Talk:Jeffrey Lee

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Talk Jeffrey Lee. As a friend of Jeffrey Lee' s family, including his grandfather,Old George,his grandmother.Old Ruby and his father Benny Lee I found this Sydney Morning Article disturbing in that it omitted some very important facts and in some parts was far from truthful. I was the Norhern Territory Manager for the Koongarra Project from 1980 until 2000. The Koongarra Project Area was deliberately excluded from the Kakadu National Park by the Australian Commonwealth Government as were the Jabiluka and Ranger uranium mines. Koongarra was discovered in late 1969 at least four years before the boundaries of the National Park were gazetted. When I arrived at Koongarra the Traditional Owners,the Federal Government, Noranda Ltd and the Northern Land Council had been in negotiations for at least four years and a complete Environmental Impact Statement had been completed. Let's move o0n to the major omissions . 1.)The Northern Land Council, the legal representatives of the Traditional Owners and Affected People under the Land Rights(Northern Territory ) Act 1976 informed the company that there wereat least twenty Traditional Owners of Koongarra and this was the case up until the last meeting in 2000. when Jeffrey Lee was declared the only Traditional owner. 2.)Jeffrey Lee accompanied his grandfather and father with me driving to have an Aboriginal Message stick carved and sent to the then Prime Minister of Australia, Bob Hawke requesting that Koongarra be developed.This message stick was given to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs,Clyde Holding by the then Chairman of the Northern Land Council,Gerry Blitner. 3.) Jeffrey Lee,his grandfather,grandmother, father and other Traditional Ownwers travelled to Canberra then to the Australian Labor National Conference in Hobart to try and influence the Government to allow Koongarra to be developed. 4.)Jeffrey Lee agreed to Koongarra going ahead at a meeting in Kakadu attended by the Northern Land Council the Federal Ministers Representative myself and our company solicitor.I and three Aborigines were invited to a celebration drink at Jeffrey's home that night. As for the company offering his grandfather and father a vehicle or a house the same applied to Jeffrey as part of the mining agreement where the senior Aborigines had opted for housing,transport,a health centre and school in the local area rather than all the mining "royalty" monies being distributed as cash payments. As for Jefrey's fear of earthquakes and sickness he has worked in and around mining sites,including Konngarra, is a member of the Kakadu Board of Management which monitors the Ranger and Jabiluka uranium deposits anf has not witnessed either due to mining. I have written to the journalist who wrote this story and he was not aware of all the facts but did say he didn't have enough room to publish the facts I sent to him. (Nooclear 20:26, 19 August 2007 (UTC))