‘Utterly disgraceful’: Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price slams gold mine decision

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has lashed the Albanese government’s move to block a gold mine in country NSW claiming it will cost hundreds of potential jobs as the opposition moves to torpedo the decision.

Coalition Senators will attempt to torpedo a move to ban a new gold mine in country NSW, with Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price lashing the Albanese government’s decision to block the project as “utterly disgraceful”.

Furious senators angry at the blocking of the McPhillamys Gold Project by Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said they would move a disallowance motion over the section 10 order slapped on the mine.

Coalition Senators Price, Jonno Duniam and Susan McDonald also slammed the Environmental Defenders Office for their role in advocating opponents to the mine, with Mr Duniam reiterating the Coalition’s stance that it would strip millions of dollars in taxpayer funding from the office.

“It’s utterly disgraceful that Minister Plibersek has determined to ensure that 870 jobs do not go ahead, that Indigenous Australians from the Orange area will miss out on economic development within their region,” Ms Price, the opposition spokeswoman for Indigenous affairs, said.

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has slammed the government’s blocking of the project. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“We know that the Orange (Local Aboriginal) Land Council, who are the legal authority to speak on this particular issue, on issues of development within their region, had voiced no concern with this project going ahead.”

She added there needed to be an inquiry and reform in Indigenous heritage laws, after Ms Plibersek’s office backed advice from a local Aboriginal group, despite the land council not opposing the project.

Mr Duniam, Opposition environment spokesman, added “no project is safe under this government” due to the application of the section 10.

“To have gone through four years of hard yakka getting every state and federal environmental approval lined up, as is required under federal and state laws, to only at the eleventh hour, after all of their hard work and consultation, have that project knocked on their head. Is nothing short of absolute absolutely flabbergasting,” he said.

Opposition resources spokeswoman Ms McDonald said the decision “is stealing from our future generations. It is stealing from them economically. It’s stealing from them for jobs, for a broader range of opportunities”.

It comes as a brawl between the NSW Government and its federal counterparts is set to erupt over a decision to block the new gold mine, with locals of the NSW country town near the site also slamming the move for axing hundreds of potential jobs.

NSW Natural Resources Minister Courtney Houssos will fire off a message which “will urgently reinforce to the Federal Government the importance of critical minerals investment in the state”.

It follows Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s eleventh-hour decision to stop the McPhillamys gold mine, near Blayney, by using rarely-utilised Indigenous heritage legislation to block a proposed tailings site for the mine.

“The mine has the potential to support hundreds of jobs in regional communities and contribute millions in royalty payments,” Ms Houssos said.

“Protecting heritage and progressing key mining projects should not a zero-sum proposition.”

Ms Houssos added critical minerals and high-tech metals projects directly employ more than 4,000 people in the state and that the McPhillamys project was “strategically important to NSW”.

The proposed location of the open pit, processing plant and tailings dam at McPhillamys Gold Project which is located just outside of Orange, NSW. Picture: Supplied

Damon and Linda Taylor the owners of The Royal Hotel in Blayney. Picture: Graham Schumann

“It had been through rigorous environmental and heritage approvals which are appropriate for developments of this scale,” she said.

Ms Plibersek issued a section 10 statement blocking the tailings site, despite the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council not opposing the mine, with the Minister instead backing a rival Indigenous group who were against the project.

The NSW Government cannot overrule the section 10 statement.

In a statement on Sunday, a spokeswoman for Ms Plibersek said her decision “does not mean the gold mine can’t go ahead – it just means an Aboriginal heritage site can’t be destroyed to build a waste dump for the mine”.

“The company is free to find another site for their waste dump,” she said.

But in an extraordinary statement on Monday, Regis Resources – the company behind the mine – said the section 10 decision would mean the project is not viable.

“Minister Plibersek has stated that this declaration ‘will not stop the mine’. To the contrary, this decision does impact a critical area of the project development site and means the project is not viable,” the statement read.

Tanya Plibersek MP, Minister for Environment and Water. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Regis Resources CEO and managing director Jim Beyer said he was “extremely surprised and disappointed” of the decision after almost four years of approvals processes.

He added the section 10 threatened future investment in infrastructure, renewable energy and property across Australia, with the company now considering its legal options.

Publicans Damon Taylor and wife Linda, who run Blayney’s Royal Hotel, said the new gold mine would’ve been a “huge boost” for the area.

NSW Natural Resources Minister Courtney Houssos. Picture:NewsWire/ Monique Harmer

“For a small town of 3000 people, (it) just means there’s jobs here for our kids – they wouldn’t have to move away, and it would make Blayney stronger,” Mr Taylor said.

Mr Taylor said “the majority of people would love to see it go ahead as soon as possible”.

Mrs Taylor added “there’s not much work around at the moment so we need workers in town”.

“We were waiting on this mine to go ahead to bring the workers back into town,” she said.

“There’s about 3000 people in town …(an extra 800 workers) would make a big difference.”

Local farmer Rebecca Price, whose property is downstream of the site, was part of a community group who opposed the mine.

“If the … river was contaminated, it’d get to the flats where we fatten our cattle, and we wouldn’t be able to use them,” she said.