Mining giant BHP is urging the Albanese government to revive a promised overhaul of environmental laws.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Last week, there were negotiations going on between the Greens and the Government to pass
00:07these what are known as nature positive laws, but they're essentially about how approvals
00:12are regulated for land use, for miners, for farming activities and the like.
00:17Now those negotiations fell apart on Tuesday after a pushback from quite a large section
00:24of the resources industry which doesn't like the way they've been written.
00:29The Prime Minister ended the negotiations with the Greens, there's plenty of rancour
00:34and recriminations about who is to blame for that falling apart, but at this stage they
00:38didn't pass through that big week last week with a lot of bills.
00:42They could potentially come back on the agenda if Parliament resumes in February.
00:47That all depends of course on whether the Prime Minister goes to an early election or
00:51not Ros.
00:52And BHP Australia boss Geraldine Slattery has just given a speech, what did she say
00:57Jacob?
00:58There was a very interesting speech, she's pointing out that Australia's competitiveness
01:03against other big resources countries is slipping and one of the reasons is the permitting system
01:09here is not fit for purpose.
01:12Now that's an allusion of course to what these nature positive laws were originally about,
01:18they came out of a review that was done by Graeme Samuels, started under the previous
01:22Coalition Government.
01:24He pointed out that permits take up to 1,000 days on complex mining projects.
01:30Remember BHP is arguing and Geraldine Slattery makes this point in the speech that we used
01:36to have a natural competitive advantage on iron ore and coal but we don't have one on
01:41many of the minerals that are critical to the green energy transition, copper, lithium,
01:47rare earths and it's the whole process by which mines get approvals that's holding things
01:56up and the BHP boss, the Australian boss pointing out that that needs to be looked at.
02:02So that's very much a reminder that the reforms that underpin these nature positive changes
02:07are still very much unfinished business.
02:09So do you think this pressure from the big miners will make a difference?
02:13So it's an important signal coming from as you say the big miners, BHP is one of the
02:19biggest players globally, Rio Tinto, it's big Australian rival has also put out statements
02:26in favour of reforming these laws to streamline these approvals processes but there's been
02:32a backlash from smaller miners, from the industry particularly in WA, it'll be interesting to
02:38see who prevails.
02:39They too need permits to be much more efficient, there's been lots of complaints about issues
02:44such as the Macphillimies gold mine in New South Wales being held up and other projects.
02:50So very much a live issue still for the government to address.