Tracking Onslow: Journalists recording impact over time

Authors

Kayt Davies, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow

Document Type

Journal Article

Publisher

Society for Cultural Anthropology

Faculty

Faculty of Education and Arts

School

School of Arts and Humanities

RAS ID

20516

Comments

Davies, K. (2015). Tracking Onslow: Journalists recording impact over time. Cultural Anthropology.

Abstract

There are competing narratives in the Australian public sphere about mineral extraction. Keen on royalties, the current pro-extraction conservative state and federal governments argue that extraction boosts employment and provides trickle-down financial benefits to local businesses and communities. However, a left-wing think tank, the Australia Institute, has questioned the mathematics and modeling behind these claims (Richardson 2009; Campbell 2014), even as left-wing parties have argued that extraction companies should pay more taxes (Brown, Clout, and Ferguson 2015). In response, extraction companies have invested in securing a social license to operate by funding social projects in host communities, such as Onslow, and in associated population centers, such as Western Austalia’s capital city of Perth (Krzywosinski 2014). Anti-extraction arguments are most often voiced by scientists and activists from places other than the host communities, and traditionally center on concern for the environment.

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