Elders’ anger at ALP stance on mining

Annastacia Palaszczuk’s hand-picked head of Queensland’s ­Department of Resources publicly declared ‘the world needs silica sands’ to help fight climate change as his staff assessed a controversial Labor-linked sand mine proposal.

Mike Kaiser, a former ALP state secretary and MP, angered traditional owners who ­oppose further sand mining on Cape York. Picture: Dan Peled

Annastacia Palaszczuk’s hand-picked head of Queensland’s ­Department of Resources publicly declared “the world needs silica sands” to help fight climate change as his staff assessed the expansion of a controversial Labor-linked sand mine proposal on Cape York.

Mike Kaiser, a former ALP state secretary and MP, angered traditional owners who ­oppose further sand mining on Cape York when he posted on ­social media last year after a visit to the Hope Vale Aboriginal community of which he is “government cham­pion”.

At the time, Mr Kaiser was ­director-general of the Department of Resources, which was then assessing three applications from silica sand mine proponent Diatreme Resources to grant new or extend existing exploration permits just near the community.

“The world needs silica sands to make the equipment we need to fight climate change and locally that means jobs, indigenous ownership and opportunity,’’ Mr Kaiser said on his LinkedIn page in September last year.

Within a month, two of the permit applications were granted and the third secured last month by ­Diatreme, which intends to supply silica for Chinese-made solar panels. Diatreme has the lead on two smaller sand mine proposals near the world’s biggest silica mine at Cape Flattery, owned by Mitsubishi, which opened in the late 1960s.

The Palaszczuk government forced the closure of Queensland’s only other sand mining operation on Stradbroke Island, off the coast of Brisbane, in 2019.

ALP federal president and former deputy prime minister Wayne Swan was appointed Diatreme’s chairman in November last year.

Labor-aligned lobbying firm Anacta, which had its two principals banned in July from lobbying in Queensland after it was ­revealed they ran Ms Palaszczuk’s 2020 election campaign, had 54 meetings or contacts on behalf of Diatreme with the Palaszczuk government.

Mike Kaiser spruiks silica sands on his Linkedin page

The publicly-listed company has been accused by Aboriginal native title-holders of issuing ­misleading statements about having the full support of traditional owners while it courted investors.  The mine has split the community and there are questions about purported deals struck by Diatreme with its “project partner”, the native title representative body, Hope Vale Congress.

The Weekend Australian revealed that federal regulators ­issued a show cause notice this year against Congress alleging it was riddled with governance failures, financial mismanagement and was not representative of the region’s 13 native title clans.

The report also aired allegations of “bullying tactics” and the targeting of families “financially struggling” in bid to secure their support for the project.

The Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations, which issued the show cause, had already begun its investigation into Congress when Mr Kaiser visited Hope Vale.

After meeting Congress and the Hope Vale Shire Council, Mr Kaiser posted a beach picture of himself with members of both bodies on his LinkedIn page saying he had discussions about “sustainable economic development opportunities”.

His post drew responses from local traditional owners, who ­allege they knew nothing of the purported native title deals and warned that Congress was under investigation.

“Hope Vale Congress is currently being investigated for a number of governance breaches among other things,’’ Teneille Nuggins told Mr Kaiser in a LinkedIn ­response to his original post.

“Your photo whilst innocent to you is upsetting to many Hope Vale people … There are families who are buried in those sandhills.’’

Mr Kaiser replied to Ms Nuggins, saying the proposed mine had “many processes to go through ­before it can happen, including further broad consultation”.

“It must also satisfy environmental standards and cultural ­requirements.’’

Mr Kaiser was moved to head the Department of State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning this year.

A departmental spokesman said Mr Kaiser regularly posted on LinkedIn about a broad range of topics and that his comments about silica sands did not indicate support for the Diatreme project.

“A post on the opportunities of sand mining generally and its importance in climate change solutions, did not indicate support for a specific proposal,’’ the spokesman said. “In fact there are at least two proponents in the general Hope Vale region.”

Ecologists are concerned about the potential damage to the coastal dune system with Diatreme’s proposed sand mine, which would require the clearing of hectares of littoral rainforests and use of 800 million litres of water annually to process the silica.