Rights or Resources? The Australian Mining Industry Council's Campaign against Aboriginal Land Rights and the (Dis)Illusion of Equality, 1975–1983

In 1976, the Fraser Government passed the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act . This piece of legislation was one of the results of the Whitlam Government's radical commitment to Aboriginal self‐determination. It was, however, hotly contested by proponents of the mining industry. This article explores two of the key arguments put forward by the Australian Mining Industry Council (AMIC) in opposition to the Fraser Government's provision of land rights to Aboriginal peoples in the Northern Territory. Through its anti‐land rights campaign, AMIC attempted to present itself as an arbiter of equality in the 1970s by pushing two overarching narratives about land rights. First, the Council maintained that land rights legislation was discriminatory, akin to “apartheid” in its creation of division in the Australian population. And in a second, related, line of argument, AMIC insisted that land rights threatened the democratic rights and expectations of all citizens, fundamentally undermining the Government's constitutional responsibilities to its people. As far as AMIC was concerned, the Australian people had a choice in front of them by the mid‐to‐late 1970s: rights or resources.