NSW Premier Chris Minns puts pressure on Tanya Plibersek to reverse Blayney goldmine ban

Crisis meeting called as NSW Premier weighs in on ‘bee dreaming’ drama, saying the Blayney goldmine site’s cultural heritage had already been properly assessed.

Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek is facing calls to reverse her decision to block the goldmine at Blayney Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

NSW Premier Chris Minns has stressed his disappointment in Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s decision to block the Blayney goldmine because of bee dreaming, saying the site’s cultural heritage had already been properly assessed before her 11th-hour intervention.

The Labor Premier will send a delegation to a crisis meeting about the decision in Orange on October 30. There, Indigenous leaders who dispute the authenticity of the bee dreaming story put forward by a rebel group in Bathurst will call for a parliamentary inquiry into what happened.

The Orange land council, which claims Ms Plibersek has been taken in by baseless claims, will host the meeting of land council bosses from across NSW.

“The NSW government remains disappointed at the federal government’s decision to issue a ‘section 10’ declaration over the McPhillamys mine,” a spokesperson for the Minns government told The Weekend Australian.

“The Aboriginal cultural heritage assessment of the McPhillamys project, conducted as part of the NSW planning process, did consider the cultural value of Aboriginal objects and places, and that they could be appropriately managed under the consent conditions applied to the project.

“We have said all along that protecting heritage and progressing key mining projects should not be a zero-sum proposition.

“Given the McPhillamys project had been through rigorous environmental and heritage approvals by the Independent Planning Commission, the NSW government had expected the project to go ahead.”

On Friday, the rebel Indigenous group that convinced Ms Plibersek to block the Blayney goldmine warned it could sue over comments from “interested parties”, an apparent reference to the Orange land council and Wiradjuri elder Neil Ingram who have called its claims false.

The rebel group – the Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation, or WTOCWAC – is a small registered charity in Bathurst. It has remained mostly silent since it succeeded in halting the mine in August.

Ms Plibersek’s decision threatens to become a political storm as doubts emerge about the authenticity of the blue-banded bee dreaming story on which she relied to make a protection order in August. She blocked the mine’s tailings dam. Proponent Regis Resources says it will take five to 10 years to redesign the project in the Blayney shire of central west NSW.

“WTOCWAC acknowledges various comments made to the media by interested parties. We make no comment on these, apart from saying that if published statements or comments in any way defame our members we will consider all available legal options,” the group said in a media statement emailed to newsrooms on Friday.

“What matters to us is that the area, and our cultural heritage, is now protected for this and future generations. We are pleased that this protection is enshrined in a legal declaration.”

The statement was signed by Yanhadarrambal Jade Flynn on behalf of directors of the group.

Special reporter Ruth Elvin was appointed by the commonwealth to assess cultural heritage at the proposed mine site and found in May 2022 that there was no reason to intervene. The project cleared state and commonwealth hurdles and the Orange land council – the elected Indigenous body for the area with cultural authority under state law – does not consider the proposed mine site to be a significant Aboriginal site.

However, in December last year Ms Plibersek allowed more time for new information about cultural heritage at the proposed mine site, which is inside the catchment area of the Belubula River. This is when WTOCWAC added the blue-banded bee dreaming story to its claim about cultural heritage there.

Mr Ingram, custodian of the Wiradjuri’s Three Brothers dreaming story, told Ms Plibersek the bee dreaming did not exist.

The blue-banded bee dreaming story did not appear in six ethnographic studies completed as part of the mine approval process. Consultant anthropologist Philip Clarke describes it as “highly unlikely”.

There is no known record of it before a media story in 2022, when a member of WTOCWAC painted a bee mural on the Bathurst post office.

WTOCWAC has consistently declined to answer questions relating to its years-long participation in the consultation process for the mine, its members or the blue-banded bee dreaming story.

However, on September 5 Mr Flynn is quoted as having told the ABC: “We’ve been slandered. We’ve been accused of lying, accused of profiting from the application. We’ve had our members threatened and harassed.”

In the statement to all media on Friday morning, Mr Flynn said his group welcomed Ms Plibersek’s statement of reasons for her intervention published on October 11.

“WTOCWAC receives no ongoing government funding and our directors are all volunteers,” Mr Flynn said in the emailed statement.

“The personal cost our members and directors have endured over the last four years since the application was submitted has been immense. With the minister’s declaration protecting the area, our members and directors are now turning their attention and focus to other matters.”

Recent files from the Office of the Registrar of Aboriginal Corporations show the group has 18 members.