Red tape fear for Northern Territory as mining reforms draw near

As the Territory Government moves to consult with the mining industry about proposed changes to approvals, key players are worried about red tape.

The Minerals Council says Territory Government changes to mining regulations will dilute powers held by the Mining Minister, the supporting agency and public servants while denying industry the expertise that has guided resource development for over 40 years.

NT Minerals Council executive director Cathryn Tilmouth said the proposed changes would transfer authority for decisions around mines from the NT Mining Minister to the Environment Minister.

“All those mining engineers that have that corporate knowledge, have that on-site expertise and have that understanding about what happens on a mine site no longer have those powers or approval processes,” Ms Tilmouth said.

“All that power has been taken away and will now sitting with the Environment Department sitting underneath the Environment Minister.

“Our biggest concern is the loss of that expertise, of that understanding and that practical knowledge we’ve relied on.”

Under the Government’s proposed environmental regulatory reform responsibility for environmental regulation will be split from resource regulation to allow the two processes to run parallel.

This will replace the ”one stop shop” arrangement provided by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade.

In its place, responsibility for the assessment and granting of environmental approvals, licences and registrations will be managed by the Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security.

DITT will be responsible for the monitoring, compliance and enforcement of mining authorisation and DEPWS will be responsible for monitoring compliance and enforcement of environmental licences, registrations and environmental outcomes including remediation, rehabilitation and site closures.

The changes also propose increased transparency of environmental obligations under the Environment Protection Act and a single agency regulating the new environmental licensing and registration scheme.

Opponents of specific projects will have increased rights to challenge mining approval and environmental licencing and registration processes, replacing the current model which the Government says offers limited rights to challenge or review decisions made in the mining approval process.

The Government’s discussion paper around the regulatory reform says it wants to remove perceptions of “sectoral capture and conflicts of interest” in decision making.

Mining Minister Nicole Manison said the Government established the Mineral Development Taskforce to assess the regulatory changes.

“The Northern Territory government will always make sure our mining industry is competitive and attracts investment, that’s why we established the Mineral Development Taskforce,” Ms Manison said.

“We are still working through the body of work in relation to regulatory changes, which is nearing the point of industry consultation. Mining has a crucial role to play as we reach our $40 billion dollar economy.”

Ms Tilmouth said the Minerals Council doesn’t share Government’s priorities.

“We’ve disagreed with that sentiment at the very beginning of this,” Ms Tilmouth said. “That initial sentiment that essentially they were demonising one department and one group of public servants and saying they were not capable of regulating an industry purely because they worked for one agency and another agency was more capable of regulating just because they sat under a different banner.”

Ms Tilmouth said the Environment Protection Authority already provides scrutiny over mining and resources projects and the changes meant extra red tape.

“Often it’s not the legislation that is the problem, it's the way in which it’s interpreted and administered and whether there’s consistency even between different officers within a department or within different agencies,” she said.

“It’s less about how the legislation is written than how it’s administered that can cause some of that extra red tape or bureaucracy that causes the burden of people trying to work in the NT.”

Ms Tilmouth said potential miners could be put off by the administrative burden, which under current arrangements meant some mine management plans are not measured in pages, but by weight.

“They were getting up to 50 or 60 kilograms each so you can imagine the sort of time, effort and money that has to go into writing, reviewing and submitting those sorts of processes,” she said.

“No one is asking for a green light to do whatever it is we want. We’re looking for something sensible.”