‘We want this to get up’: Minns’ move to fast track McPhillamys gold mine as Indigenous leaders lash ban

As incensed Indigenous leaders say Tanya Plibersek’s move to axe a $1 billion gold mine undermines the planning system and puts their cause back 50 years, Premier Chris Minns moves to fast track it.

Incensed Indigenous leaders say Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s secret-shrouded decision to axe a $1 billion gold mine has undermined the planning system and put their cause back 50 years.

The axing of the McPhillamys Gold Mine at Blayney, near Orange, dominated The Daily Telegraph’s Bush Summit yesterday with Premier Chris Minns saying he wanted the mine to go ahead.

Ms Plibersek pulled the pin on the tailings dam for the mine that would create 800 local jobs based on secret advice from the self-appointed Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation.

Proud Wiradjuri man and former chair of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council Roy Ah-See represented the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council whose advice was ignored by the minister.

“We have spoken to the elder who holds the story and he says that area is not sacred,” Mr Ah-See said on Thursday.

Roy Ah-See says Land Council advice was ignored by Tanya Plibersek.

“We have done a cultural audit and there were never song lines, it was never an initiation site.

“This has put Aboriginal culture back 50 years.

The entrance to McPhillamys Gold Project, Regis Resources Limited. Picture: Rohan Kelly

“In order for people to have faith in Indigenous culture they need to know these decisions are based on truth. This one is not – the minister has been hijacked.”

Mr Ah-See said the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council has had cultural authority since 1983 and all through the approval process did not oppose the mine.

The minister stopped the mine after it had been approved through the NSW planning system.

Mr Minns also revealed at the Bush Summit he hoped his government could fast track an alternative site for a tailings dam.

He said the original development application for the mine was submitted in 2019 and that he did not want a different site to take another five years to pass through state planning systems.

Tanya Plibersek said she was limited in what evidence she could provide which informed her decision. Picture: NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

“We hope it’s a modification to the development application (and) we just can get on with it,” he said.

Earlier, Mr Minns said governments had to encourage capital investment in pointed comments which alluded to Ms Plibersek’s ban.

“As the Premier of NSW, it’s my job to say unambiguously, we have to encourage and not turn away capital investment into mining and resources – the economy relies on it. The opportunities are too great to pass,” he said.

Mr Minns said he had spoken to those behind the push for the mine near Blayney, proposed by Regis Resources, and fully supported finding a way for it to open.

“I’ve personally spoken to Regis … we want it to go ahead. We think it’s too important for Blayney, for regional economies … at the end of the day, like any Premier … we just want this to get up,” he said.

$200M ROYALTY LOSS: MOOKHEY

Treasurer Daniel Mookhey on Thursday revealed during a Budget Estimates hearing the government would lose a potential $200 million in royalties if the gold mine does not go ahead.

“The applicant has made the point that, should such a mine operate, they expect to be paying circa $200 million in royalties,” he said.

“Given the mine has not got approval to proceed, as is in respect to its tailing dams, the impact on the economy spans the impact in the construction phase, the operational phase, the export phase, as well as an impact on the state’s royalties income.”

Mr Ah-See added his ancestors would be “rolling in their grave” to see “our culture hijacked for hidden agendas” over a decision which had ripped out a source of “economic empowerment”.

“I’m very annoyed, how are we going to close the gap?” he said, saying the biggest killer of Indigenous people was poverty.

“Here we’ve got a minister knocking back a mine which could create economic empowerment for my people … At the end of the day this undermines our structures and systems … not all Aboriginal people are environmentalists. We’re about economic empowerment for our people,” he said.

Coalition environment spokesman Jonno Duniam, who is one of a group of politicians spearheading an attempt to pass a disallowance motion which would veto Ms Plibersek’s decision, said she should resign if she could not “stack up” the case for invoking Section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act to reject the tailings dam.

Members of the Coalition are currently working to secure the numbers required for the motion to get up next week.

“If she can’t stack up her case … then she should resign,” he said.

Daily Telegraph journalist Matthew Benns, left, with Roy Ah-See, Jim Beyer, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Regis Resources and Senator the Hon Jonathon Duniam. Picture: Rohan Kelly

Jim Beyer, managing director and CEO of Regis Resources, the company behind the gold mine proposal, said three alternative sites for a tailings dam for McPhillamys overlap with the area banned by Ms Plibersek and that work to find a new location had been sent “back to square one”.

“It’s going to take us quite some time … we said (at the time) it could take us five to 10 years to find a new location for it,” he said.

“We appreciate the Premier … and (Resources Minister Courtney) Houssos … are all very keen to help us, but we still need to go through all the engineering works, we spent four years (identifying) that spot.

“We do not have options available … we’re virtually back to square one.”

Speaking on 2GB yesterday, Ms Plibersek said she was “certain” of her decision to block the mine, and that she had considered numerous views in handing down the section 10, including departmental advice that the traditional owners corporation was the appropriate group to speak to for advice.

“I’m certain of my decision. I took it very seriously,” she said.

Weekend Telegraphs editor Anna Caldwell leads an on stage discussion with NSW Premier Chris Minns. Picture: Rohan Kelly

Ms Plibersek said she was limited in what evidence she could provide which informed her decision, given Regis Resources had flagged legal action over the section 10.

She added she had approved more than 44 mining projects in her tenure as environment Minister, and that given Regis Resources had flagged there was $7bn in gold at the mine site, “it certainly sounds like it’s worth their while to do a bit of redesign work”.

“I’m confident (in) the decision I’ve made … I need to examine the information before me, I need to think hard about those decisions … and then I need to follow the law,” she said.

“There’s plenty of people making plenty of comment in the media, they haven’t gone through the 2500 pages of evidence I’ve gone through,” she said, before adding much of those documents wouldn’t be released because it was “not how all these things work”.

NSW opposition leader Mark Speakman said he was “flabbergasted” at Ms Plibersek’s decision.

“It’s an extremely disappointing decision,” Mr Speakman said outside The Daily Telegraph’s Bush Summit. “It’s not only the hundreds of millions of dollars of royalty revenue for NSW that we look like we’re going to lose but hundreds of permanent jobs.”

He said it sent a terrible message to investors that they could go through the planning process at a cost of millions of dollars only to have the rug pulled out from under them at “the eleventh hour”.

Originally published as ‘We want this to get up’: Minns’ move to fast track McPhillamys gold mine as Indigenous leaders lash ban