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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-05-03 Daily Xml
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WOOMERA PROHIBITED AREA

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:18): I seek leave to make a further ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Madam Speaker, this morning I had the pleasure of flying with the federal Minister for Defence, Stephen Smith, and the federal Minister for Mineral Resources, Martin Ferguson, and the state Minister for Mineral Resources Development to Woomera in our state's Far North, to release the final report of a review into the Woomera Prohibited Area and to announce the federal government's response to that review. The significance of this report cannot be overstated in terms of the future growth of two of our state's vital and burgeoning industries—defence and mining.

The federal government review, by the highly respected former public servant and diplomat Dr Allan Hawke AC, who was also the secretary for the Department of Defence between 1999 and 2002, has laid down a clear set of rules by which both industries can not only coexist within the Woomera Prohibited Area but can survive and grow long into the future.

Dr Hawke has produced an outstanding report and this government commends his excellent work, which included extensive consultation with all interested parties, including industry groups, pastoralists, indigenous groups, as well as the state government.

The review recognises that the WPA—the Woomera Prohibited Area—should 'be opened up to resources exploration to the maximum extent possible.' Apart from the proposed go-ahead for the giant Olympic Dam expansion, which I hope will be achieved early next year, there could not be in this state's history a single announcement with such economic benefits for our state's future.

The review and the report propose a new set of rules, which for the first time provide clear protocols for mining companies operating inside the Woomera Prohibited Area. The federal government announced this morning that it has accepted the review's findings and will now seek to implement the new rules for Woomera.

This government believes these new rules will lead to unlocking tens of billions of dollars in resources in gold, uranium, copper and iron ore that lie beneath the surface of the Woomera area. Indeed, the Hawke review finds that the development of multiple mineral deposits across the breadth of the Woomera Prohibited Area could transform the area into one of Australia's most significant resource provinces. We are talking about a new frontier for mining that has previously been untapped; a new frontier that will generate billions and billions of dollars for this state.

The unique Woomera Prohibited Area stretches over 127,000 square kilometres of land—roughly equivalent to the area occupied by the whole of England. It was created in 1947 (over 60 years ago) by the commonwealth and is today the world's largest secure defence weapons testing zone, created over 13 per cent of South Australia's land mass.

Since its creation, the commonwealth government has maintained the integrity of the Woomera Prohibited Area and kept it intact as a weapons and testing zone. Its extraordinary natural assets and its continued highly protected, secure environment in a politically stable country, easily accessible to city populations, mean that the Woomera area has grown in strategic importance to governments and corporations across the globe as a testing ground for our defence and security industries.

The Woomera Prohibited Area is in an isolated part of our country and features a desert landscape; hot, clear, dry weather; a very low population; a permanently restricted airspace; little radio interference; and a well-maintained airfield. It has provided the best conditions and unimpeded airspace and land area for rocket testing; explosive testing; explosive demolition testing; unmanned aerial vehicle trials; an array of military exercises, including bombing; parachute training; GPS interference trials; and astronomical observation, to name just a few examples, by defence and global organisations, universities and government agencies.

Commercially, the Woomera Prohibited Area generates a huge amount of economic activity within our state. Beneath the surface of the WPA, however, there is a far greater potential for economic growth. It also happens to be an area of land through which runs some of the richest seams of resources in the world, such as gold, copper, uranium and iron ore.

Mining exploration companies have been hungry to explore more of the potential riches inside the WPA, which are estimated to be worth, I am told, in excess of $35 billion, and that is of the known resources contained within the area. To put that into perspective, 62 per cent of Australia's known copper resources are estimated by Geoscience Australia to be located in the area, as well as 78 per cent of Australia's known uranium reserves.

The Woomera Prohibited Area contains resource bodies similar to the nearby Olympic Dam mine, which sits just outside the WPA boundary. I am informed that there is significant potential for discovering further valuable mineral and petroleum deposits within the WPA.

The state government has actively encouraged and directly stimulated the growth of both our defence and mining industries, so in more recent years the WPA has come to represent a perfect storm of competing interests. That is why a year ago in May 2010 this government welcomed the federal government's decisions to undertake a review into the future use of the WPA in the context of national security, as well as its economic significance, to clarify rules for access and investment by mining companies and others. Like the SA government, the commonwealth has always favoured multiple land use, where this can be accommodated without compromising defence's strategically important activities.

Given that more than 100 active exploration leases, and three successfully operating mines at Challenger, Prominent Hill and Cairn Hill, operate within the WPA, this government has forcefully argued that it was in the national interest that the Department of Defence and the mining industry both work within a clear set of guidelines when operating within the area.

This final report released this morning establishes those guidelines. It is recommending the introduction of a permit system which will break the WPA into three zones according to Defence use: a red zone, where no new non-Defence users should be granted access, with the exception of the SA government sponsored geological survey; an amber zone, where new non-Defence users can be excluded for 20 weeks each in the south-east corner of the zone, and 10 weeks each in the centre line corridor each year, to be notified each March for the pending financial year, and a green zone, where Defence will be entitled to exclude new non-Defence users with permanent facilities established in the zone for up to eight weeks a year with six months' notice, and other permit holders with 14 days' notice.

The review is recommending that the defence minister should also have discretion to suspend all non-Defence users access to the area when there is an urgent national defence requirement, and this government believes that is entirely appropriate. The Hawke report is also recommending a small adjustment to the south-eastern boundary, to allow resources companies to explore in this known region of high metallic mineral potential, similar to the Olympic Dam deposit. All of these recommended changes substantially increase the capacity for coexistence on the WPA.

I commend the federal government for accepting the report's recommendations. Legislative changes in federal parliament will be required to facilitate the introduction of this improved access regime. I hope that these legislative amendments will receive the bipartisan support they require and deserve, for the benefit for our state and nation. This is an extraordinary announcement that will have massive benefits. It is like discovering a new country for mining exploration development and, as I say, is a new frontier for our mining sector.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

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