THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS FIRST EDITION WITH KENNY HEATLEY
THURSDAY 31 OCTOBER 2024
SUBJECTS: QANTAS UPGRADES DEBATE, MCPHILLAMYS GOLD MINE.
KENNY HEATLEY, HOST: Joining me now is Environment and Water Minister, Tanya Plibersek. Minister, thanks for coming on the program. Good to see you.
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Good morning, Kenny.
HEATLEY: So, will we hear from the Prime Minister today? Why are we not getting - why this late afternoon statement from a spokesperson? Why won't the Prime Minister come out and speak to the media?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Oh, look, I'm sure the Prime Minister will be fronting the media all the time from now on. I don't know what he's up to today, but he's been completely transparent up until now. He's been doing press conference after press conference this week and no doubt he'll be doing press conference after press conference in coming days. What these press conferences have demonstrated is that he's been completely transparent and reported any upgrades that he's received. And that's a real contrast to Bridget McKenzie, who apparently hasn't been declaring upgrades despite the fact that she's the Transport Shadow Minister.
HEATLEY: The statement didn't specify whether Anthony Albanese sought upgrades through any other contact at Qantas or the private number that the Prime Minister was speaking of. If a Transport Minister were to solicit free upgrades from the national carrier through a senior executive of the airline, would that be in breach of ethics and the ministerial code of conduct?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Look, I'm not going to get into all sorts of hypotheticals like this, but what I would say is when Qantas has been treating --
HEATLEY: It's not a hypothetical, though, this is what the allegations are.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, it is. What I would say is when Qantas has done the wrong thing by consumers or by its workforce, we've been the first to stand up and criticise that. We've been on the side of the workforce when Qantas has been laying off workers despite receiving massive amounts of JobKeeper. I've been at rallies with their workforce when they've had layoffs. We've also introduced Same Job, Same Pay legislation which, of course --
HEATLEY: Okay, but my question is, would it be a breach of the ministerial code of conduct?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: -- Qantas is very much against because they want to underpay part of their workforce. Well, look, I don't know --
HEATLEY: Yes or no?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: -- I'm not going to answer hypotheticals.
HEATLEY: Ok, Indigenous leaders are saying the government doesn't listen to them. After you used an unknown dreaming story to stop a gold mine going ahead in Blayney. Did your decision to block the Blayney gold mine tailings dam rely on a false made-up story?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: You've actually made three mistakes in that sentence. The first thing is I haven't blocked a gold mine. I've said that the tailings dam that's proposed for the gold mine can't be built on the headwaters and springs of the Belubula River. My decision applies to 16 per cent of a 2,500-hectare site. And I've made very clear that if the company goes ahead and moves the tailings dam and they've said they've investigated 30 different design options for the tailings dam, then the project can go ahead.
HEATLEY: But they've said it's been unviable. That's what’s been widely reported.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, in fact, on Friday they said that the project is still looking viable, and the CEO of the company and the chair of the board have bought thousands of extra shares. And last time I checked, the share price was up by 55 per cent. So, I'm not sure that you can really say it's looking that unviable. In addition to that, I had about 2,500 pages of evidence before me. It included a whole range of evidence from the Wiradjuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation, which is the same group of people that Sussan Ley listened to when she made a very similar decision just down the road from the Blayney gold mine and she was advised, as I was advised, that they're the correct group of traditional owners to listen to for this country. There's two Aboriginal groups in that area that support --
HEATLEY: Ok, well, the Aboriginal Land Councils are quite angry about this. For the sake of repairing the relationship with the Aboriginal Land Councils. Are you willing to admit that you got this one wrong?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: No, because I listened to the appropriate group of people, and I made an appropriate decision based on an enormous amount of evidence before me. I listened to the same group of people that the then Environment Minister, now Deputy leader of the Liberal Party, Sussan Ley, listened to when she made a similar decision just down the road. It is no surprise, Kenny, that not every Aboriginal person agrees with every other Aboriginal person. Right? That's no surprise. What I've done is listen to the appropriate group for this local area. The same group that Sussan Ley listened to when she made a very similar decision a few years ago based on advice, same sort of advice from the department, that this is the right group of people to listen to in this instance.
HEATLEY: Yeah, okay. In this meeting in Orange of the --
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Sorry, just one minute. The Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council and the Wellington Valley Group were also consulted. We had multiple rounds of procedural fairness where the information that I was presented was tested with other groups, including the mining company, including other community organisations, including other Aboriginal groups. The idea that these projects are contested, that there are different points of view, is no surprise. It is no surprise that not every Aboriginal person agrees with every other Aboriginal person. Can I also say that this project has had multiple --
HEATLEY: Ok. The Chief Executive of the Orange Aboriginal Land Council. We've just got limited time but the --
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: It would be great if you let me say that - there's also multiple views in the local community where a number of farming groups in particular have been very concerned about the potential impacts on the Belubula River and down into the Carcoar Dam. It is really important to take all of the advice into account. And what Peter Dutton's been saying is he would ignore all of the advice and trust what the mining company is telling him.
HEATLEY: Can I just say that the Chief Executive at the Orange Aboriginal Land Council, Annette Steele, says the woman leading the opposition to the mine was a former employee of the Land Council who during her employment did not identify as Indigenous and says the woman's claims to the Land Council were false, including that she spoke to elders who claimed that the site of the tailings dam impeded on Aboriginal land. So, again, you know, is this decision based on false information?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: No.
HEATLEY: And are you - so, you also have another decision that's coming up with a new second gold mine in the Blayney area --
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I've got many, many decisions coming up.
HEATLEY: Yes. So, will you be talking to --
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I've got a whole pipeline. Yeah.
HEATLEY: Okay. So, when will we get a decision on that second mine and its tailings dam?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, when I've had a chance to look at all the information before me. I've approved more than 40 mining projects since becoming the Environment Minister. I've doubled the rate of on time approvals. But the idea that just because a mining company wants to do something that it's going to get an automatic tick and flick, that's not in anybody's interests. We need to make sure, yes, that we are supporting jobs and industry in this country, but we also need to make sure that our environment's going to be there for our kids and grandkids to enjoy. That we're protecting our heritage at the same time. And I think that most ordinary Australians see that as a perfectly reasonable position that when a big company wants to do a project, we need to make sure that it's in the broadest public interest. And that means in the interests of society, of the economy, but also that it's done in a way that protects our precious environment.
HEATLEY: Okay. Tanya Plibersek, appreciate you coming on the program this morning. Thanks very much.
END
