"Stop Unimin from totally destroying Stradbroke Island”, Aboriginal leaders Dale Ruska and Sam Watson, urging supporters to attend a rally outside the Magistrates' Court on July 14. “Stop this mining vandal and thief. The Stradbroke Island people need your support. The state government has taken Unimim to court. They must be judged and they must be stopped!"
Multinational company Unimin was facing charges for illegally mining and selling $80 million worth of sand on North Stradbroke Island over the past decade. Forty people rallied outside. The case had been adjourned until September 7, when a further protest action will be held.
Ruska thanked the people for supporting the campaign to save Stradbroke Island. "We are demanding that the company be prosecuted for a serious, indictable, criminal offence. We call for the recovery of all unlawful proceeds, and their return to the Aboriginal traditional owners.
"My family and my mob see the importance of this issue, as traditional owners, as representatives of the first nations of this country. We call for equality in the criminal justice system. The state government is also implicated in this unlawful activity, as the receiver of royalties from the stolen sand. This is legal grand theft.”
The state government has declared that sand mining will be phased out and a national park introduced on North Stradbroke Island. Ruska called for it to also give prior recognition to the land claims of the Aboriginal residents on the island.
For more information, visit www.savestraddie.com.
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