Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Wong. Following the Albanese Labor government's job-destroying decision to block the million-dollar McPhillamys mine, Regis Resources yesterday wrote down the value of their project by $192 million, declaring it unfeasible. This company has been smashed, and over 800 jobs will now be ripped from that community—all because of this decision by your Labor government. How does this minister defend her job-destroying decision during a cost-of-living crisis?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think this question was asked the day before yesterday.

An opposition senator: No, it was yesterday.

Was that yesterday? The days blur together, I'm sorry. And a number of points were made, I think, by Senator McAllister in response to this. The first is, obviously, that these decisions are made in accordance with the law by the minister for the environment. It is the case that the minister did make a determination in relation not to the mine itself but to one of the locations for the tailings and waste dam. Obviously, it's open to the company to consider an alternative site, and the advice I have is that more than four sites were investigated, with a number of options in the mix.

I would also make the point, Senator Duniam, that back in 2021 the relevant minister then, which was the deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, made a similar decision just down the road from the goldmine and also considered the views of the same traditional owner group—

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For a go-kart track.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and protected the site under section 10 of the protection act. The interjections, I think, are not on point, Senator Duniam. The point is that there's a legal framework, and ministers have a responsibility to—

Honourable senators interjecting—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Order across the chamber. Minister, please continue.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You make me laugh. You do. It was you.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do. My jokes are the best!

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think Senator Watt might dispute that, actually! But, anyway, we'll leave that for another time. What I would say is that there is a statutory responsibility that the person occupying the role, the minister, has to exercise, and that's what minister— (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Duniam, first supplementary?

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Given the minister has defended her job-destroying decision on the basis of a submission from a small Indigenous group of only 18 people, I refer the minister to the comments of grazier Ross Wills, who's farmed the land of the proposed tailings dam for the Regis goldmine for nearly two decades. He says he's never heard from this group. He's now considering whether he discontinues grazing on this land in light of this section 10 decision, further damaging this community's fragile economy. I wonder: how does the minister justify this disastrous decision?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My advice is—and I'm always happy to provide further information if I'm incorrect—that this is the same traditional owner group that Minister Ley took account of when she made her decision.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

About a go-kart track.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, Senator, your proposition is that this group ought not be listened to—

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And a 10,000-strong petition.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You might just wait for at least half a sentence to finish before you interrupt. Seriously! I'm trying to give you a decent answer. You might not like it, but I am actually trying. Senator, your point seems to be that it was okay for the minister in 2021, under a coalition government, to listen to this group, but it's not okay now. That is not how the law works and that is not how the appropriate exercise of ministerial responsibility works. It isn't how it works. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Duniam, second supplementary?

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's unbelievable that we can draw a link between a go-kart track and a goldmine. But I again refer to this Labor government's job-destroying decision to block this much-needed mine and the 800 jobs that go with it, near Blayney in New South Wales. Local butcher Tanya Cassel and her husband chose to set up shop in Blayney eight years ago in the hope that this goldmine would boost their business once operational. What does the minister say to Ms Cassel, who said she was 'angry' at what this government 'has done to our little town'? Does the minister now concede she was wrong? (Time expired)

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I again note that the minister has not blocked the mine, and that was not correct. You keep asserting that; it is false. I know the coalition never let the facts get in the way of a good scare campaign. We see that from Mr Dutton all the time. Never let the facts get in the way of a good scare campaign. The minister has not blocked the mine. She has applied legislation that came from your governments—past governments—and she has applied it in accordance with the law, as Ms Ley did when she was the minister. You don't like the decision. You're entitled not to like the decision, but it was a decision made in accordance with the law, the same law that Ms Sussan Ley applied when she was a minister and the same law that previous environment ministers have applied. As I said in my first answer, the minister has made a finding in relation to the tailings dam, not the mine itself, and the falsehoods should not continue to be peddled. (Time expired)