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Outback council to cut road funding as MinRes pursues $158,000 refund
🇦🇺 Australia /Economy & Trade

Outback council to cut road funding as MinRes pursues $158,000 refund

From ABC Australia · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Approved/passed
  • The Shire of East Pilbara plans to refund Mineral Resources $158,000 after Western Australia overturned legal changes that allowed councils to charge rates on mining companies occupying Crown land.
  • The council president said the payment would come from road maintenance funds, potentially reducing services across more than 3,000 kilometres of unsealed roads.
  • Residents of Kunawarritji said deteriorating roads were already delaying fuel deliveries and threatening access to critical supplies.

A remote Western Australian council will take $158,000 from its road maintenance budget to refund mining company Mineral Resources, even as isolated communities wait for road repairs.

The $158,000 has to come from somewhere, and that's the budget that will come from.

— Anthony MiddletonThe East Pilbara Shire president explained that the refund would come from road maintenance funds.

The Shire of East Pilbara must repay rates collected from MinRes after the state government overturned a Supreme Court decision that had allowed local councils to charge resources companies mining occupied Crown land. The refunds apply retroactively to the 2017-18 financial year.

Shire president Anthony Middleton said the money had to come from the council's existing budget. With more than 3,000 kilometres of dirt roads to maintain, he warned the repayment would reduce services and leave residents unhappy. The shire had asked MinRes to withdraw its refund application, but said the company declined.

It will be a reduction in service provision … we have got over 3,000 kilometres of dirt road.

— Anthony MiddletonMiddleton warned that the repayment would reduce services across the shire's extensive unsealed road network.

The decision has drawn anger from the Western Desert community of Kunawarritji, about 2,000 kilometres north-east of Perth. Chris Flood, chief executive of the Kunawarritji Aboriginal Corporation, said the road into the community had severely deteriorated and was hampering deliveries of critical supplies. Fuel had not arrived for weeks, and one supplier had threatened to cancel future deliveries if conditions worsened.

It's a bit disgusting that the shire has gone that way.

— Chris FloodThe Kunawarritji Aboriginal Corporation chief executive criticized the decision because of its effect on the remote community.

“It's a bit disgusting that the shire has gone that way,” Flood said. “It's a safety issue. Do they not care about people's lives? That's how it looks.” Shire officials described the retrospective refunds as “punitive” in documents prepared for a council meeting. MinRes, which reported a $1.2 billion net profit for the 2025-26 financial year, said the repayment resulted from amendments to the Local Government Act and offered flexibility to spread the payment over several years.

It's a safety issue. Do they not care about people's lives? That's how it looks.

— Chris FloodFlood described the deteriorating road conditions and their effect on fuel and supply deliveries.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Australia in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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