Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure today to speak on the Defence Legislation (Woomera Prohibited Area) Amendment Bill 2014. I would like to concur with the member for Canberra on her speech. This is an important bill, and she has essentially fleshed out the reasons for this bill as a coexistence model. But I need to say at the outset it has taken some time for this bill to eventually reach this parliament, and for that reason, I want to say that Senator David Johnston, the Defence Minister, should be applauded for bringing this forward and making it a priority.

I also concur with the member for Canberra about former Senator Don Farrell. He was a driving force. As a South Australian, he should be congratulated on making sure that this bill and this inquiry did not die. I hope that Senator Farrell, as a private citizen in South Australia now, will be able to continue his interest in this particular issue by being involved and working with the South Australian government to see that both federal and state governments pursue this bill in a way that will see it come to fruition as soon as possible for the benefit of South Australians in particular. South Australia is an economy that is under some stress so it does need to be prioritised.

This bill—I am obviously going to repeat some of the things that others have said—is a result of the investigation by the Hawke review. This Woomera Prohibited Area is in the national interest, as has been explained in the Hawke review. Let us just set the context. Here I am, a Western Australian member of parliament, speaking about an area in South Australia. I note on the speakers list that there is not one South Australian speaking on this bill, which is quite strange when it is for the benefit of South Australians in particular. It is in the national interest, but in terms of a South Australian project this is massive.

We have already been told that $35 billion worth of potential mineral wealth will be uncovered in this Woomera Prohibited Area. Yet on either side—and I do not want to reflect badly on our colleagues—I find it passing strange that no South Australian member in this house is speaking on this bill today. I hope there is more interest shown when it gets to the Senate. I hope there is more interest shown when it eventually arrives at the footstep of the South Australian government because it is particularly in their interests. In putting that on the table, I want to alert people to the fact that this is a national parliament but you would have thought some South Australian would be involved.

Ever since I was a child I have been aware of this huge area of South Australia that had been a no go zone to everybody except Indigenous people. In some respects it was made a no go zone for the Indigenous people of South Australia when we had the atomic testing at Maralinga. Australia has been the place that has been used by the British in particular for testing some of their weapons. The atomic testing done at Maralinga certainly degraded the area in terms of its atomic fallout. The Montebello Islands is an area that was a no go zone for Australians for a long period. I noticed an article not so long ago which says that people are now going back to the Montebello Islands. Coral is growing back again after this area of Australia was also used for atomic testing by the British some time ago.

The half-life of uranium does not go off in 60-odd years, but it certainly makes it easier for us to re-enter those areas for short periods of time. Because of the long-term effect of the use of uranium in its weapons testing, this area is being sectioned off. I know that even the Indigenous landowners were not allowed near that degraded area, for obvious reasons. There were reports about Indigenous people who went back there and were having certain health issues—burns et cetera. That needs to be taken into context here. The green zone, as the member for Canberra pointed out, is 75 per cent of this massive area, which is now going to be made available to a whole range of people, whether it be for tourism or other land use, but particularly for mining.

We will not know what particular wealth is in this area until it has been drilled, but we do know that it is next door to the Olympic Dam area. The Olympic Dam is one of the treasure troves of minerals in Australia. Casey Gavin and Ted Mayman once wrote a book called The Mile That Midas Touched in terms of Kalgoorlie. It is a golden mile. There is Broken Hill, founded by a stockmen rounding up cattle, which turned into one of the other great mineral towns of this country. It is still going after all this time. Mount Isa is the other town. Potentially, this area of South Australia could be another one of those massive minerals deposits, which will benefit South Australians in the nation in particular.

We know that South Australia has suffered some setbacks economically. One of the setbacks during the GFC and other factors saw the Olympic Dam expansion not go ahead. That was going to be worth billions of dollars, particularly to the South Australian economy. I notice that the member for Brand is here, so I will have to be a little bit gentle in relation to my comments about the mining tax. That is because there is no doubt in our minds that that was a negative factor for any expansion of mining ventures anywhere in Australia. As much as it has been denied and counter denied, the expansion of Olympic Dam would have been a factor.

We have moved on since then and we hope to get rid of that tax in this parliament probably not this week but shortly, thanks to the changes in the Senate make-up. It is unfortunate that the Labor Party did not see the error of their ways and the error of having a mining tax that did not really collect any money and actually was a disincentive for people to be involved in this sector. Exploration was one of those areas. That is one of the downsides at the moment. This parliament needs to address it through such things as flowthrough shares or some other mechanism, because at the moment exploration in Australia has taken to a sudden halt. We have seen today on the stock exchange that Boart, a mining services company, is under pressure because there is a lack of work for them. Drilling rigs lie idle and those involved in exploration need an incentive, because the lag time between finding of resource and producing it could be decades. I understand that Century zinc is called Century zinc because it took 100 years to bring it on. What we are doing in parliament today, in terms of this Woomera Prohibited Area, is trying to bring on a resource that could take years to develop. We will only know what is there once they start doing exploration work.

Other areas that have been mentioned, and I will just reconfirm them, are that there are going to be a lot of checks and balances which allow people to access this area. There will be penalties for those who access the area without permission, but the permission will be made far easier to access. The area contains recognised traditional owners, recognised areas for traditional owners and significant Indigenous sites. Under the bill, permit holders who gain access to the Woomera Prohibited Area will be required to protect these sites and comply with all relevant native title and Aboriginal heritage laws. Indigenous groups with current statutory access rights expressly retain these rights. They will not need to apply for access permission under this legislation, which does not disturb existing rights.

Section 400 is part of Maralinga Tjarutja lands was the site of atomic testing, as I said before, in the fifties and the sixties. In other words, access to the traditional owners—the Maralinga Tjarutja people—will not only be maintained but also will be enhanced. As I said, Defence has made it quite clear that the access through this area will come under the Minister for Defence and his department. They will take the necessary steps to excise section 400. Once completed, it will no longer be subject to the access restrictions that have applied under Defence Force Regulations 1952.

There is no point in repeating a whole lot of material that has been said by others. It gives a very good coexistence model. This is jointly sponsored; it is a bipartisan piece of legislation that, as I have said, will enhance not only the South Australian people and Australian economy but will protect the rights of land owners. There will be a compensation regime in place for other land users. It will give miners greater surety to go in and spend the massive number of dollars to do exploration, which will be in the national interest.

As I said before the member for Grey came in and I will say it again, because the composure of this chamber has not changed, I find it passing strange that there is no South Australian here speaking on this bill. You would have thought that this was something exciting for those in South Australia. However, I understand that the member the Brand was born in South Australia, so there is some link there. It is a long bow, but I congratulate all those that are involved in supporting this bill and I recommend the bill the House.

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