Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in response to Senator Duniam's urgency motion regarding the McPhillamys goldmine in New South Wales. Firstly, I want to be clear that this urgency motion, in the way that it's written, is exceptionally misleading. In fact, it's absolutely wrong. I think Minister McAllister has highlighted that. The motion say it's a 'disastrous decision' to block a goldmine—no, that is not true. If they read the detail in the press release from Minister Plibersek, they'd realise that it's about the tailings dam. Across this country, there are many, many mines that are open. There's a lot of destruction that has happened, and no-one hands those areas back in a pristine condition, as they were before. But the tailings dam for this mine was going to be put in a sacred place, and the Wiradjuri people, the traditional owners of that area, used their voices and told the federal Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek, that they didn't want the dam there.

The urgency motion says that the mine has the support of the local land council. We have members of the opposition who come into this place and say things about the local land councils—in fact, I have suggested terms of reference for an inquiry that we should look into these land councils. People say: 'They're corrupt. They don't know what they're doing, and their governance is so bad.' At every Senate estimates, I sit in the Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee, listening, during the cross-portfolio discussion, as senators grill the land councils. But people in this place are now turning over a new leaf, by the look of it, in supporting a statement by a local land council. I actually feel like they don't know what they're doing. To write a motion that says a mine has 'support of the local land council', while you're sitting on the other side of the desk absolutely grilling them, is rubbish. It's ridiculous. This motion is a joke.

When sections of the community say, 'We want to use section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act to protect our country, and we have the right to,' we should be listening to that. The minister has listened on this occasion, but there are many, many instances where she hasn't. Murujuga is one of them. We are waiting for Aboriginal cultural heritage protection laws to be fixed in this country on the back of Juukan George and what happened there with the destruction of their country.