Ursula Stephens (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Social Inclusion and the Voluntary Sector) Share this | Hansard source

I indicate to Senator Ludlam, as I said earlier, that the government is not supporting any of your amendments. But, if I could respond to the issues that you have raised in your amendments, that perhaps would give you some clarity.

What we are seeking here, through these amendments, is to give the Commonwealth Auditor-General a specified role in checking that the royalties payable to the Northern Territory are correctly calculated. The real impact of that is to impose on the Northern Territory a degree of supervision that is not imposed on states. You suggested in your remarks that there is no evidence of financial manipulation by companies but it is certainly something that governments would have an incentive to ensure does not occur. As the law presently stands, the onus is on the company and not the government to prove that the price is valid. So, if the Northern Territory Treasury questions the price being paid for the uranium in the royalty return, the payer has to disapprove that department’s view—and the Northern Territory process is subject to similar oversight by its Auditor-General. So, to the extent that the Auditor-General already has the power to review the Commonwealth department administering payments to the Aboriginal Benefits Account, we believe that this is adequate.

All uranium producers in Australia require uranium export permission, and this requires that copies of all uranium contracts are submitted to the Commonwealth. Companies are also required to declare to the Commonwealth all shipments, which includes declaring the quantities, the prices, the customer and the shipping routes. Accordingly, the Auditor-General already has the capability to do what is proposed. Therefore, we believe that the amendment adds nothing to prudential supervision and so we are not supporting it.

In relation to the proposal in item 25 of the amendment which seeks to expand the function of the Supervising Scientist in relation to uranium mining in the Northern Territory, again that is imposing on the Territory a degree of regulation that is not applied to the rest of the country. Also, the legislation we are presently considering goes to the issue of taxation; the relevant legislation for approval, monitoring and rehabilitation of uranium mines in the Northern Territory is the Territory’s Mining Management Act 2001, which will apply to any new uranium mines in the Northern Territory and has the appropriate mechanisms to regulate all aspects of Northern Territory uranium mines. In any event, as Senator Minchin said, the Commonwealth has a very substantial role in relation to the Supervising Scientist’s work and in relation to the environmental regulation of uranium mining through the EPBC Act. If, Senator Ludlam, you wish to change what is already a very comprehensive environmental regulatory regime with respect to uranium mining, that is where the amendments should be sought—to that act, not this bill. So we are not supporting either part of that proposed amendment.