Tanya Plibersek’s inept secret business

A day after claiming the right to disconnect would boost productivity, Anthony Albanese has again shown how disconnected he is from the reality of business. The Prime Minister says the $1bn McPhillamys goldmine near Blayney in central west NSW can go ahead because federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s veto related only to a tailings storage facility. That claim has been firmly denied by Regis Resources, which says Ms Plibersek’s decision has made the project “not viable”. As NSW Minerals Council chief executive Stephen Galilee said, Mr Albanese’s comments showed a lack of understanding of the technical, lengthy and complicated process of mine design and assessment. Even if another mine layout were possible, Mr Galilee said, it would probably take five years or more for design and assessment, with the risk of another spurious last-minute veto.

Green and red lawfare is one of the main causes of poor productivity, which is one of Australia’s most serious economic challenges. To the detriment of the NSW economy and local Indigenous people, who were ready to engage with the project and would have benefited from new jobs, better services and living standards, Ms Plibersek showed bad judgment and her decision-making lacked transparency. The matter is a textbook case of allowing green lawfare to stymie productivity and how not to govern for the good of local Indigenous people and the wider economy. The mine is forecast to generate about $200m in royalties. NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns, who is understandably disappointed with Ms Plibersek’s decision, says the mine was “critical for the state’s economic growth”. The minister’s backflip, after the mine was approved by state and federal environmental processes, has harmed Australia’s sovereign-risk profile. The decision also will set a bad precedent.

The Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council – which has cultural authority for the area under NSW law – did not object to the goldmine after conducting its own surveys and finding it would not affect any sites of high significance. Roy Ah-See, one of the most senior Wiradjuri leaders and the former chairman of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council, said NSW councils were the right bodies to consult because their boards were elected and they practised the accepted three-part test for indigeneity: “They have got statutory authority and constituted boundaries, and therefore they are the cultural authority.”

But Ms Plibersek, who used the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Heritage Act to excise the headwaters of the Belubula River from the proposed mine’s tailings dam, said she acted after listening to the small, Bathurst-based Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West ­Aboriginal Corporation. One of that 18-member dissident body’s four directors, Lisa Paton, undermined the case against the mine with her hyperbolic claim to the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment last year that the area was a battle site of national significance and should be treated with the same respect as Gallipoli or the Somme – a comparison many Australians would find offensive. Nor is development precluded from all major battle sites around the world. Ms Paton wrote recently that the area of the mine was “significant to my personal journey in discovering my Aboriginal heritage”.

Another mine opponent who reportedly helped convince Ms Plibersek to rule against the project, artist Nyree Reynolds, began identifying as Wiradjuri only later in life. Until at least 2014 Ms Reynolds, who was born in Wollongong, described herself as part of the Gamilaraay Nation.

Ms Plibersek clarified nothing in telling the ABC that the site “has been significant for thousands of years … associated with the time that young people move into adulthood and a number of the creation stories of the Wiradjuri people”. That attitude will probably win approval from would-be Greens voters in her seat of Sydney. But arguments akin to “secret women’s business” are not good enough when so much is at stake, especially Indigenous people’s chance to engage in the real economy. As Mr Ah-See says: “We want to create economic opportunities for the future generations and we are not going to do that by locking up our land.”