Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I am not going to, in the context of this debate, make pronouncements on one or any particular projects. Those are issues that I will consider the detail of. I will also consider what the appropriate Commonwealth role is. I do not know if you heard before that I have also approved funding of $2 million for the National Water Commission to develop guidelines and tools for managing the cumulative impact of mining on water resources. The reason for that is that, as the senator would be aware, the Commonwealth is not generally the granter of mining licences; these are state functions. So the reason the project is being funded is to enable relevant state authorities to better understand how to manage those impacts.

I also make the point that it is very unclear in this amendment who grants the licence. An exploration licence, as I have previously said, is not generally a Commonwealth licence. I am not a resources minister—I do not have department officials here on that point—but generally, as I understand it, they would be licences provided by relevant state authorities. So what we are inserting into federal legislation, and the coalition is supporting this, is a requirement on state mining regulatory authorities about what they do in relation to exploration licences. It is not clear to me from the amendment, with a substantial risk being identified, who makes the decision about that. Is that the independent expert study? Is that the Murray-Darling Basin Authority? Or is it the unnamed, un-enumerated state authority who issues the exploration licence? Nor am I clear how the Commonwealth could in fact require a state mining agency to undertake this assessment and the risk assessment that is contemplated in proposed subsection (2), under the terms of the water bill.

I make all of those points because I want to be very clear that the policy intent of ensuring we better assess and manage the impact of activities such as mining on water is a sound one. The issue is how we do that in the circumstances where clearly there are examples where people assert that has not occurred. We do that in the context of the Murray-Darling Basin through a basin plan and an independent authority that can consider these issues and can determine whether, in appropriate circumstances, a water entitlement is required for such activities.