L'Estrange wrote the internal review of the Juukan Gorge disaster, which was later criticised by Senator Pat Dodson as an \"unsatisfactory piece of work\" that was \"full of mea culpas and corporate lingo\". The National Native Title Council welcomed Thompson's resignation but said if Rio Tinto was serious about cultural change it would replace at least one of the outgoing executives or directors with at least one Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person. \"They are in desperate need of First Nations voices in there and First Nations leadership,\" NNTC chief executive Jamie Lowe said. \"And whether that be from an executive perspective or board level or other, that needs to happen Because Rio Tinto is not going anywhere, they are a multinational company, they have got a large footprints in Australia, so it's critical we get those First Nations voices in there to make sure they are doing the right thing.\" Lowe said that while the turnover in senior leadership was signicant, he would wait to see if the company's actions changed. \"It's no mean feat to get rid of your CED, your chairman, other executives, other board members, all in the space of a six month period,\" he said. \"They are signalling the right intent but the proof will he in the pudding, in the action that they deliver.\" Ian Silk, the chief executive of Australia's biggest superannuation fund, AnstralianSuper, said the resignations of Thompson and L'Estrange provided Rio with an opportunity to appoint more Australians to the board. He said it was \"appropriate and timely\" for Thompson to assist with the transition from Jaques to Jakob Stausholrn, who was appointed CEO in December. \"However, as Mr Thompson has said, he is 'ultimately accountable' for the failings that led to the Juukan Gorge incident, and as a result his resignation is an appropriate acknowledgement of that governance failure,\" Silk said. Super fund Hesta, which campaigned heavily for change at Rio after Juukan Gorge, also welcomed the departures. \"Investors need condence Rio, throughout the organisation, will act in good faith with all stakeholders,\" chief executive Debby Blakey said. \"The decision today allows for a fresh perspective and a renewed board focus on repairing and building stronger links with Indigenous communities in the countries in which Rio operates. News Opinion Sport Culture Lifestyle Rio Tinto Former Rio Tinto CEO handed 20% pay rise despite caves scandal Jillian Ambrose Tue 23 Feb 2021 00.12 AEDT The dicararad former chief avarutivo of Rin Tinto was handed 67 om for lact woor a nowL Jean-Sbastien Jacques stepped down as chief executive in the wake of the scandal. Photo-graph: Hannah McKayi'Reuters Jacques was replaced at the start of the year by Rio Tinto's former chief nancial ofcer, Jakob Staushoh'n. Stausholm said the company has been \"working to restore trust with the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people\". \"We are also developing additional measures to strengthen our partnerships with traditional owners in Australia, including a commitment to modernise and improve agreements in the Pilbara, home to our iron ore business,\" he said. In Rio Tinto's annual report, the board said Iacques' windfall was in large part due to the signicant increase in the company's share price after he became chief executive of the miner in 2016. The company's market value has more than tripled in the last ve years, to more than 78.4bn, and for 2020 it handed shareholders a record payout of 91m, the highest in the company's 148-year history. The company's fortunes have improved in line with the rising price of iron ore, which is used to make steel, and copper for use in electricity infrastructure. The strong global demand for the metals has driven copper and iron ore priCes to nine-year highs in recent weeks. Rio Tinto's chairman, Simon Thompson, said that allowing the destruction of the Juukan Gorge was \"a breach of both our values and the trust placed in us\" by the \"traditional owners of the land on which we operate\". E Enter your email address Sign up Sign up to the daily Business Today email \"In the months and years to come, we are determined to learn the lessons from Juukan Gorge, to rebuild the trust that has been lost, and to reestablish our leadership in environmental and social performance,\" he said. \"Today, shareholders are increasingly focused not only on the nancial return that they can earn on their investment, but also on how that return is made. In order to build and maintain trust in Rio Tinto, we must seek to achieve environmental and social goals alongside generating prot for our shareholders.\" The Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) said Rio Tinto's handling of the disaster raises more questions about the tness of its current board. "Rigorous board oversight and governance will be crucial to achieving future progress in this regard." The activist shareholder group the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility welcomed Thompson and L'Estrange's departures but said other directors including Sam Laidlaw should also consider their positions. Laidlaw, who chairs a remuneration committee that approved payouts for the departing executives, and another senior independent director, Simon Mckeon, will lead Rio Tinto's search for a permanent replacement for Thompson. "I am proud of Rio Tinto's achievements in 2020, including our outstanding response to the Covid-19 pandemic, a second successive fatality-free year, significant progress with our climate change strategy, and strong shareholder returns," Thompson said. "However, these successes were overshadowed by the destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters at the Brockman 4 operations in Australia and, as Chairman, I am ultimately accountable for the failings that led to this tragic event." ACCR's legal