Precedent legal documents from the commercial equity arrangement the Wellington Aboriginal community negotiated with AMPYR Australia for the Bulabul Battery project have been publicly shared, offering a template for First Nations equity participation in other projects. 

Exploring the impacts of offshore development on First Nations’ cultural heritage, this article proposes integration of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), into the regulatory and legislative offshore environment.

In the Australian context, this particularly regards administrative and regulatory reforms to overcome uncertainty arising from recent decisions in the Federal Court.

The international focus on new energy has fast-tracked many processes that sideline First Nations’ rights, hitherto understood within the onshore minerals extraction regimes.

The reforms proposed in this article recognise an international commitment to enact the principles contained in the UNDRIP and other relevant international law.

Authors: Hoskins, R.; Ogilvie, G.; Storey, M.; Hill, A. Why Are Cultural Rights over Sea Country Less Recognised than Terrestrial Ones? Heritage 2025, 8, 283. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/heritage8070283

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Thanks for use of the photo by Maël BALLAND on Unsplash

Free prior informed consent (FPIC) is frequently cited as a legal standard for the development of extractives projects which impact Indigenous groups. The basic concept is that mining impacts should not occur without the group’s FPIC, but that simplicity hides domestic complexity.

This paper outlines the current state of FPIC at the international level, examines some common difficulties, and then describes Australian domestic law regarding these issues.

Author: John Southalan, “The FPIC Fixation: Indigenous - Mining Law, Internationally and Australia”, International Mining and Oil & Gas Law, Development, and Investment 22A-1 (Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, 2019)

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The front page image used in the report is from here.