5 September 2024
Topics: Labor’s gas strategy in tatters, Coalition’s plans to fast-track the environmental approvals for projects, Albanese Government banning uranium mining at Jabiluka, potential use of Indigenous Cultural Heritage Laws by the Environment Minister on Lake Torrens
E&OE
Andrew Bolt:
Joining us, the Opposition’s environment spokesman, Senator Jonathon Duniam. Senator, look I’ll talk to you later about another thing that I really want to talk to you about, but this, what do you plan to do if you win government to make sure this war against gas development is stopped?
Senator Duniam:
Well, Andrew, it’s good to be with you and can I say, it is madness. You use the word that I often use to describe the situation we’re in, the fact that we are frankly cutting our nose off despite our face. We should have laws that facilitate investment, that facilitate activities like gas exploration that we need to grow our economy, to keep the lights on, to keep warm in winter, rather than blocking it the way we are. And Peter Dutton made a commitment that our laws, if we’re elected at the next election around environmental approvals, will never ever again see things like sixteen years to get a gas project or a mine approved. We would stop groups of people masquerading as Indigenous Australians as using their identity as a means to stop projects like the ones we’ve heard about this week. When you’ve got legislation that enables groups to do that, we are not doing the right thing by the people of Australia who need these resources, who need these projects. So we would do everything we can to ensure that we have the gas we need and the jobs that go with these projects by fixing the laws as a matter of priority.
Andrew Bolt:
I’ve never seen such wilful self-denial of this vandalism. We also had the Prime Minister this year say he was banning any mining of the huge uranium deposit at Jabiluka and said it’d make that site, that mine site, part of the Kakadu National Park. That’s another energy source we made that we may need being locked up. Would you reverse that decision?
Senator Duniam:
Well, I think we’d have to look at the process this Government’s gone through to make that declaration. I’d also note that of course, we have a new parks and new mining Minister, thankfully, in the NT after last weekend’s elections, that’s a very good outcome. But I am very sceptical about the process that the Albanese Labor Government went through to declare this park. We do need that resource and we need to make sure we have everything available to us, in our interests, to bring down power prices, to ensure that we can attract investment that we need. So, that’s certainly something we’ll look very closely at that but I think given the lack of transparency on this decision along with so many others by this government, there is something very fishy we need to get to the bottom of here.
Andrew Bolt:
It’s just unbelievable. Coal, gas, uranium under our feet and increasingly we’re stopping ourselves from using it. There’s also this decision of Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to effectively ban a $1 billion gold mine because of secret Aboriginal business. Plibersek is now even considering a new report telling it to use heritage laws to stop plans to mine and drill South Australia’s Lake Torrens for copper, uranium and gold. What’s the story with the Lake Torrens? Should we allow mining there?
Senator Duniam:
Well, I honestly am becoming very sceptical about a lot of the claims that are being made and I don’t know the full details behind the claim over this lake, but there has to be a way that cultural heritage can coexist with economic development in the same way that good environmental outcomes are not mutually exclusive from economic activity. So Tanya Plibersek is taking this giant sledgehammer to these projects that need to go ahead under the guise of protecting Aboriginal cultural heritage, but we are destroying economic opportunities and making it harder to do business. So I am going to wait and see what she does. I saw a press release from the Greens calling on her to do everything she can to block this exploration activity and that should tell you everything. And this is what we have to guard against – a Green tail wagging a Labor dog – this is how all of these policies and decisions are coming about and I hope the Minister does the right thing, gets the balance right and allows the mine to proceed. It doesn’t need to stop.
Andrew Bolt:
Senator Jonathon Duniam, thank you so much for your time.