Greens Member for Mining and Pastoral Robin Chapple MLC has welcomed the Western Australian Auditor-General’s report ‘Ensuring Compliance with Conditions on Mining’, saying it confirms what he has been saying for years.
“While much has been made of the mining boom, what is less well known is the poor performance of mining companies when it comes to compliance with environmental requirements,” Mr Chapple said.
“Indeed, it seems that mining companies, assisted by the Department of State Development and the Department of Mining and Petroleum, are making their sizeable profits at the expense of the environment and Indigenous cultural values.
“The main criticism must be directed at the Premier Colin Barnett, who is also the Minister for State Development, and the Minister for Mines and Petroleum Hon Norman Moore for the failure of their departments to ensure monitoring and compliance in several areas including environmental offsets, annual environmental reporting, mines inspections and ensuring adequate mine closure and rehabilitation plans.
“Premier Barnett and Minister Moore must be held to account and explain to the community why, when we are a-wash with money, they cannot do more to protect our environmental and cultural values.
“Other departments were also found lacking, and questions must be asked of the Minister of the Environment Bill Marmion and Minister of Indigenous Affairs Peter Collier about their poor efforts when it comes to monitoring and enforcing compliance.
“As the report notes: ‘heritage sites may have been lost or damaged without the State knowing or acting’.
“We know it has happened as recently as last month when, despite calls to the Registrar of Aboriginal Sites for urgent action to prevent damage to registered sites at James Price Point, nothing happened for an inordinate amount of time.
“Both DIA and the Office of the Environmental Protection Authority must spend more time in the field monitoring the activities of mining companies rather than accepting their reports without scrutiny.
For more information please contact Robin Chapple on 0409 379 263 or 9486 8255
Media Release: Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam, Robin Chapple MLC. Wednesday September 21st, 2011
The Barnett Government’s new deal with China is a secretive template for a massive increase in foreign-owned extractive industries at a time when the mining boom is doing structural harm to the rest of the Australian economy, the Australian Greens said today.
Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam said a number of provisions in the Memorandum of Understanding set off alarm bells, chiefly the demand for total confidentiality.
“The deal states that all information exchanged must be treated as confidential, whether designated as such or not. It sets secrecy as the default setting. The deal says information cannot be disclosed to a third party. A third party such as the Western Australian public.”
Senator Ludlam said the deal was designed to be “entrenched for at least ten years” and potentially opened Western Australia up to an unprecedented level of exploitation.
“The deal is designed to lock in our foreign-owned quarry economy.
Greens WA MLC Robin Chapple said the deal raised serious questions over control of Western Australian mining operations, resources and infrastructure.
“The deal mentions ‘exchanges of views with respect to laws and regulations’. Will China exercise influence over our regulations to suit the interests of Chinese companies? Will the State Government bend environmental and industrial regulations to suit Chinese companies?
“The M.O.U states the WA Government will support and encourage Chinese companies to participate in the construction of railroad, port and other infrastructure, but does not say who will control that infrastructure when it is completed. These questions need to be answered,” said Mr Chapple.
For further comment contact Robin Chapple on 9486 9968 or 0409 379 263
