The first independence movement emerged in the late 1960s, at a time when other colonial governments were being dismantled in Asian and African nations. The local indigenous people began to air their grievances against the Australian colonial government over the handling of the Panguna mine and protested the inadequate sharing of revenues being generated from mining on their land. Australian External Territories Minister Charles Barnes was accused of telling the Bougainvillean people they would "get nothing". The local people sued for compensation and the case went to the High Court of Australia. It found that the compensation was inadequate under ordinary federal Australian law. But, as an external territory, Papua New Guinea was not guaranteed the same standards that applied to mainland Australia.