The first of many roundtables feeding into the co-design of the Federal government’s First Nations Clean Energy Strategy was held on 27-28 March 2023 in Port Hedland, Western Australia, with over 70 people in attendance.
There were a number of key learnings from the Pilbara roundtable, including:
- Households and communities need affordable energy security and access to grants and subsidies
- Co-designed small-scale community-led and owned projects are preferred
- Access to information assists informed decision making
- Education, training and community capacity building is critical going forward
- Genuine partnerships must be built with industry and government
- First Nations people and organisations need resourcing to realise opportunities and co-benefits
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Project negotiations must be a on a fair playing field, with rights protected, including Free Prior and Informed Consent