MARATHON RESOURCES

The Hon. M. PARNELL (15:30): I have a supplementary question. Will the minister confirm that Marathon's continued presence in the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary will be limited to clean-up, restoration and removal of equipment and that there will be no drilling and no further mineral exploration?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Police, Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning) (15:30): I have already made it clear that there will be no new holes drilled by Marathon. That does have to be completed. It will take a few days for the clean up effort in relation to the sumps, and so on. If drilling is halfway through and the bit is down there, it has to be taken out of the hole. That process will be allowed to continue. After all, if the equipment is there we do not want it left on the side of the hill.

We have set a number of objectives or requirements on the company. First, it has to remove the material that has been placed wrongly in those pits. It then has to do a thorough review and report to government in relation to its environmental practices, because the company has other tenements within the state. The government wants to ensure that the company does a thorough review of those practices. As we indicated yesterday in a statement, the company will have to talk to and re-engage with stakeholders, including the Sprigg family (the operators of the resort at Arkaroola), before this government would ever contemplate any further activity by the company in this area.

It is up to the company as to what it does now. Certainly, it can undertake any environmental or baseline studies if it so wishes and if it believes they are valuable. In relation to drilling, once the work on the holes it is working on now is completed—and I mean restoring the sumps which are there to collect the material—we expect the drilling rigs would be removed. As I said, there will be no further drilling for an indefinite period.