counsel, James Fitzgerald, said that there was "no realistic prospect of Rio Tinto rebuilding its relationships and its reputation while those responsible for the degradation of its culture remained on its board". "The departure of Thompson and L'Estrange suggests that Rio Tinto is also well aware of this. "News of their departure is welcome but other directors like Sam Laidlaw need to reflect on whether their continuing as directors is the interests of the company and its shareholders." Labor's Indigenous affairs spokesperson, Linda Burney, said Thompson's acknowledgement that the destruction of Juukan Gorge was "a source of personal sadness and deep regret" was "important". "I sincerely hope this acknowledgement is a further step towards substantive cultural change - not only within Rio Tinto, but the mining sector as a whole - which sees companies work more closely and constructively with Traditional Owners to ensure incidents like this never happen again." L'Estrange's review found Rio received four separate reports detailing the significance of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura peoplesL HC uisglateu Timei LICI CACLuLIVE VI NV III Was HIGHlucu E/.2III IVI last year, a pay rise of 20%, despite overseeing the destruction of the sacred 46,000-year-old rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia. Jean-Sebastien Jacques agreed to step down from the mining company "by mutual agreement" with Rio Tinto's board after the Juukan Gorge scandal last year, but the ousted mining boss will still take home his biggest ever pay packet for his time as chief executive. On top of the f7.2m pay for last year, Jacques, who stepped down on 1 January, will take home f519,000 for his remaining five months of unworked notice period this year, and f215,000 for his unused leave. Other senior executives who stepped down in the wake of the Juukan scandal have also received financial benefits. Simone Niven, the head of corporate relations, and Chris Salisbury, the head of iron ore, were given "termination benefits" worth $1m and $1.3m respectively. The decision to blow up the rock shelters in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, which were highly significant to the area's Aboriginal traditional owners, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people, was taken to help the Anglo-Australian miner access better-quality iron ore deposits. It led to an outcry from Indigenous Australian groups and investors, who denounced the board's decision to dock Jacques' pay by fim as inadequate, and to calls for Jacques to be removed as chief executive.(PKKP) in the years between receiving government approval to destroy the site in 2013 and detonating the blast last May. They included: a 2013 ethnographic survey stating the site was \"of high signicance to Puutu Kunti Kurrama, in the old days and still today\"; a 2014 draft report of an archeological survey, paid for by Rio, which detailed signs of continuous occupation over 46,000 years including a 4,000 year-old hair belt which DNA testing revealed showed a direct genetic link to PKKP living today; the 2013 nal report of that archeological survey which said the site has \"the amazing potential to radically change our understanding of the earliest human behaviour in Australia\"; and an ethnographic survey in 2020 further outlining the signicance of the site to the PKKP. At a Senate inquiry last year, Rio Tinto's vice-president of corporate relations in Australia, Brad Haynes, said no one in the senior executive team had read any of those reports before May 2020 \"because we were always operating on the basis that there was consen \". At the same hearing, Jacques said Rio had not told the PKKP that it had considered, and dismissed, options for expanding the mine that would have left the sacred sites intact. The destruction of the site was outlined in a lengthy and complicated partnership agreement in 2011. Once permission to destroy the site was granted under WA's outdated Aboriginal heritage laws, it was removed as an obstacle from Rio's operational maps. Evidence presented to the Senate inquiry showed the PKKP repeatedly voiced their concerns directly to the company. The partnership agreement contained non- disparagernent clauses that prevented the PKKP from publicly expressing their concerns about the site. Minutes from meetings held by Rio in the days before the site was destroyed show that the company hired lawyers for a potential injunction against the PKKP in the event the gag clause was breached. The PKKP issued a media release the day after the sites were destroyed. The PKKP and the Indigenous affairs minister, Ken Wyatt, both declined to comment on Thompson's resignation. The group has called on investors to \"hold Thompson and other board members accountable\" and insist on \"necessary, constructive change to the company's board composition so that the task of rebuilding community trustcan begin in earnest\". News Opinion Sport Culture Lifestyle X Rio Tinto X X X Rio Tinto Rio Tinto investors welcome chair's decision to step down after Juukan Gorge scandal Ben Butler and Calla Wahlquist Wed 3 Mar 2021 13.24 AEDT Investors and First Nations groups have welcomed the Rio Tinto chair Simon Thompson's decision to leave the company after accepting he was "ultimately accountable" for the mining company's decision to blow up ancient rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara. Thompson will not stand for re-election to the board next year in a decision that follows the resignations in September of the chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques, the head of corporate relations Simone Niven and the iron ore boss Chris Salisbury. Separately, the non-executive director Michael L'Estrange will retire after this year's shareholder meeting. Rio Tinto said he needed to reduce his workload after "significant surgery"