Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to make a couple of comments and put some questions in response to the minister’s answer there. Thank you very much for providing that information to us. I am certainly not proposing that this amendment replace the way that mediation bonds are held by the Territory government; I am not sure that is even within the power of the Senate to do. In fact, this is intended for long-term care and maintenance of the kind we are still seeing where the taxpayer is having to cough up for rehabilitation of sites that were mined up to 40 years ago. Indeed, this is in addition to the way that bonds are set aside at this time. I want to talk about the reason I am suggesting this. You put the case to us about the money set aside by the Ranger operation. That mine has conditions that were set quite early on, after a very fierce debate, that it would need to be isolated from the environment for a period of 10,000 years if you would want to apply for long-term care of the volume of radioactive tailings that is being produced at Ranger right now. Is the minister aware of whether this condition has been subject to any proposed future uranium mines in the Territory or whether it is under discussion at any level?