Indigenous dissidents’ role in Tanya Plibersek Regis mine call

Tanya Plibersek was persuaded to rule against Regis’s full proposal for a $1bn goldmine after ­listening to a dissident Aboriginal corporation registered with just 18 members.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek on Tuesday. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Tanya Plibersek was persuaded to rule against Regis’s full proposal for a $1bn goldmine after ­listening to a dissident Aboriginal corporation registered with just 18 members who list only their first names on the website of the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations.

There was surprise and anger on Tuesday at the minister’s decision to favour the advice of a small Bathurst-based Aboriginal corporation over the advice of the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council – the statutory body with cultural authority under NSW legislation – which conducted its own surveys and found the project would not impact any known sites or artefacts of high significance.

The nation’s peak mining body called for clarity and transparency regarding the process that led Ms Plibersek to excise the headwaters of the Belubula River from the project.

Ms Plibersek on Tuesday defended her decision to listen to the Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation, a registered charity, saying that when opposition deputy leader Sussan Ley was environment minister, she listened to the same group before blocking a go-kart track on Mt Panorama “for very similar reasons”.

“Crucially, I have not said that the goldmine can’t go ahead; I have said that the tailings dam cannot be built on the headwaters of the river,” Ms Plibersek said.

“The company has previously said that they have investigated about four sites with about 40 different options for the tailings dam. If they are right in saying there is about $7bn worth of gold in this mine, then I think it’s in their interests to have a look at those alternative sites that they have previously investigated.”

Ms Ley told The Australian on Tuesday she was calling on Ms Plibersek “to set the record straight and stop misleading the Australian people over her unforgivable decision to kill the $1bn Regis McPhillamy’s goldmining site near Blayney”.

“Tanya Plibersek claims she is for the workers, but how can she be for the workers if she is willing to destroy their jobs and then deliberately mislead them about it?

“There is a very simple test here: a local go-kart track is not a $1bn goldmine. They are not ‘very similar’ and Tanya has been misleading in saying they are.”

One of the directors of the Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation is historian Lisa Paton, who formerly worked for the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council. Another director is Yanhadarrambal Uncle Jade Flynn, who told The Australian on Tuesday that the corporation had no comment in response to questions about its membership, or its work or the McPhillamy Project.

The registrar of Indigenous corporations has previously dealt with complaints about the corporation including that its members’ full names are not listed online. This is permitted for privacy reasons.

On Tuesday, the Coalition introduced a disallowance motion in the Senate to overturn the government’s decision to apply an Indigenous heritage protection order on the goldmine.

The motion will be debated on Wednesday in the Senate but is unlikely to succeed.

“Minister Plibersek’s decision was wrong,” opposition environment spokesman Jonathan Duniam said. “She upturned four years of approvals processes by deciding against the advice of her own department, the state Labor government and the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council, which has legislative authority to speak on behalf of the local Indigenous population, with a little known instrument that has literally halted a billion-dollar project.

The Minerals Council of Australia said it was disappointed by the federal government’s decision to intervene.