Fairfax Media will tomorrow apologise to Tony Abbott’s top indigenous adviser, Warren Mundine, over a series of articles that falsely claimed he brokered a deal that gave a mining company access to an Aboriginal sacred site in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. Fairfax alleged last July that a company part-owned by Mr Mundine was hired by the listed Reward Minerals to convince the Western Desert Lands Aboriginal Corporation to drop its opposition to a mine at Lake Disappointment, a sacred site for the Martu people of the Pilbara. Mr Mundine, the head of the Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council, sued Fairfax for defamation, describing the allegations as “false” and “disgraceful journalism”. His lawyer, George Newhouse, today confirmed a settlement with Fairfax had been reached. But he declined to say whether Mr Mundine had received any payment from Fairfax as part of the settlement. In a statement Mr Mundine said: “Fairfax made a number of inflammatory allegations against me in those articles; allegations which were untrue, harmful to my reputation and standing, both personally and professionally, and particularly damaging to me as an Aboriginal man who regularly deals with indigenous people, communities and organisations. “I can today confirm that those legal proceedings have been settled and concluded with Fairfax agreeing to apologise to me and to provide a retraction. “Fairfax has acknowledged that I had nothing to do with the Lake Disappointment deal, directly or indirectly. “They have published an apology in their print and online publications and have withdrawn all criticisms made of me. “They have also agreed to remove the offending articles and allegations from their online publications and not to republish them. “I wish to reiterate that I was never involved in negotiations or discussions between Reward and WDLAC or the Martu people, either directly or behind the scenes, nor received any benefits in connection with those dealings. “Notwithstanding the apology and retraction, the harm done to me both personally and professionally by this episode can never be completely undone. “I would have preferred not to have spent a year of my life living under the shadow of these allegations and a good part of that year working to reverse this injustice.” Fairfax has been contacted for comment.
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