Economic development in Australia, especially resource development, has purportedly long been pursued for the greater good of the nation and its people and is thus often equated to moral progress. Yet, despite the celebrated spoils of the resources sector, Indigenous Australians have persistently been denied the benefits of economic progress owing to a history of colonialism, dispossession, segregation and assimilation policies, which have contributed to the marginalisation of Indigenous people to the present day. Thus, this article asks whether orthodox resource-led development has a social licence, and importantly for whose greater good?

This paper applies a social licence lens to current water extraction proposals for Western Australia's remote Martuwarra Fitzroy River region where ecological values have largely remained intact and Indigenous people make up over 60 per cent of the population. It is argued the proposed water extraction plans hold little promise of serving either local or national interests when judged holistically and risk perpetuating adverse socio-cultural and ecological legacies from extractive activities for local Indigenous peoples. Within the Martuwarra Fitzroy River context, this paper seeks to redefine the ‘greater good’ and to articulate ‘socially licenced’ development alternatives without the ecological and cultural trade-offs typical of orthodox development.

澳大利亚的经济发展，尤其是资源开发，据称长期以来一直是为了国家和人民的更大利益而追求的，因此往往等同于道德进步。然而，尽管资源部门取得了著名的战利品，但由于殖民主义、剥夺、隔离和同化政策的历史，土著澳大利亚人一直被剥夺了经济进步的好处，这些政策导致土著人民直到今天被边缘化。因此，本文询问正统的资源主导型开发是否具有社会许可，重要的是为了谁的利益更大？

本文将社会许可视角应用于西澳大利亚偏远的Martuwarra Fitzroy 河地区的当前取水建议，该地区的生态价值基本保持不变，土著人占人口的 60% 以上。有人认为，从整体上判断，拟议的取水计划几乎没有为当地或国家利益服务的希望，并且有可能使当地土著人民的取水活动带来不利的社会文化和生态遗产。在Martuwarra Fitzroy River 的背景下，本文试图重新定义“更大的利益”，并阐明“社会许可”的发展替代方案，而没有正统发展典型的生态和文化权衡。