Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

My point, and the reason that we have dwelled on this for a few minutes, is that I cannot think of another uranium mining operation—certainly not in this country or anywhere in the world—that has a 10,000-year mine waste isolation plan attached to it and a Commonwealth government department looking over its shoulder. I would like to know, either now or a little bit later in the debate, what we actually mean by ‘world’s best practice’. To my knowledge, it is Commonwealth departments specifically set up to look over the shoulder of the mining companies, in this case the Office of the Supervising Scientist—which was established at the same time as the Ranger operation—and 10,000-year site conditions. That is world’s best practice. If it is being done better somewhere else, I would be really interested to hear about it.