ABC AM Breakfast interview with Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek

SUBJECTS: Headwaters and springs of Belubula River Protected, Aboriginal cultural heritage protection.

SABRA LANE: The mining industry has blasted the Federal Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek, claiming a decision she made late last week means a planned $1 billion open cut gold mine near Blayney in New South Wales central west is no longer viable.

Ms Plibersek ruled the company Regis Resources could not build a tailings dam on the headwaters of the Belubula River to protect significant Aboriginal heritage. She stated in her intervention there were other sites, but the company rejects that.

The Mining Exploration Council says this decision signals to overseas investors that valuable projects can be derailed by a small number of people.

The Environment Minister joined me earlier.

Tanya Plibersek, welcome to AM.

TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: It's a pleasure to be with you.

LANE: Regis Resources says your decision makes this project unviable now, and that it was made clear during consultations that there aren't other viable alternatives if you intervened. What's your response?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I'd respond to that in two ways. The first thing I'd say is in 2020 when Juukan Gorge was destroyed, we said as a nation that we shouldn't allow the destruction of Aboriginal cultural heritage in this way ever again.

When we have an issue like this where thousands of years of cultural heritage are at risk, it's my responsibility to protect it. So, I've used the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act, which has been around since 1984, to make a decision.

The people who've asked me to protect the headwaters and the springs of the Belubula River, the Wiradjuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation, have told me that this area is significant to them, it's been significant for thousands of years, it's associated with the time that young people move to adulthood and a number of the creation stories of the Wiradjuri people, and I've taken the decision to protect the headwaters and the springs of the river.

Crucially, I have not said that the gold mine can't go ahead. I said the tailings dam can't be built on the headwaters and springs of the river.

The company have previously said that they've investigated around four sites with about 30 different options for the tailings dam. If they are right in saying there's around $7 billion worth of gold to be extracted from this mine, I think it's in their interests to have a look at those alternative sites that they've previously investigated.

LANE: Are you able to reveal why this particular area is so special?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: It's obviously better to get the full story from the Traditional Owners, but they've made it very clear that every few years clan groups would travel to this Kings Plain area, they'd prepare the initiation of the next generation of the Wiradjuri boys. There's a lot of information that's been given about the significance of the river, the springs and the headwaters in Wiradjuri tradition. There's a number of creation stories that describe the landscape there and the importance of the river.

And I have to make this point as well, Sabra, just a couple of years ago, the previous Environment Minister, the Deputy Leader of the Liberals, Sussan Ley, made a very similar decision just down the road, about 50 kilometres away in Bathurst. At the request of the same group of Traditional Owners, she prevented a project going ahead on top of Mount Panorama for very similar reasons.

She said at that time that she was making the decision on the basis of local Aboriginal narratives, song lines, ceremonies and cultural heritage. That's exactly what I've done at the request of the same group of people just 50 kilometres away.

LANE: The company says it consulted the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council, it understood they were the Traditional Owners of that area, and that the Council had originally opposed the site but changed its position last year to neutral. Did you consult with this group? 

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I took evidence from both groups, and as you say, the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council had previously opposed the mine and changed its position to neutral.

The advice that I have is that the Wiradjuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation is the appropriate group to speak for Country in this area, and that's the same advice that Sussan Ley followed when she was Environment Minister and made a similar decision, as I said earlier, about 50 kilometres away.

LANE: The Minerals Council says this decision shows a very small handful of people can derail a significant project meaning that overseas investors will be worried about sovereign risk, locals will be disappointed that they miss out on hundreds of jobs. What's your response?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: The views on the mine are mixed with locals. There's been plenty of farmers who are very worried about the impact of the potential pollution of the Belubula River.

As for sovereign risk, these laws have been around since 1984, following Australian law is not a sovereign risk, that is following Australian law.

But I would say this: one of the really important reforms that we want to make to Aboriginal cultural heritage protection is to get project proponents to talk much earlier during project design with First Nations people, so that they can avoid or mitigate any impacts on cultural heritage.

The truth is we are living in a country where we've got thousands of years of continuous culture and heritage. We've done a pretty bad job of protecting it in the past. The Juukan Gorge tragedy was an extreme example of that. Liberal, Labor, Nationals, everyone in the Parliament said we can't allow things like this to happen again.

It was terrible for our reputation as a nation internationally. If that is the case, if we sincerely believe that we can't allow the destruction of cultural heritage in that way, then occasionally decisions like this have to be taken.

LANE: Environment Minister, thanks for talking to AM.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Thanks, Sabra.