David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

A lot of people have spoken about the Blayney goldmine, and a lot of people have spoken about the country, but hardly anyone has actually been there. Maybe two of us have been there. But I've been up there. I've been on that country, and I've spoken with traditional owners on country. They are the same traditional owners that the coalition are attacking. When you go to this beautiful part of my home state of New South Wales and you climb to the top of Wahluu, which is a sacred mountain for the Wiradjuri people—it's also known as Mount Panorama—and you look around, you get a sense for why it's a sacred place. There's a part of Wahluu that's a sacred traditional women's place, and you can look around and actually see down to Belubula River, which is where this Western Australian mining company wanted to put a tailings dam. There's a reason that Wahluu was called Mount Panorama after the invasion, when people came in and took Wiradjuri land. It's because it's an extraordinary place, and you can see connections with other sacred mountains. It's an absolutely magical part of the world.

The Wiradjuri traditional owners know it's a magical part of the world. In fact, they fought for years to protect one side of Wahluu from being turned in to a go-kart track by the local council, run by a Nat. He hadn't declared himself as a Nat; he was one of these 'country independents' that the Nats put up in councils in New South Wales. But the local National Party, backed in by the local National MP, who ended up becoming the Leader of the Nationals—a bloke called Toole—were hot to trot to turn part of Wahluu, this sacred mountain, into a go-kart track. They got some funding from the federal government and thought they could just roll over the traditional owners. And the traditional owners just said, 'No.' They went to the council meeting, and they got the kind of disrespect we've heard here from the coalition—this dismissal and disrespect that the traditional owners have had from the latest contributions from the coalition. They had that disrespect in council.

To their enormous credit, they stood firm and continued to advocate for their country and this sacred women's site. They put a section 10 application to the then coalition government to protect the site. I don't often give the coalition credit, but former minister Ley read section 10 and she listened to the traditional owners. She commissioned the consultant's report into this beautiful part of my home state, this sacred site on Wahluu. The consultant's report came in, having consulted with these very same traditional owners, the local National-dominated council and the local National MP, Toole. They said it is a sacred site and that Wahluu is special and should be protected. I'd invite anyone to walk up to the top of Wahluu, to stand there on that sacred place and not get a sense of that sacred connection.

Of course, at a state level and a council level, the National Party said exactly what we've just heard from the National Party and the Liberal Party here. These traditional owners should just be ignored and run over. The site should just be demolished for a go-kart track. I say again: coalition minister Ley, as she then was, did the right thing. She listened, she understood and she said, 'No.' She said that this sacred part of my home state should be protected for the cultural connections because it's a sacred women's site. They were exactly the same traditional owners that the coalition is now saying are illegitimate, should be ignored and should be rejected. Thankfully, then minister Ley made that decision to protect Wahluu, and in fact I've been back to Wahluu with the traditional owners since that decision. Their sense of relief at finally being listened to and having that sacred place protected was palpable, as was their gratitude for that. They shouldn't have to be grateful that the system protects cultural heritage, but they were grateful, and they felt they'd been listened to and heard. And Wahluu has been protected—well, that bit of Wahluu, anyway.

Twelve months before the decision was made by then minister Ley to protect Wahluu, another section 10 application was put in by those same traditional owners—the Wiradjuri owners—to protect this magical part of the Belubula River.

The traditional Dreamtime story of the three brothers, the connection to the blue-banded bee, was part of why the traditional owners said that little magical part of the Belubula River, that connection with Wahluu, that connection with the three brothers is important. They spoke with traditional authority, and Minister Ley, to her credit, accepted the section 10 application for the process and commenced consultation processes to protect it. She understood there was a cultural connection because she listened to the owners. She accepted that cultural authority doesn't lie just in a land council created under New South Wales legislation—cultural authority for First Nations mob comes from mob. It doesn't come from a New South Wales act of parliament; it comes from traditional owners and their connection to country, their links to country and their acknowledged elders. That's where cultural authority comes from.

Having accepted the section 10 application, Minister Ley quite rightly commenced a process of multiple rounds of consultation. An independent consultant was appointed, as happens under that act, and since October 2020, which was when the application went in, there have been six rounds of consultation between the Western Australian mining company that wants to put a tailings dam on this beautiful part of the river and the local community and traditional owners—six rounds of consultation. Minister Plibersek inherited that process. Again, to her credit—and I'm often critical of Minister Plibersek, who approves many coal mines and gas projects, and rejects many cultural applications—Minister Plibersek in this case did the right thing and continued the process that had been started by Minister Ley. She concluded the six rounds of consultation with traditional owners, the local community and the Western Australian mining company that wanted to build a tailings dam on the Belubula River. Having engaged an independent consultant and gone through that process, she listened and then determined to protect this one beautiful part of my home state on the Belubula River.

The process was fair. The process had six rounds of consultation in it. The process was commenced under a coalition minister in good faith. The process respected traditional owners that had been previously respected by Minister Ley. The process respected that cultural authority doesn't come from a land council established under an act of the New South Wales parliament, and that cultural authority comes from First Nations peoples. The process determined that this part of the Belubula River should be protected as important Aboriginal cultural heritage.

Then, what did we see? We saw the mining industry feeding these attack lines to the coalition—and with that, no doubt, feeding donations to the coalition—and then desperately trying to overturn this one case where a part of a mine was rejected because of Aboriginal heritage and culture. You see, for all the nonsense and talk about respecting First Nations peoples, and consultation, what really shits the mining industry—I withdraw that.