F3 XT " P41.1U 2O1t0% 0
PRIME Y1i
FOR MEDIA 5 OCTOBER 1989
The Government has decided to reduce greatly the area known
as the Kakadu Conservation Zone and correspondingly increase
the area of Kakadu National Park. The remaining area, from
Coronation Hill to El Sherana, will be the subject of
concurrent inquiry processes as outlined below.
Reducing the Conservation Zone
A Government decision of 4 June 1987 laid down the following
principles for the resolving of the final boundaries of
Kakadu Stage III and the Conservation Zone
there will not be any increase in the overall size of
the Conservation Zone;
any change should, as far as possible, involve an
increase in the size of the South Alligator River
catchment within the Park; and
any change should, as far as practicable, maximise the
area of Park around sites of particular environmental
and heritage value.
In accordance with the thrust of that decision, especially
points and the Government has now decided to reduce
the Conservation Zone to the strip of leases bounded by
Coronation Hill and El Sherana.
This will put into the Park the entire catchment area of the
South Alligator River except for that exploration strip
where mining exploration work has been carried out. As
compared with this strip, nowhere else in the present
Conservation Zone has there been investment in exploration.
Because of the very great importance Australians properly
attach to Kakadu and the greatly increasing value of the
area in terms of tourism, the Government has decided that it
could not responsibly err on the side of risk to the Kakadu
wetlands fed from the catchment area. Our international
obligations arising from the World Heritage listing
underline the need for our position to be one of maximum
care and protection, rather than taking chances.
Inquiries
The first inquiry arises from a request already received
from the Jawoyn Association by the Minister for Aboriginal
Affairs, Mr Hand, to issue a declaration protecting the
Sickness Country which includes Coronation Hill and El
Sherana. This request has been made under the
Commonwealth's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Heritage Protection Act.
The Jawoyn have also applied under the Northern Territory
Aboriginal Sacred Sites Act for the Sickness Country to be
registered as a Sacred Site.
The advice available to the Commonwealth Government was that
the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs can nominate a person to
prepare a report under sub-section 10( 4) of the Heritage
Protection Act in anticipation of the possibility that a
certificate will be issued under the Sacred Sites Act
allowing disturbance of the land. The Minister has decided
to do so.
Seeking a report at this stage on the Aboriginal heritage
application will place the Minister in a better position to
deal with the application should the Northern Territory
Sacred Sites Authority or the Northern Territory Minister
for Lands agree to an application for mining or exploration
in the area that is unacceptable to the Jawoyn. The calling
for a Heritage Act report now will avoid delay in dealing
with the application, noting that the Northern Territory
Minister for Lands has said publicly that the Jawoyn would
have recourse to the Commonwealth legislation should the
Northern Territory Government reject the Jawoyn application.
The particular circumstances of this case, whereby the issue
of mining or exploration licences is the Commonwealth's
responsibilty, distinguishes it from the usual situation
whereby the Northern Territory would have this role. In
these more usual situations, the Commonwealth would only
need to consider seeking a report in the event that it is
asked to intervene after the NT processes have been
completed but are seen by the Aboriginal custodians as not
providing adequate protection.
The second inquiry relates to economic and environmental
considerations. The Government has received an
Environmental Impact Study on Coronation Hill.
If this were the only relevant consideration the Government
could be expected to take a decision at this point as to
mining, subject only to proper processes regarding
Aboriginal claims.
But this is not the case. There is a series of leases along
the South Alligator River extending from Coronation Hill to
El Sherana.
The Coronation Hill mine and the nearby El Sherana deposit
would have their ores processed at a single treatment plant
close to Coronation Hill. Consequently, El Sherana and
Coronation Hill, taken together, or in conjunction with
development of other leases between the two, could well have
a size and complexity of operation which would have a total
impact representing an unacceptable hazard to the wetlands
of the existing world Heritage area. Any development of El
Sherana would mean significant modification and expansion at
Coronation Hill including extra processing, storage and
tailings facilities.
Moreover, even if they were separate operations the
cumulative risk they pose to the Park might be judged as
excessive. The El Sherana mineral deposit might prove to be far richer
than the one at Coronation Hill. Approval now for
Coronation Hill therefore could prejudice the possible
development of a potentially richer ore body at El Sherana
were the Government later to judge that the risk could only
justify one mine.
Therefore the Government has decided that over and above the
EIS covering only Coronation Hill, it needs a single
coherent assessment of the economic and environmental
considerations relating to this strip along the river.
Inquiry Processes
The Resource Assessment Commission ( RAC) has been set up by
the Government to conduct inquiries into major, complex and
contentious resource use issues, with the object of
improving the basis on which the Government's decisions are
made. Among the matters which it may be required under the
Act to address are the environmental, cultural, social,
economic and other values of the resource under reference
and the losses and benefits involved in various alternative
uses, or combinations of use of that resource.
In view of the important conservation and economic values of
the Coronation Hill to El Sherana exploration area, the
degree of public interest, and the need to weigh up
perfectly legitimate but competing claims on the future use
of the area, the Government has decided to ask the RAC to
undertake an Inquiry into the environmental values of that
area, together with the impact on these values and on the
values of Kakadu National Park of possible mining operations
there. In accordance with previous Cabinet Decisions the
RAC will also be asked to assess the national economic
significance of possible mining developments in the area.
This will provide the opportunity for an independent and
full assessment of both the flora and fauna values of the
region and the region's potential significance as a source
of mineral wealth. All interested parties will have the
opportunity to put their case. To date there has been no
such independent forum at which they can do so.
The Government fully appreciates that there is not at this
stage the specific information on other possible mines in
the strip to permit the RAC to provide a report comparable
in detail to an EIS as such. But what the Government does
expect to receive is an assessment providing a better
overall perspective from which to make a final decision on
Coronation Hill.
The Government would expect to have such a report within
twelve months.
Regarding the Aboriginal application, certain of the issues
to be addressed in the Heritage Act report have some degree
of overlap with issues which might appropriately be
addressed in a Report from the RAC.
Because of the inter-relationship of issues between the two
inquiries, it is sensible for them to be conducted
concurrently, with some overlap of membership between the
two. Justice Stewart, the Chairman of the RAC, therefore will
chair the Aboriginal Heritage inquiry. There is also
expected to be other commonality between the two; for for
example a resource economist and an environmental expert.
Under the Heritage Act reference, appointment of an
anthropologist might also be appropriate.
This approach will enable the Government to move ahead
concurrently rather than sequentially in addressing all
issues on which outside independent advice is desirable. It
will avoid covering similar ground twice at different points
in time. In the final analysis this is in the interests of
all concerned the Aborigines, the miners and the
environmentalists.