Tanya Plibersek has accused Peter Dutton of planning to ignore evidence of historical Indigenous cultural practice and trash heritage protection laws to greenlight certain mining projects and companies based on “the vibe”.
The environment minister told Guardian Australia that Dutton’s vow to overturn her determination rejecting the proposed site of a tailings dam at the $900m McPhillamys goldmine development in central-western New South Wales showed he had no respect for research or official advice.
“I’ve got evidence, I’ve got advice from my department that this is the right decision,” Plibersek said of the ruling she made on 13 August. “What the Coalition is now saying is it doesn’t matter what the evidence or advice is, they’ll just make a decision on the vibe.”
Plibersek was responding to Dutton’s comment late last week that he would reverse her “disgraceful” ruling should he win government and overhaul the Indigenous heritage laws that protect sites of cultural importance from destruction by developers.
“Under a Coalition government I lead, today we announce that we will overturn this bad Labor decision and get this project up and running,” Dutton told the Daily Telegraph newspaper in a report published on Friday.
“Local communities lose out when Labor governments kill their opportunities for a political reason – all to curry favour with the Greens in inner-city seats.”
Plibersek said the idea that the Coalition would determine whether or not to approve projects based on what or who they liked was “incredible”.
“Just like Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton is showing us he’s prepared to ignore the law, cut corners and play favourites,” she said. “Clearly, Peter Dutton wants a system where getting projects approved depends more on whether he likes you rather than whether you comply with the law. That’s no way to run a government.”
She called it a “dangerous way to operate – a recipe for uncertainty that’ll scare off investment and kill jobs”.
“There won’t be a renewable energy project that’s safe,” she said. “Peter Dutton must immediately explain whether there are other projects he’ll approve or axe without knowing the details or applying the law.”
Plibersek recently signed off on the government’s 60th renewable energy project approval – a 600MW solar farm near Dunedoo, also in the NSW central west.
Shadow environment minister, Jonathon Duniam, rejected Plibersek’s claim to have followed the evidence, pointing to the views of another Indigenous group, the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council. Originally opposed to the mine, it has now changed its stance to neutral.
“The fact is that Tanya Plibersek does not have the evidence,” Duniam told Guardian Australia.
“She’s ignored the evidence of her own department, the NSW government and the local Indigenous group legislated to give evidence on this. She’s picked and chosen the Indigenous voices she wants to listen to and ignored those she didn’t agree with.”
Plibersek’s McPhillamys ruling, in a legislative instrument which can be disallowed by the Senate, means the area earmarked for the goldmine’s tailings dam at the headwaters of the Belubula River and its springs at Kings Plains, near Blayney, will be preserved under Indigenous heritage protection law.
NSW state planning authorities had approved the project after consulting other local Aboriginal groups and some heritage experts.
The federal minister’s decision was based on evidence from the Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation, a group which also provided cultural heritage evidence to the Morrison government about the site of a proposed development at Bathurst’s Mount Panorama Wahluu, resulting in a protection order being issued there in 2021.
Last week, corporation member Yanhadarrambal Uncle Jade Flynn told ABC central west that his group had been threatened, harassed and slandered as a result of the federal intervention and ensuing media coverage.
“There’s 19 artefact scatters and 18 isolated finds,” he was quoted as saying of the site. “This proof of occupation and use of that site directly correlates to the intangible cultural heritage of the are. So, that’s the creation and dreaming stories and the songlines.”
The application to protect the Belubula headwaters area was lodged in 2020.
The protected area represents 400 hectares (988 acres) of the 2,500-hectare proposed mine site. Plibersek’s decision does not block the whole development, only the proposed tailings dam at that location. The mining company, Regis Resources, is understood to have surveyed other locations within the site but has said that without the dam at that location, the project is unviable.
The company’s share price has risen since Plibersek’s decision and two members of its board, chair James Mactier and director Jim Beyer, have notified the Australian Stock Exchange that they increased their own shareholdings in the past week. A company spokesperson told the ABC that Mactier’s stock purchase on 3 September followed the public release of the company’s earnings, after which there is a window for directors to buy or sell stock. The gold price had also increased.
Last week, Plibersek hinted she could fast-track approval of an application with an alternative tailings dam proposal, saying she could “look at that very quickly”.
The Coalition plans to ask the Senate this week to vote to disallow Plibersek’s regulation.
