Bill Townsend, who manages the Ichthys joint venture with French super-major Total for Inpex, told Energy News that he engaged Reconciliation Australia well before the Japanese multinational bedded down its $20 billion debt funding with eight credit export agencies and 24 commercial banks in December 2012.

In fact, he facilitated Inpex's first reconciliation action plan with RA in May 2012, after Inpex made final investment decision on Ichthys in January that year.

In 2009 he appointed Noongar elder Irene Stanton to a newly created role of senior Aboriginal affairs advisor at Inpex, and she helped deliver the outcomes of its RAP.

The export credit agencies and international banks who lent Inpex all the funding to help develop the Ichthys require it to abide by the International Finance Corporation's performance standards - a very strict set of rules on which it is held to account with Italian consultancy D'Appalonia coming to Darwin twice a year to audit its compliance.

These rules were principally designed for third world countries to ensure international resource companies don't take advantage of lax laws and lower standards.

However, Townsend said that even in Australia, which has some of the highest standards and strictest standards in the world, there are certain areas - particularly in the "Aboriginal space" - where the IFC performance standards really kick in and require an additional level of engagement and participation.

One of these requirements is to develop an indigenous people's development plan.

"I talked to RA about what was possible and went back to the banks and said that, as a facsimile for the IPDP, would it be acceptable if we developed our own reconciliation action plan, which is a framework that's already familiar to the Australian market and could be implemented," Townsend said.

This underpinned the debt funding package - the biggest in the world at the time and still stands today - and also demonstrated its increasing importance, he said.

"We talk about the social licence to operate, but certainly the role of being a good corporate citizen, of doing the right thing, doesn't go unnoticed - and especially when we're borrowing that amount of money, where the banks are effectively signing up as our partners," Townsend said.

"What the banks are saying to us - and rightfully so - is that ‘if we're going to be partners with you we want to make sure that you protect our reputation, and to do that you need to abide by these standards', which include very strict rules on Aboriginal participation, and also communication with Aboriginal communities and ensuring they get their fair share.

"We spent quite a bit of time demonstrating that we engaged with local communities, particularly in Darwin where we have a big footprint, and that the Aboriginal community is given a chance to express a view.

"D'Appalonia travels to Darwin with us to see what we're doing on the ground and critiques it and tells us what we're doing well and what we need to improve on. They keep us on our toes.

"For me, I actually see it as a good thing. It forces us to lift our game."

Exceeding expectations

Townsend said the key was getting a commitment from its engineering, procurement and construction contractor JKC (the JGC KBR Chiyoda Joint Venture) in Darwin, with specific provisions in the contact that required them to develop a strategy for how they were going to deliver better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Townsend calls it "putting the machinery in place" - a team dedicated to increasing the numbers of Aboriginal people in the project and putting the mentoring in place to keep them there, and tracking that workforce.

Inpex has had more than 750 job starts by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people already on site at Ichthys this year, exceeding its aim of 650.

With the looming challenge of moving into the operations phase, it has further requirements to increase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment at Inpex, as opposed to the contract workforce.

"This year, we're focusing more on internally within Inpex, creating the environment and putting in a mentoring program and doing more through our human resources team to facilitate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment," Townsend said.

As part of this cultural process, last year Inpex held a room naming ceremony for its Perth office using Noongar names - the main boardroom is the Derbal Yaragan room, which is the Noongar name for the Swan River, which runs through Perth. The rooms used for education and training have been badged the Kaatatjin rooms as Kaatatjin means "to know and understand" and Kaata means "head".