Speaker: John Momis, President of the Autonomous Government of Bougainville.

MOMIS: The underlying philosophy for our new Mining Act is empowering people, giving people the power to make political decisions about development not just being mere passive recipients of benefits. That is a very important underlying philosophy that motivates us to move on the new mining act. A lot of people just see development as providing services and giving people benefits of development but not actually involving them as major stakeholders in the process of decision-making and the process of governance. Therein lies the difference between our mining act and the Papua New Guinea government Mining Act.

GARRETT: This sharing of mineral rights between the government and landowners is a world first. Will it actually work?

MOMIS: Well, we believe so. In our cultural context, resources, land, sea, minerals belong to the people, in fact that disagreement with the colonial law and the Australian government and Rio Tinto at the very beginning of the inception of the talks to develop Panguna mine, later on led to the crisis. You know the Australian government and Rio Tinto in their zeal to generate revenue completely ignored the peoples’ way of doing things so we want to get to the root cause of the problem and address the root cause by empowering people. So the ownership of the resources by the customary landowners is by tradition belong to the people and we are recommending in our new proposed bill that the ABG which represents the rest of the population in Bougainville, because of the bloodshed during the crisis in the rest of Bougainville in defence of customary rights, must also be a joint owner in the resources.

GARRETT: What will this legislation mean for Rio Tinto’s existing Panguna mine on Bougainville, a mine it is hoping to re-open? Does Rio Tinto need to be worried?

MOMIS: I don’t think so. What we are saying is that the resource no longer belongs to the state it belongs to the people and to their own government, that is the ABG. Rio Tinto will have to deal with us. We are the only legitimate authority with respect to mining in Bougainville.

GARRETT: How will the new legislation work on Rio Tinto’s Panguna mine if there is a small minority of landowners who do not agree that the project should go ahead?

MOMIS: Yes, our proposed bill gives the landowners the right to veto, veto any exploration which they so believe that the developer and the government are not doing the right thing. They also have the right to object once a development process begins after exploration should the developer and the government decide to go ahead with development. And the landowners also have the right to object and that puts a stop to the process and then we have to sit down and work out why other landowners say ‘no’ instead of what the Australian government did before, it just didn’t want to listen. Had they listened the Panguna mine would not have blown up in their face. So we are looking at the fact that the landowners, the resource owners must be major stakeholders in the decision-making. They must be given power. They are not just side, onlookers. So that doesn’t mean that the ABG, the government of the people of Bougainville, of course, has the ultimate authority, to issue licences and so on and so forth but it cannot do it in isolation of people’s involvement in the process, in isolation of people’s concerns and grievances. It must address them. There must be legitimate, meaningful consultation and not post facto consultation.

GARRETT: So as the legislation stands, landowners have a veto on exploration but not on mining itself. If there is a problem there is this discussion process. Is that correct?

MOMIS: They have the right to object which means the process cannot go ahead unless and until their grievances are addressed in the Bougainville mining development forum by the developer, their government, that is the ABG, and the affected landowners.

GARRETT: Some of the ex-combatants who are landowners from the Panguna mine are involved with companies that are mining the old tailings from the Rio Tinto site. To what extent is that driving opposition to Rio Tinto re-opening its operations on Bougainville?

MOMIS: Some of these ex-combatants, which are doing a bit of mining, which is illegal, will have to abide by the new mining law hence the importance and the urgency of the new mining law coming into existence. We could wait until all the ‘t’s are crossed and the ‘i’s are dotted. Now we are saying let’s cross the bridges as we come to them. Hence the urgency the importance to have a mining law now in order to enable the ABG to take control of the situation and citizens of Bougainville must abide by the laws of their own government.

GARRETT: There are also a number of small mining companies such as the Canadian company Murumbi, that are going around telling landowners that they – the landowners have an exclusive say and they are signing up exclusive exploration deals. Is that a problem as far as you are concerned?

MOMIS: They are a big problem. Again that is another reason why we have to have our own mining law, mining regime, put in place quickly so we can take control of the situation. ABG is the legitimate government. As you know we are in a post crisis situation, and like all post-war situations law and order is a problem. Our law enforcement agencies are not effective, people think they can do whatever they want to do and that is not right. The government, the ABG is committed to democracy, we are committed to the rule of law, we are committed to sustainable development and democratisation. That is why we have got to have laws that are fair and just and will protect the interests of the landowners as well as the interest of the common good, that is the interests of the rest of Bougainville. And people like Murumbi, whilst we recognise the right of customary landowners over their resources we are also saying only the government, that is the ABG, has the exclusive right to issue licences and control such things as who gets the benefits. There must be equitable distribution. We must not disadvantage those who are affected by the detrimental impacts of the mine like adjoining groups of people who are not in the mining area but who are detrimentally affected by the development and that is why we cannot allow and we must not allow anybody to act outside of the jurisdiction of the government and the law.

GARRETT: So what is your message to the companies that are going around and signing these sorts of deals with landowners?

MOMIS: My message is that they must forthwith stop. That what they are doing is illegal. There is a moratorium imposed in Bougainville and at the moment without our law being enforced the national government is the only legitimate authority to breach the moratorium. Once our law comes into force then the ABG will then be the legitimate authority to lift the moratorium. Without lifting the moratorium, anybody doing exploration, or who thinks he’s doing exploration, and intends to do mining is acting illegally and acting against the best interests of the people of Bougainville.

