Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

You can explain yourself later on if you want to, and I think you should. The member for Calare rang me and said: ‘We made a terrible mistake; this is dreadful. It means no mining will ever take place in Australia ever again.’ What an absolute nonsense! The amendment that both the government and the opposition are going to accept now butchers that attempt to put in a clear amendment that, before an exploration licence is granted, proper scientific work be done into the groundwater systems so that we have an appreciation of what potential impacts mining activity could have on those sorts of things. I think the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts really should have a good look at what he is doing in terms of this and the stance that he is taking. This is no different, Minister, to national parks being exempt from mining. What could occur out of the original amendment and the one that I will reintroduce today is that certain areas are exempt from exploration. (Time expired)

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