Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Multicultural Engagement) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Aged Care and the Minister for Finance (Senator Gallagher) to questions without notice asked by Senator Ruston and Senator McKenzie today.

In particular, I rise to speak in relation to the highly disturbing decision of the environment minister to reject planning consent approval for the McPhillamys gold project, proposed by Regis Resources, in New South Wales. It's extremely concerning. This is a $1 billion gold project proposed for regional New South Wales. It would have created approximately 800 jobs and would have generated great wealth for this country. The gold in the ground at that project is worth at least A$7 billion. The local community—as opposed to the minister, who lives in Sydney—wants the project because that project will generate local jobs, support for local businesses and training opportunities for local young people. Yet the minister has come in over the top and refused development of that project.

It is deeply concerning to see that the chief executive officer of the company that proposed the project has come out and said that this underlines the issue of 'sovereign risk' in this country. Just put yourself in the position of the company. They've invested $150 million into that project—it hasn't produced any gold—since 2012, which is over 12 years of work, and the minister comes over the top and rejects the project, notwithstanding it was approved by the New South Wales planning authority; notwithstanding that the minister's own department, the Commonwealth department, actually approved the project; and notwithstanding the fact that local organisations, local community members and the local Aboriginal land corporation had no objection to the project and the locals wanted it built. This is no way to govern our country, and it has great consequences for future developments in this country.

I come from the mining industry. I come from a company that was a great developer of mines in a little country called Laos. We lifted thousands of people out of poverty, and we did it to the highest standards of occupational health and safety, environmental standards, and standards of community sustainability of projects including microfinance et cetera. Whenever we looked at a project in Australia, it always concerned us that we would have these sorts of regulatory issues. Here is a company, and for 12 years they have been trying to progress a project in this country. This is the absolute contempt they are shown by this federal environment minister.

Companies have choices. They do not have to build projects here. They don't have to spend their exploration dollars here; they can spend it offshore. It is decisions like this that will reverberate around boards all over the world. Companies will say: 'I'm not going to spend exploration in Australia; it's too hard, because I might strike Minister Plibersek. I can put 12 years of effort and $150 million into a project, and she will knock it back. I'll go somewhere else because other countries take a different attitude.'

To make it even worse, the minister says: 'Well, you have other options. You can reconfigure your project.' So the minister is giving project development advice to the proponents in relation to the project. This is what the company said to that in their ASX announcement today:

Minister Plibersek has stated that this declaration "will not stop the mine". To the contrary, this decision does impact a critical area of the Project development site and means the Project is not viable. Regis notes that during the Section 10 assessment process, it was made clear to the Minister that the Project would not be viable if the Section 10 declaration was made …

So to the minister I say: instead of giving gratuitous advice which isn't informed by the facts, as is the case here, do your job and make development decisions that are in the best interests of the Australian people and the best interests of local communities, especially in our regional centres that need these jobs and need these opportunities.