AARON PATRICK: Damned by a mythical bee — rejected gold mine shows what’s wrong with Australia

As a minister of the Crown, you better have a good reason for blocking a gold mine that could generate $7 billion.

Which is why the moment has come to question why former environment minister Tanya Plibersek was allowed to impose deal-breaking — and anthropologically dubious — conditions on the McPhillamys gold mine in country New South Wales.

Her decision, under a little-used but powerful clause of the Aboriginal Heritage Protection Act, was overturned by the Federal Court on Wednesday. The ruling was made on procedural grounds. There is no certainty her successor, Murray Watt, will back down and approve plans for a mine in the region that experienced Australia’s first gold rush.

Not only should Mr Watt accept the conclusions of NSW’s Independent Planning Commission that the mine poses no significant heritage problems, the Albanese Government should acknowledge the six years McPhillamys has spent in bureaucratic purgatory is proof the approvals process for mineral and energy projects is failing.

Blue-banded bee

In August, 2024, Ms Plibersek vetoed the site of a dam to store soil and rock from the mine. Newspaper reporting raised doubts about one of the arguments that convinced the minister: a bee with blue stripes on its abdomen featured in an Aboriginal “Dreaming” or songline from the area. A Dreaming is a religious-type story that describes the history or origins of an Indigenous group.

The Australian reported the blue-banded bee story may have originated in 2022 when a stylised bee was painted on a large vertical mural on the Bathurst Post Office.

Accused of bowing to pressure from a select group of Indigenous activists, Ms Plibersek engaged in sophistry. She didn’t stop the mine, she said, just the dam.

It is difficult to believe, with a large bureaucracy at her disposal, that she did not know that vetoing the dam site would set the project back years, and possibly indefinitely.

Another reason she gave is that “this is an area where young men were brought for initiation”. Those ceremonies conducted by the local Wiradjuri people included seclusion, dancing and instruction in sacred knowledge, according to independent sources. Undoubtedly they were important to Wiradjuri culture, but in a state bigger than Texas, would building one dam really cause harm?

The independent NSW assessment was led by an academic, Peter Williams, who headed the planning program at the University of NSW between 2009 and 2012 and taught at Sydney Law School. These positions are indicative of high professional competence.

Dr Williams’ 70-page assessment, published in 2023, didn’t mention blue-banded bees or initiation ceremonies. The Orange Aboriginal Land Council told him “we are not for or against this mine”.

A plea

Judge James Stellios’s decision to overrule Ms Plibersek doesn’t guarantee the mine will go ahead.

The owner, Perth-based Regis Resources, issued a public plea on Wednesday for a “timely” decision by the Government and said it was working on a backup plan for disposing of what are known in the industry as tailings.

“After considerable delay and uncertainty, and more than two years of time lost, we are eager to move forward,” managing director Jim Beyer said.

Regis has previously said the mine could produce 190,000 ounces of gold a year for nine years, a huge amount that would generate cash for employees, shareholders and governments.

Mr Watt promised a decision “as quickly as possible”.

“We understand this outcome will matter deeply to the Wiradyuri Elders who brought the application, as well as to the company and its workforce, and to the Blayney community,” he said.

Shadow environment minister Andrew Bragg dared Mr Watt to say yes. “If Murray Watt is really pro-jobs and development, he can now demonstrate his commitment,” he said.

An even-more depressing example of state stasis is not far away, geographically and politically.

The Narrabri gas project, which could cover half NSW’s gas needs, sought approval from the state in 2014. Despite obtaining it in 2020, the coal-seam gas project remains mired in court challenges and awaiting permission to build pipelines connecting it to the national gas network.

The main opponents are an alliance of environmentalists, farmers and Indigenous activists who claim, contrary to scientific evidence, the wells risk “major erosion across the black soil Liverpool Plains”, could pollute the Great Artesian Basin and eliminate the Pilliga Mouse.

It is unclear if the $6 billion project will get built. The owner, Santos, has shifted attention to the Northern Territory, while the Albanese Government’s decision to place export controls on gas would hit profits by suppressing prices.

Bureaucratic and legal obstacles

Then there is last week’s High Court decision that a NSW coal mine must consider the climate effects of using its product to generate electricity in South Korea and Japan, countries that already offset their coal use.

Lawyers say the decision only applies to NSW, but climate activists’ celebratory response suggests more challenges are likely.

There are many other examples. Taken together, they show that a nation endowed with immense energy and mineral resources has chosen to build bureaucratic and legal obstacles to their exploitation.

Last year, the government came up with a partial solution. Under big changes to environmental laws, including the creation of a National Environmental Protection Agency, the environment minister was given the power to override laws slowing down big projects.

The changes, which are being phased in this year, are often cited by Treasurer Jim Chalmers as a part of what he claims is “the biggest and broadest productivity package in a budget that we’ve seen for some decades”.

Without a more efficient economy, living standards will continue to slip. What Dr Chalmers and other ministers don’t remind Australians is that coal and gas projects — the second and third-largest exports — were excluded from fast-track approvals under a compromise with the Greens.

Australia’s main economic problem is clear: the country doesn’t produce enough to meet demand. If a mythical bee is allowed to frustrate construction of a gold mine, what hope do other important projects have?