Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) | Hansard source

I rise to also speak to the ministerial statement provided by the Minister for Resources and take note of her statement regarding the government's new and much awaited Critical Minerals Strategy.

In her opening remarks, the minister states that we are on the cusp of the creation of a new resources industry. The minister spoke to the gold rushes of the 1800s, the Japanese investment in iron ore in the 1950s and the expansion of LNG in the 1980s and 1990s. Indeed, the minister also spoke about the benefits genuine partnerships between the critical minerals sector and First Nations people can bring. I note that she also circled around jobs and prosperity in this, which she sees as the very key aspects.

But what the minister failed to mention in particular in this ministerial statement is the dispossession of land, the contamination of sacred groundwater and other water sources, the destruction of cultural heritage and the unequal power balance between First Nations communities and very large mining companies, particularly in this country. The minister is right, in fact, that minerals that will be mined under this strategy are important in our fight against climate change. These minerals are needed for batteries in our electric vehicles, a cohort that I recently joined, and they will be needed for our solar panels, our wind turbines and our hydro facilities. However, we cannot, and we must not, proceed with the same carelessness and disregard of the impacts of these mines as we did with gold, coal and gas. We must learn the lessons that have been presented. They are the lessons of: What is consultation? What is co-design? What is free, prior and informed consent? It's the protection of cultural heritage.

Further to that, we must also consider the environmental impact of these mines. Yes, they may be needed to help us create technologies to transition to clean energy, but mining operations are also energy intensive. They use a lot of water and chemicals to explore, extract, process and transport these minerals. We also can't turn a blind eye to the impacts solely because these minerals are needed to make batteries and our other technologies. There needs to be a balance struck between the need for these minerals and the impact that they have on our water, climate, endangered species and cultural heritage.

Over 60 per cent of the resources projects operate on land covered by native title determination or native title claims, but the fact is that every single mine in this country is on stolen land. Every single dollar that mining companies make in this country is stolen wealth. Every single drop of water that is extracted to process these minerals is a stolen sacred resource. These resources are ours. This is country we have had a connection to for 65,000 years, and the water that runs out into our free country is ours.

Mining companies have a shameful history of strongarming traditional owners, and the Native Title Act unfortunately facilitates some of this. Native title bodies are told that they must provide consent in order to receive compensation, and this is in fact not true. Because of this representation, native title bodies provide their consent because they know that, even if they don't provide consent to that project, it will go ahead anyway and, if there is work happening on their land, they might as well benefit from it. Unfortunately, this is the horrible, horrible situation that traditional owners all over this country are placed in. This is why we need native title reform. We need stronger cultural heritage protections. We need to ensure that free, prior and informed consent is legislated.

For far too long First Nations people have been exploited. Our land has been destroyed. The minister actually refers in her statement to genuine partnerships. Well, I would like to see the model that the minister is proposing for what this would look like and guidelines or examples of what this government thinks genuine partnerships look like and what tangible benefits they will bring to First Nations communities. These benefits go beyond just the promised jobs, the infrastructure and the flash talk that comes along with what mining companies spin when they go into our communities. It's important that governments that are brokering some of these deals actually understand that.

I want to thank the minister, Minister King, who I meet with on a quarterly basis and have a good engagement process with, on her engagement on this critical minerals strategy. I look forward to the future engagement so that these considerations are not lost and to ensure that the right balance is struck and that First Nations people don't bear the brunt of the consequences of a new era of mining in this country. A new era means some of the wealth, some of the development and some of the opportunity needs to be shared.