21 August 2024
Subjects: Plibersek’s chilling decision to block the Regis goldmine in regional NSW, Coalition disallowance motion seeking to overturn the decision
E&OE
Ben Fordham:
The Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek, is under fire. She has vetoed a billion-dollar gold mine in Central West NSW and this thing is blowing up in her face. The Minister justified her decision by citing Indigenous cultural significance of a nearby river and ordered a dam to be moved, even though those behind the project. So we can’t just move the dam. We would have done that a long time ago if we could have done it. The Minister wasn’t listening to the official Land Council who says the mine won’t impact any Indigenous sacred sites. It’s now been revealed that Tanya Plibersek was in fact listening to a fringe Aboriginal corporation that only has eighteen members. The corporation has faced several complaints over the years. It doesn’t even list the full names of their members on the official government website. In response, the Coalition has introduced a motion in the Senate to overturn Tanya Plibersek’s decision. Senator Jonno Duniam is the Shadow Environment Minister. He’s on the line right now. Senator, good morning to you.
Senator Duniam:
Good morning, Ben. Good to be with you.
Ben Fordham:
So Tanya Plibersek was not listening to the local Aboriginal Land Council.
Senator Duniam:
No, because I’m pretty sure that their story didn’t suit her purposes. And you know when you’ve got a group of people, the Orange Aboriginal Land Council, saying this is fine by us, we can manage any of the risks, it actually doesn’t disrupt our cultural heritage, and then you’ve got another group who we don’t actually even know what reasons they had behind their objection because apparently the cultural sensitivities mean it has to be kept secret. So in this astounding kind of events, Tanya Plibersek gets a complaint from a group of less than twenty people and won’t tell us what the reasons are. Anything is up for grabs and no project is safe and I think the laws need to be changed.
Ben Fordham:
I mean it’s quite extraordinary when you think that a billion dollar project can be vetoed and the Minister who makes a decision, says, look, I can’t tell you the reasons why, it’s a secret, someone whispered something in my ear.
Senator Duniam:
And lots more. Under the Act that she made this decision, you can make an application orally. It doesn’t even have to be in writing now. I guess there are cultural reasons for that, but the backdrop here is this project went through years and years of assessments, of consultation. It ticked every state and federal environmental approval and we know there are a lot of projects that don’t even make it that far, but it made it through all of those hurdles, gets to this one and yes, as you say, based on some secret information none of us will ever know about, she has been able to sign a bit of paper and knock this project on the head, costing us a billion dollars and 800 jobs in the central West of New South Wales.
Ben Fordham:
So, Jonno, what are you doing to overturn it?
Senator Duniam:
Well, our position is we reject her decision and we’ve lodged a disallowance motion which in effect overturns her decision. We think that you’ve got to get the balance right and if the actual Land Council, the Orange Aboriginal Land Council, are saying this is manageable then balance can be struck. And so we are going to reject her decision in the Senate and I hope that anyone who wants to see a future made in Australia, and that’s the Labor Party, they reckon they want to see a future made in Australia, you know, people like Lydia Thorpe, I hope they can jump on board and see what’s going on here and actually back in this disallowance and allow a good project to get up and of course all these people to get the jobs they need.
Ben Fordham:
It was a massive controversy decades ago involving secret women’s business. It turned out to be all a front essentially, for groups that just wanted to stop a bridge from being built. I would have thought that Tanya Plibersek would have learned through that experience. You can’t go leaning on secret business when you’ve got a billion-dollar project on the line. We’ll see what happens in the Senate. Thanks so much for jumping on this morning.
Senator Duniam:
Thanks, Ben. We’ll see how we go.
Ben Fordham:
Jonno Duniam, the Shadow Environment Minister. So Tanya Plibersek, relying on secrets and whisper from an Aboriginal corporation with 18 members and they don’t even list their full names on the website. What was she thinking?