Ministerial Statement

Enforcement and Prosecution, Real-Time Data

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:02): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The mineral resources industry is a substantial contributor to the success of our economy. Operators in this sector range in size from multinational companies to small private companies, working within the extractives or quarrying industries. No matter the size of the operation, the Department for Energy and Mining as the lead regulator is tasked with enforcing compliance with the legislation and regulations, as enacted by this parliament.

The Department for Energy and Mining is filled with diligent, hardworking and skilled regulators who operationalise the legislative framework we enliven in this place. During my interactions with mining companies and community stakeholders, South Australia and the Department for Energy and Mining is continually lauded and held in high esteem as trusted regulators who seek to protect our state's interests and the environment we rely upon.

Not content with current practices following amendments to the Mining Act and Mining Regulations 2020, the department developed new policies and procedures to support the aims of that legislative framework. This led the department's mining regulators to adopt a formal transparency policy to ensure greater industry accountability, and to enhance public trust in its activities. The result of this work is additional tools now available to regulators, and timely access to the outcomes of the department's compliance work through real-time updates.

While much of this information had previously been made accessible through the mineral resources annual regulation reports, there was a lag between outcomes and providing information to the public. Not anymore. Today, the Department for Energy and Mining has launched a dedicated webpage hosted on the energymining.sa.gov.au website to publish enforcement outcomes as they are delivered. The webpage will list enforcement and prosecutions under the Mining Act as well as listing the use of two new compliance tools created by reforms to the act, namely enforceable voluntary undertakings and civil penalties. The webpage also discloses penalty payments into the Mining Rehabilitation Fund, a sanction also created by the recent Mining Act reforms. This is only the first stage of this project. The department plans to expand the webpage to include real-time publication of environmental or compliance directions, suspensions and prohibition orders.

Mr Speaker, you may recall the Select Committee on Land Access established by this place and chaired by my honourable colleague, the now member for Stuart, and it made several findings. Two areas of broad concern identified by that committee were that the department needed to be seen as a strong regulator of the mining industry and that some operators in the resource industry had exhibited poor conduct and were not being held to account.

The new transparency policy and this webpage ensure South Australians now have a real-time record of compliance and enforcement. In that way, the people of South Australia can be assured the department continues to be a fair and strong regulator, and the few operators in the industry conducting themselves poorly are held, and are seen to be held, to account.