Social Impact Analysis and the Indigenous Rights Assessment 2022

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Social Impact Analysis and the Indigenous Rights
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Course
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Social Impact Analysis and the Indigenous Rights
Introduction
Social Impact Assessment (SIA) is the assessment that is conducted when undertaking a
project. As its name suggests, SIA focuses on the social effects of a project. Whenever a project
is implemented, it brings environmental social and economic changes to the people and the
surrounding. Whenever any project is to be launched, a thorough and objective SIA must be
undertaken. The law requires that SIA should precede any project because there is a need to hear
from the concerned stakeholders. SIA has been applied in many projects including those
touching on the indigenous communities-the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander people. A
typical project can have negative and positive economic and social impacts. The positive impacts
are desirable because they benefit the people. However, the negative ones are bad because they
cause losses, harm, and inconveniences. For a project to accomplish its objectives and be
considered to be beneficial to everyone, it must involve a SIA process.
SIA and the Indigenous Communities
Australia is a diverse society made up of people from different backgrounds. The country
consists of the majority whites and the minority immigrants as well as the indigenous
communities including the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander people. The Aboriginals
and the Torres Strait Islander people, therefore, constitute the indigenous communities in
Australia (Colvin, Witt, Lacey & Witt 2019, p. 43). Just like the other indigenous communities
from across the globe, the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander people are so disadvantaged.
These communities have suffered a lot of historical injustices in the hands of the colonial and
post-colonial government regimes.

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During the colonial period, these indigenous communities were driven away from their
ancestral lands. Indeed, this was the most serious injustice that these people have experienced.
Land alienation was a real disaster because these people have a very strong attachment to
traditional ancestor lands. Apart from this, the community has been experiencing a perpetual
discrimination. Unlike the rest of the Australian society, the indigenous community has been
deprived of the opportunities to access quality education, health care, employment, and any other
essential service that they should be entitled to (Saunders 2015, p. 142). This has made the
community to lag behind in terms of social, economic, and political progress and development.
Because of this, the government is becoming concerned about the indigenous communities.
Since they appear to be less empowered, the government is trying to ensure that the rights of
these indigenous communities are not trampled or violated any more (Aledo-Tur & Domínguez-
Gómez 2017, p. 59). That is why deliberate efforts have been made to protect the community’s
land, environment, and general welfare.
SIA is one of the strategies that have been applied in the pursuit for the protection of the
rights of the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander people. The idea of the implementation of
SIA was conceived when the need of the safeguarding of the welfare of the community arose
(Esteves, Factor, Vanclay, Götzmann & Moreira 2017, p. 77). For a very long time, the
community had been suffering in the hands of the governmental and non-governmental entities
which could come up with a project and implement it without consulting the community
irrespective of the negative consequences of such projects (Crowley, Hinchliffe & McDonald
2017, p. 141). As a community, the indigenous people had a right to be involved in any of the
projects that is to be launched in their lands. This must be done because, as the land owners, they
should have a say on whatever takes place in their midst. At the same time, they give their

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opinion on how such projects should be implemented and the expectations that they have
regarding them. Unfortunately, this has never been happening because the community has been
largely-ignored.
Case Study- The Browse LNG
SIA has become a necessity today. Whenever there is any plan to introduce any project
within the indigenous community, it is advisable to conduct a prerequisite SIA process. There are
many instances in which the application of SIA has been adopted in the community. There are
also many other occasions in which the SIA process has been omitted. Omission of SIA is
undesirable because it does not benefit the community. Apart from depriving it of its voice,
exclusion in the decision-making process exposes the community to lots of problems that would
otherwise be eliminated if there is a proper SIA process (O’Faircheallaigh 2017, p. 28). This
paper uses the Browse LNG project as a case study.
Browse LNG is a project that never was. In this project, plans were mooted to establish a
liquefied natural gas plant in James Price Point. This is an area located approximately 52
kilometers north of Broome in the western region of Australia. The purpose of the plant was to
process the natural gas that had been drilled from Browse Basin (Rodger 2019, p. 700). The
project was to be a joint venture to be undertaken by different investors including the BHP
Billiton Petroleum, Japan Australia LNG, BP Developments Australia, Royal Dutch Shell, and
Woodside Petroleum. With all these plans in mind, it shows that Browse LNG was intended to
be a valuable project that was to benefit the stakeholders in a number of ways. Apart from
generating revenues to the investors (in the form of profits), it would be a source of income to
the Australian government (O'Faircheallaigh 2015, p. 52). At the same time, it would create