GARRETT: The Autonomous Government of Bougainville’s share in any mining venture will be held on behalf of the people of Bougainville, and that is a result of the bloodshed and recognises custom ways of doing things. How will that work exactly?

MOMIS: Number one, talk about shares, monetary shares we don’t know, as yet we have not decided whether we will, the ABG will hold equity in any mining deal. What we do know now is that the ABG, in the name of the rest of the people of Bougainville, is a joint partner in the ownership of resources. Now we may not want to buy shares but if we do, of course, we buy shares and own them on behalf of the rest of the population.

GARRETT: At the moment the PNG government owns a 19 per cent stake in the Rio Tinto subsidiary Bougainville Copper, which is the owner of the Panguna mine. You have said in the past that you want that stake transferred to the Bougainville government. How are negotiations going?

MOMIS: We will start negotiating soon. In my view we should, the ABG should start negotiating with the PNG government towards the latter half of this year and with Bougainville Copper round about the same time. In my view the 19 point 6 or 7 per cent that the PNG government owns, should really be transferred to us because Bougainville made a huge contribution to the national economy and got very little in return.

GARRETT: Will the PNG government handover the whole 19 per cent or will it want to keep a stake for itself?

MOMIS: Well, they may want to keep some percentage for themselves but it is only fair that the province that contributed the lion’s share of the revenue that enabled Papua New Guinea to become independent, and convinced the Australian government that independence for Papua New Guinea is viable, was Bougainville and we got very little in return. I was involved in both constitution-making and fighting for the rights of the landowners in Bougainville all these years. In 1972 when I got elected I moved a motion in parliament calling for a radical change in the mining policy and that mining policy should be used as a backdrop that the Bougainville Copper agreement should be re-negotiated to achieve a more equitable deal.

GARRETT: I understand you have a policy of a limit on the number of mines on Bougainville. What is that limit and why that policy?

MOMIS: Bougainville is a small place, Bougainville is mineral rich and it is very easy to ignore environmental impact detrimental effect on society so we believe one big mine is sufficient and if pressed we may allow for one more mine, no more. We know there are possibilities but we are making sure that we first of all make proper use of the revenue generated by the Panguna mine and have it equitably distributed. We want to make sure that the current generation, as well as the future generation, are looked after and that we have our own people educated and skilled to handle the problems that the mining process will bring on Bougainville. If we don’t then we’ll be swamped. Papua New Guinea is different, Papua New Guinea is a bigger place, a bigger population, we are only talking about 300-thousand people and I think one mine is sufficient. We want revenue of course to promote autonomy and fiscal self-reliance and help the people of Bougainville prepare for the referendum on independence and maintain unity at the same time. We don’t want to cause all kinds of problems that might be beyond our capacity to handle and manage in an intelligent and sustainable way.

GARRETT: Before the Rio Tinto mine can be re-opened the Bougainville Copper agreement needs to be renegotiated and for that landowner groups need to come together and speak with a united voice. How are those landowner negotiations progressing and when do you think they will be ready to begin those negotiations?

MOMIS: We have nine landowner organisations and we have come a long way as far as organising the landowner associations goes. All registered apart from one of two and expect that should be done fairly soon. The nine landowners have also agreed to an umbrella organisation to speak for them and participate in the negotiations. We are enabling the landowners to actually be the stakeholders that will participate with the government in the negotiations for the re-opening of Panguna mine.

GARRETT: Just how much opposition is there to the re-opening of the mine?

MOMIS: The bulk of the population want the re-opening of the mine. When people talk about the 10 billion that BCL and the national government must pay the landowners and the ex-combatants for the damage done, they must realise that without opening the Panguna mine, where will the company get the money to pay the ten billion. If the mine is operating then there’s a real possibility of negotiating an agreeable amount as compensation. So it doesn’t make sense for people who say let’s not open the mine now. Let’s leave it closed until after independence. How will we become independent, how will we achieve-fiscal self-reliance, how will we achieve fullest autonomy, how will we achieve rule of law and development, infrastructure development and so on and so forth. So I think it is only logical that the mine must be opened but on equitable terms, the developer must benefit of course, the government and the people. And also might I say here that is time, this is a golden opportunity for Australia and Rio Tinto who were to be blamed for a lot of the mess-up at Panguna and we the people of Bougainville, especially the ex-combatants, where we ourselves can come up with a new deal to stop the suffering of the people now. We cannot go on procrastinating and expect the people to survive under difficult conditions.

GARRETT: There is still some opposition to re-opening the mine. Where is it coming from and could it derail this whole process?

MOMIS: It is coming from a small group of Mekamui supporters, it’s quite a small group. We respect them. There are ways of engaging them. They want recognition. They are important. They are part of the landowners but the bulk of the landowners have agreed but that does not mean we should adopt an exclusivist approach. We must be all-inclusive and under my watch, I believe in collaboration, consultative, consensual form of decision-making. We want to include them in decision-making and even discussing the possibilities of recognising their group. You know the second level of government in Bougainville doesn’t have to be uniform. There are ways of recognising them by bringing them into the fold.

GARRETT: President John Momis, thank you very much for sharing your thoughts with Radio Australia.