The mining boom and indigenous communities
Boyd Hunter, Monica Howlett and Matthew Gray, Centre for Aboriginal
Economic Policy Research (CAEPR)
Until the global financial crisis dampened Australian growth in late 2008, Indigenous employment
increased in both absolute and relative terms for over a decade. The effect of the international
economic contraction has been mitigated by Australia’s booming mining sector arising largely from
growing Chinese demand for resources. Given that a substantial number of mining operations are on
or near Indigenous communities, the increase in mining investment since 2006 may have
disproportionately affected such communities. Langton (2010) describes a resource curse on local
Indigenous populations in the Pilbara and Kalgoorlie regions of Western Australia. Intuitively anyone
who does not work is disadvantaged in important ways: their income is much lower, yet they must
pay the same prices for housing, food and services that may have been inflated as a result of large
scale mining activities in a particular area. This presentation examines the local change in Indigenous
employment, income and housing payments to identify any localised ‘resource curse’ for Indigenous
communities and the Australian population at large. The paper draws upon data from recent
censuses and information on the geographic location of mines and mining investment to identify
some potentially important effects of the mining boom on Indigenous community.