DEVELOPMENT (PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT CONTROL—MINING OPERATIONS—FLINDERS) AMENDMENT BILL

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (16:01): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Development Act 1993. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (16:01): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

When we debated the Mining Act some weeks ago, the Hon. Mark Parnell introduced an amendment to ban mining in Arkaroola. At the time there were a number of discussions around his amendment and quite a deal of discussion in the media about mining in Arkaroola. At the time we indicated we would not support the Hon. Mark Parnell's amendment, as we were dealing with the Mining Act, and we preferred to put some extra protection for Arkaroola in the Development Act. That particular region, which is an area outside the council area of Flinders, I think it is called, has a development plan that has some principles around the environmental zone A, so we are attempting with this amendment bill to put those principles from the development plan into the Development Act. It is reasonably self-explanatory.

The purpose for doing this on the last private members' day before getting up for the summer break is to have this out for public consultation. The Hon. Mark Parnell indicated in the debate that he would be happy to help with what we were trying to achieve here, and there have been a number of other stakeholders. Marathon Resources currently has a lapsed exploration licence over that area in Arkaroola, but there are also a number of other mining players in that particular area: Bonanza Gold I think has a particular interest. Quasar Exploration, Alliance Resources, Lynka and Cauldron Energy are all companies with interests in this area.

We are looking to have discussions with those operators to see exactly whether this amendment affords the protection we are after but also to ensure that it does not impact on existing operations so as to cause environmental harm or damage to that area. It has been brought to my attention that the local traditional owners of the land in that area might have a view on this legislation as well. I certainly would welcome some contribution and some correspondence from them, and we will be making an attempt to speak to them over the summer break as well.

Certainly, where extra environmental controls have been put in place in other parts of the nation—and the one that springs to mind is the wild rivers legislation from the Queensland government—they have caused some debate in some of the local and Indigenous communities that maybe they have gone a little too far and that they do not allow the local communities to have viable businesses and also to gain employment in their communities.

While we do not believe that this amendment will have a negative impact on the local Indigenous community and their opportunities for jobs and economic activity, we would certainly welcome some input from them. What we are hoping to do with this amendment bill is to insert into the Development Act the area known as an 'environmental class A zone'. I think it is important to read the principles into Hansard. Subsection (5b) states:

The principle of development control under this subsection is that no mining operation should be conducted in the Environmental Class A zone except where—

(a) the deposits of minerals are of such paramount significance that all other environmental, heritage or conservation considerations may be overridden; and

(b) the exploitation of those deposits is in the National or State interest; and

(c) investigations have shown that alternative deposits are not available on other land in the locality outside the Environmental Class A Zone; and—

I know that parliamentary counsel does a fabulous job 99.9 per cent of the time, but paragraph (c) does say 'on other land in the liability outside the Environmental Class A Zone', but it should be 'locality'. I continue:

(d) the operations to be carried out in pursuance of the tenement are to be subject to stringent safeguards to protect the landscape and natural environment.

They are the principles that we are wanting to be inserted into the Development Act to add another level of protection for Arkaroola. With those few words, I will not prolong the debate. We have a very full agenda today with the last private member's day before the break, but I do look forward to members giving this some consideration over the summer and look forward to their contributions in the new year.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. J.M. Gazzola.