one factor could be the royalty system in place for traditional owners, mining companies negotiate with the TOs , its a significant amount in some cases, I know of one NT community that is paid $17000 per man woman and child per month. Now that's how the figure is worked out, that sum then goes into a trust fund, and is distributed by the elders how they see fit. The same community has "lost $34million" one elder was sent to prison for roughly $500K of it, but the rest is unaccounted for. Its well documented, easy to google. Now the mining company is not going to be happy paying a mining tax and royalties are they? So if a mining tax was set at XXX% , then the government would then need to pay the royalties, not the company, because they are not going to pay both.
I assume this is referring to Groote Eylandt / Anindilyakwa, because that is the NT community most obviously associated with the Groote Eylandt Aboriginal Trust scandal — the case where ABC reported about $34 million went missing and Rosalie Lalara was later jailed over theft from the trust.
(ABC) On that assumption, the $17,000 per man, woman and child per month claim does not stack up. The ABS 2021 QuickStats for Anindilyakwa (Groote) show 1,574 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people.
(ABS) Paying 1,574 people $17,000 a month would require about $321.1 million a year.
That is almost the same as the NT Government’s entire mining and petroleum royalty take, which the NT Budget 2025–26 puts about $298 million for 2024–25 and about 340 million in the future.
(NT Budget)
By contrast, the Anindilyakwa Land Council Annual Report 2022–23 lists Section 64(3) Royalties — Receipts during the year: $59,153,861 and Negotiated Royalties — Receipts during the year: $21,270,723, for about $80.4 million combined.
(Anindilyakwa Annual Report) Even if that whole amount were divided equally across 1,574 people (which it is not) it would come to only about $4,258 per person per month, not $17,000. The ABS figures also point the same way: 355 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander households, 4.3 people per household, and median weekly household income of $856, which is only about $3,700 per month.
(ABS) If every person were really receiving $17,000 per month, a typical household would be taking in roughly $68,000 to $73,100 per month, which is plainly inconsistent with the published household-income profile for the community. Obviously, median household income and a claimed per-person royalty payment are not identical measures, but the gap here is so extreme that it strongly suggests the quoted payout figure isn't accurate. The Land Council’s own material also makes clear that much of the royalty money is channelled through Aboriginal corporations for community, organisational and operational purposes, rather than being mainly distributed as direct payments to individuals. The claim that elders simply distribute the money as they see fit is also not supported by the ALC’s own material, which describes a formal statutory and corporate process involving applications from Aboriginal corporations, consideration by the ALC Finance Committee, and recommendation to the ALC Board, alongside defined eligibility rules for any direct cash distributions. (
anindilyakwa.com.au)