Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (Senator Conroy) to a question without notice asked by Senator Whish-Wilson today relating to National Heritage listings.

My question is related to part of the assessment process in the Tarkine, not specifically to the depth of investigation or the thoroughness of the EPBC investigation in relation to mines or proposed mines in the Tarkine, and not in relation to a potential national heritage listing or potential future World Heritage Listing. The issue I wanted to raise is that exploration licences have been issued right across the entire region. I do have a background in mines. I have worked in analysis of mining companies over the years, and I am familiar with what companies are looking for in relation to various minerals. It is my understanding that the subsurface mineralisation that these companies are targeting in an area like the Tarkine, which is prospective for minerals such as tin and magnetite, do not relate directly to World Heritage or national heritage values.

The issue I asked Senator Conroy to address was the fact that, while Minister Burke may be doing a thorough investigation of the Tarkine area in relation to those values, a number of exploration licences and consequent mining licences issued from successful exploration strikes are being issued by the Tasmanian state Labor government—some would say rubber-stamped by the Tasmanian state Labor government. So how do we get a proper assessment of the national heritage values of an area like the Tarkine, which is held very dearly by a number of Tasmanians—indeed, a number of Australians—for its conservation values? It has previously had emergency heritage listing, which I mentioned in my question. How do we know that some of those areas, which even Minister Burke has acknowledged have very rare and important conservation values, are not going to be impeded by the current stampede to push through exploration licences and mining licences in the Tarkine?

If it is going to be late next year that we get a decision—if we get a decision—on a potential listing of the Tarkine, what is going to be left? There is no correlation between exploration, prospectivity and these national heritage values. If we look at some of the existing mines that have been granted leases recently we can see Venture Minerals's three mining licences, with one or two applications, and also the Tas Magnesite project. If you look at a map of the Tarkine, they are nowhere near each other; they are situated where the prospectivity is, where the minerals are found. They are also situated in some areas that have very important national and World Heritage values. So how can we actually get a decision on what should be saved and permanently protected—which, as I mentioned, a large number of Australians and Tasmanians wanted—if we cannot do that now and preclude exploration and mining in those areas? It does not make sense to let 58 exploration licences go ahead across the Tarkine where, in some areas, drill rigs are helicoptered into virgin rainforest, and then turn around in a year's time, once those potentially successful exploration licences have been converted to mining licences, and say, 'We're going to save that area; that's an area that is going to be protected.' By then it will be too late. Blind Freddy could see that the Tasmanian state government is trying to rush these through as quickly as possible, and it seems to a lot of observers—and it certainly does to me—that the federal Labor government is turning a blind eye to this. It will be a very big issue if we do get exploration licences converted to mining licences in areas where we know there are significant national and World Heritage values.

So my question to the minister was: what is Labor going to do in the meantime to prevent this stampede going ahead, which could potentially, in terms of looking at the random, geographical spread of where minerals are found across the Tarkine and which has nothing to do with World Heritage values? What are we going to put in place in the meantime to prevent that? Or, why don't we make a decision now that at least allows us to put lines on the map with respect to what will be granted national and World Heritage Listing in the future?

Question agreed to.