Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The coalition supports the passage of the Atomic Energy Amendment (Mine Rehabilitation and Closure) Bill 2022. In 1999 an agreement was reached between the Commonwealth government and Energy Resources of Australia, known as ERA, that, upon the completion of mining activities at the Ranger mine in the Northern Territory, ERA would take charge of rehabilitating the Ranger mine site. Mining at Ranger ceased in January 2021 and remediation is already underway. The current framework allows ERA to undertake remediation work until January 2026.

More than 20 years ago, it was believed that ERA would need only five years to complete rehabilitative work on the site. As a result, the authority set out a 'cease of operations' for mining works in January 2021, with the authority lapsing on 8 January 2026. However, following consultations with the previous and current governments, it was concluded that, to fully rehabilitate the site to higher contemporary standards, ERA would require more than the five years provided to complete the rehabilitation and monitoring required.

This bill extends the legislative framework surrounding the rehabilitation, ensuring that ERA can complete rehabilitation, close out the site, continue monitoring and return the land to the traditional owners. The bill does not provide any authority for further mining on the site, which follows ERA's commercial decision to not pursue any further mine site extensions in 2015. Rather, the bill's primary purpose is to enable the long-term remediation and monitoring of the site. Primarily, it amends the legislation to allow the remediation authority to be milestone based rather than time based, keeping the onus on the responsible company to complete the rehabilitation.

The coalition supports all mine rehabilitation being completed to high standards—and Australia has some of the most stringent environmental and rehabilitative standards and processes in the world—and supports ERA fulfilling their obligation to properly remediate the Ranger mine. The authorities created under this legislation will allow for the progressive close-out of areas of the mining lease. This means that, as portions of the lease are considered to be fully rehabilitated, the lands can be returned to the local community sooner.

The Ranger uranium mine has served the country well, over its years of operation, creating economic benefits for the country and local community and providing jobs and employment services to the local population and the wider Northern Territory. As Ranger's operations have come to a close, the focus is on ensuring that the affected areas, which are small in size, are fully rehabilitated, to ensure protection of our natural environment. Traditional owners, the Northern Land Council and other Northern Territory bodies are supportive of the bill and have expressed their support for ERA fulfilling their obligations set out under the Atomic Energy Act to rehabilitate the Ranger site.

The coalition began the process of engaging with ERA over the rehabilitation of the Ranger mine under the previous government and supports this bill proceeding, in order to guarantee that Ranger can be fully rehabilitated by ERA over the coming years. We commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.