Wednesday, 28 August 2024

Department of Treasury and Finance

Budget papers 2024–25

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (17:20): I want to say something about mining and the importance of mining, and I refer to the budget papers and the outputs around resources and the state government’s ideas about mining. I am particularly today pointing to the fact that we have a very significant layer at the federal level which is causing serious problems of regulation and of control. The states, frankly, should be running most of our mining decision-making, and we have had a bad government in Victoria that has put new taxes on goldmines and put up massive regulatory hurdles and controls which have made it difficult for miners.

I want to put on record today my concern about Tanya Plibersek’s decision in New South Wales and the fact that this is a harbinger of trouble for our state and all of Australia. The decision at a mine near Blayney, near Orange in New South Wales, has cost 800 jobs. It has cost a billion dollars in mining activity. It has cost massive revenue for, in this case, the New South Wales government. Tanya Plibersek has made these decisions on the basis of secret Indigenous information supplied to her. Even some of the Indigenous land councils in the area have rejected some of these points that she has made. But she claims that the person who has told her this secret information has been persuasive, and she has used cultural heritage matters to kill this important mine. This is a stupid decision, it is an irreverent decision in many ways and it is a dangerous precedent for not just New South Wales but all of Australia.

Tanya Plibersek being in charge of these mining matters is a frightening outcome. The relevant act, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, is a very significant act with significant powers. The state government here should be pushing back on this and saying that we really need to draw some lines and draw some controls around these matters to make sure that projects are not nobbled by federal activities. We have already seen the federal government intervene in a number of projects in Victoria, but specifically this one in New South Wales in recent times is an absolute shocker. The EPBC act gives enormous power to the federal minister, but it is also the case that Tanya Plibersek is seeking even more powers. She is seeking to put in place a federal environment protection authority, which will become one of those bureaucracies that heads off on its own frolic, and I see really significant danger and damage that can occur from this new environment protection authority created at a national level, duplicative of state efforts and duplicative of the regulations. With every step that I see with Tanya Plibersek she seems to be asserting further Commonwealth control, asserting further regulatory input, and this equates to costs and a wind-back of the number of projects that will be successfully brought forward. That will cost Australia an enormous amount.

We have a very successful mining industry. We have a mining industry that is actually one of the biggest exporters, our biggest exporter in fact, Australia-wide – not in Victoria, and I make the point that in Victoria the state government has not been a friend of the mining industry. It has made it very difficult to get mining and other projects off the ground. But this intervention from Tanya Plibersek in New South Wales and her proposals for a federal environment protection authority frankly chill me, and they should chill anyone who wants to see our economy move forward and thrive. We need an economy where businesses and mining companies can go forward, where the appropriate checks and controls are in place and where these are clear, these are brought up-front and decisions are made in a timely way so that in the mining industry there is not uncertainty and insecurity. Our future depends on it. Our economy depends on it.