Rear Window
Ex-Rio chief’s wife lashes ‘botched’ Indigenous heritage laws
Myriam RobinColumnistIf our partner had been deemed “partially responsible” for irrevocably blowing up an ancient Indigenous site, we would be circumspect about publicly denouncing Indigenous heritage protection laws.
But Muriel Demarcus, the wife of immediate past Rio Tinto chief Jean-Sebastien Jacques, has always been a special case.
The 2020 blasting of Juukan Gorge caused an outcry. PKKP Aboriginal Corporation
On Sunday, the French-born engineer (we’re only pointing that out because she would) took to the site formerly known as Twitter to pronounce her relief at the nation’s referendum result. Or, in her words, its resounding rejection of the “special privileges” endowed by an Indigenous Voice to parliament.
After a gabby screed on how victimised the Yes campaign made her feel as a “new Australian” (“so much for love and inclusivity”), she noted the position of Australian corporates in generously financing “an activist feast ... to prove that they were taking all stakeholders into account”.
“Well, it backlashed & the representativeness of boards clearly leaves much to be desired,” she wrote. “How can they be so disconnected with society?”
The question could (and will) be posed to many. But in Rio’s case, it is particularly incentivised to bend over backwards on Indigenous issues by the utmost necessity to distance itself from the irreversible tragedy that happened on her husband’s watch.
Self-proclaimed French ‘yummy mummy’ Muriel Demarcus.
That’s surely part of why it put $2 million towards the Yes campaign, and why it earlier supported Western Australia’s contentious and now-repealed Indigenous heritage laws, hurriedly introduced in a bid to stop Rio or anyone else legally blowing up priceless Indigenous sites ever again.
Debate about these laws, fast-tracked precisely because of Rio Tinto’s disastrous actions at a time her husband led it, had been in Demarcus’ reckoning “hijacked by activists”, leading to “a botched heritage act that had to be repealed after a few weeks”.
It’s hard to see anyone at Rio welcoming Demarcus’ public assessments, if only for dredging the whole thing up. Though that kind of thing never seems to have bothered her before.
When Jacques ran Rio, his wife maintained a marvellously indiscreet blog called French Yummy Mummy in which she revealed that she was “falling in love with Australia” and that “Sydney feels like home”.
Rio’s investors and employees became avid readers of this and other revelations, some pertaining to the family’s Australian residency status and location, others to Jacques’ travel itineraries, along with insights into his love of rugby and hand-knitted socks. Not that the French Yummy Mummy herself appreciated the attention.
The blog was archived sometime in 2018, and with Jacques’ highly lucrative exit, Demarcus’ oft-pronounced views became far less pertinent to Rio watchers. Until now.
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