Tanya Plibersek warned by Labor colleague that McPhillamys mine ban would risk investment and jobs

NSW Finance Minister Courtney Houssos’ letter to her federal colleague include warnings companies could be driven out of NSW following the ban on the NSW gold mine.

A scathing letter from the NSW Finance Minister warned Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek that her decision to slap a partial ban on a proposed gold mine risked driving investment out of the state.

The letter, sent by state Minister Courtney Houssos five days after Ms Plibersek used Indigenous heritage laws to slap a partial ban on the proposed McPhillamys gold mine near Blayney, includes a sharp rebuke that “investors will simply choose to develop mines elsewhere” if planning processes were muddied with last-minute decisions.

The correspondence, revealed as part of a Senate order for documents, came after the eleventh-hour move by Ms Plibersek to declare a section 10 ban on the site’s tailings dam – after the project had already been approved NSW Independent Planning Commission.

“ … if proponents are not able to have certainty in the planning process (including heritage decisions), then our shared goals to attract mining investment into the Central West and to regional NSW will be at risk,” Ms Houssos wrote.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek holds a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Ms Houssos said if the planning process wasn’t clear, “then investors will simply choose to develop mines elsewhere, with local communities losing valuable local jobs”.

“It is important that both of our governments align our efforts on supporting investment in Australia’s critical minerals while protecting Indigenous heritage, and that these goals are pursued in parallel – not at the expense of one another.”

In a letter sent earlier this month to Ms Houssos, Ms Plibersek wrote she was not satisfied NSW legislation would “provide adequate protection” after it permitted the dam, which she said would result in the “destruction of intangible cultural heritage” in the area.

Ms Plibersek said she made the decision after considering submissions including correspondence from multiple NSW Ministers.

In another letter to Ms Houssos she wrote the section 10 ban wouldn’t invalidate the project’s designation as a state significant development.

Coalition Senator and shadow environment spokesman Jonno Duniam claimed “Tanya Plibersek’s decision all but undermined her Labor State Government colleagues”.

NSW Minister for Finance and Natural Resources Courtney Houssos. Picture: Richard Dobson

“The hostility between both parties on this issue is shocking and is badly letting down the people of Central West NSW who were set to gain so many benefits from this project,” he said.

“We want balance between the economy, the environment and Indigenous cultural heritage when it comes to approvals for projects.
“However, Tanya Plibersek is on the opposite end of the spectrum to her NSW counterparts, the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council and just about every stakeholder under the sun, relying on evidence of a dreaming story that cannot be verified and a mural on a post office that was drawn in 2022.”

Senator Jonathon Duniam (centre) at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mr Duniam’s comments come after revelations the blue-banded bee Dreaming story, which Ms Plibersek cited as a key reason for blocking the project’s dam, did not appear in any of the six ethnographic studies commissioned by mine owner Regis Resources, while a submission from Wiradjuri authority Uncle Neil Ingram earlier this year to Ms Plibersek stated he had never seen any evidence for the story.

In the wake of her August decision, Ms Plibersek said “Protecting cultural heritage and development are not mutually exclusive”.

“We can have both,” she said.

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