Toothless laws won’t protect Gympie from gold mining

LETTER: ‘It‘s incomprehensible (the Gympie) council did not consult with the local community prior to requesting the state government remove the existing robust protections over our township.’ SUBSCRIBE for full details.

Letter re: Resurrection of gold mining in Gympie

Firstly the Restricted Area 384 is an outright prohibition on exploration in the urban area that is enforced under the Mineral Resources Act.

The FAQs in the link for public comments open until December 17, try and make the (rather disingenuous) point that mining companies can still apply for a mineral development licence or a mining lease in a 384 area.

This is true, however how can you obtain those approvals and why would you make the investment in seeking them if you were prohibited from investigating whether the mineral resource is actually there or not?

The 384 prohibition therefore (in effect) acts as a very effective deterrent on licences and leases being sought or granted in urban areas.

The second point the FAQs try to make is that the RPI Act assessment process would replace the 384 prohibition - so there‘s no risk right?

Flashback, The Gympie Times, Saturday, May 5, 1990. Photo caption reads " History rediscovered as BHP Gold Mines project manager Nigel Rowlands wades through the Scottish No. 3 workings 735 meters underground, closed since 1923 until the exploration project broke through to the old mine last week. Air pumps are creating the bubbles." Photo: File Photo / Gympie Times

Wrong, because the RPI Act is an absolute sh**-show of a piece of legislation that even DSDILGP do not understand or know how to apply it effectively. It is a complete toothless tiger that does more to shield the mining and gas industries from being regulated than actually regulating their impacts. There are so many exemptions and loop holes, it is a complete sham. So while councillors may naively think the RPI Act will effectively protect the community’s interests against bad outcomes after the 384 restrictions are removed, I would have absolutely no faith that it could.

Ever since that legislation was introduced by the Newman government, subsequent governments have been scratching their heads wondering how it can be fixed to make it workable or useful, but no parliamentarian (on either side) has the balls to repeal or reform the RPI Act.

Why? Because the LNP are the foot-servants of the mining industry and Labor are so scared of losing votes in central and north Queensland mining electorates after they almost lost government last election because of their poor handling of Adani that made them look like they were anti-coal or anti-mining.

No Queensland state government,regardless of their colour, wants to be seen as anti-mining so they just bury their heads and bow down to the sector and leave completely useless legislation like the RPI Act in place just so they can point to it, when asked what they are doing about protecting urban and rural communities from land use conflicts with the mining and gas sectors.

Underground in the Lewis decline mine in the Gympie gold fields.

It‘s incomprehensible local council did not consult with the local community prior to requesting the state government to remove the existing robust protections over our township.

However in contrast, the planning department of state government is legislatively bound to embark on a separate public consultation about an amendment to the regional plan that would attempt to instal a compensatory (though much weaker and unreliable) set of protections over our township.

It is also galling that this issue has only come to the public’s attention through the consequential actions of the planning department in seeking public comment on the introduction of replacement protections, whereas no such opportunity for public comment was provided by our council before it requested removal of the more robust protections which are already in place.

The RPI Act RIDA process places an additional administrative and regulatory burden on councils and therefore ratepayers - which is unnecessary if the 384 restricted areas were left as they are.

Cindy Vogels, Gympie

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This painting by Charles Hirst depicts the famous No 1 North Phoenix Gold Mine on Red Hill in the late 1800s. It is part of a free exhibition at the Art Gallery in Nash St, of visual arts from the museum, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Gympie and District Historical Society.