Interview with Andrew Kelso on ABC Wimmera and Mildura/Swan Hill - 8:40am - Wednesday 12 December 2024

KELSO:  Overnight, Member for Mallee federally Anne Webster has written to the federal environment minister to call for a review into the Victorian approved mineral sand mines. And she joins me this morning. Good morning, Miss Webster.

WEBSTER: Ah, good morning Andrew. How are you?

KELSO: Not too bad. So when did you first hear that this s would be approved?

WEBSTER: Yesterday I had farmers call me. I had many, phone calls with very distressed farmers. And I've been listening to them for some time now and, you know, trying to work with Wim in particular earlier on to have better consultation and an understanding. I've certainly spoken to Mineral Councils Australia, and in fact I'm meeting with one of them today as well. I have to declare, first up, this is a Victorian government process, my involvement. Now, apart from being the representative for Mallee, where a lot of these mines and I would add renewable projects, transmission lines like there are many. As (farmer) Dean (Johns) said, there are many upset people in Victoria at the moment who feel railroaded, absolutely railroaded. I mean, fancy the Victorian government presenting this EES approval yesterday while farmers are on their harvesters and two weeks before Christmas who thought that might be a good idea?

KELSO: How can they manage that kind of confirmation of the project? You know, I know there are another couple of steps to go, but basically going ahead.

WEBSTER: I did write to Tanya Plibersek yesterday. I also wrote to Jono Duniam, who is the shadow environment minister, and I called Jono to talk to him about what is going on and how farmers are feeling railroaded that the EES has gone through the Victorian Government approvals. Now the Minister has given that yes, there now needs to be a mining licence approval and there will be apparently some consultation. Who knows what that will look like before that happens? But it is up to the minister now to call and commit Tanya Plibersek to review the whole EPBC process. And that means issues like radiation issues, in terms of the environment, Ramsar wetlands, which is certainly a is part of the Goschen project. Every place that I can, I want to stand up for farmers because they are being treated as second class citizens, as though their contribution to GDP is nothing - understand that they feed the nation.

KELSO: So just on that point about it being a Victorian government's approval, they were the ones that approved the EES yesterday. But I understand that now. It actually does automatically activate a federal review on environmental and radiation grounds. As you said, there. Is that likely to happen before Christmas?

WEBSTER: Oh look Who knows. It's also what I have seen over and over again, whether it's the Victorian Labor government or the federal Labor government, is that they have smoke and mirrors and a lack of transparency. So it's actually very difficult to know what will actually happen once the review is triggered to the minister. That will then go to the department, the federal Department for Environment. They will do a complete review of the project as it stands. They will then deliver the report to Minister Plibersek, and she's got to decide within 20 to 40 days what conditions to impose on the project to prevent significant adverse environmental impacts. But, you know, that's going to depend on if the department are working over Christmas, I don't know.

KELSO: So just on that note as well, because, you know, it is, as you say, really close to the end of the year, potentially we could have a new government. You could potentially or the coalition could potentially be in power in a few months in a matter of months. Ms Webster, and if that does happen, what would your step. You know, if you were in power, what would you do to as you say, champion the rights of farmers and hold this, project that you don't approve of to account.

WEBSTER: Yeah. Look, and to be very clear, Andrew, it is not that the coalition and is certainly not me either. We are not Anti-mining and I haven't spoken to a farmer who's anti-mining. That's not the issue. It's the fact that farming has been pitted against mining, and mining has come up trumps, because governments need these projects as part of their push for renewables and the whole drive of where we're going as a nation. If the coalition is elected, m advocacy for my farmers and my electorate as a whole will not change, and I will be calling for the current shadow environment minister, hopefully actual Minister for environment, Jono Duniam, I would call on him to come to Mallee, meet with farmers and hear what they have to say. I spoke earlier in another radio interview and I said, you know, ideally it would be fabulous to come up with a win-win I don't even know what that looks like. How do farmers win out of this? At the moment, they feel like they're losing. And, it's just wrong at every level because - on that point in Western Australia, there is actually a state law that farmers can veto farm mines. They can say no.

KELSO: So is that something that you would, try and advocate to bring into Victoria, or rather at a federal level that you would make at a federal level?

WEBSTER: Yeah.

KELSO: Would you like to see that become federal legislation?

WEBSTER: Well, I've actually already spoken about that in the party room. So yes, I would like to see it happen. And let's remember the Western Australian government tried to get rid of that law so that farmers couldn't veto, but it didn't work. Their mechanisation of that process did not work. And so farmers still have a right to veto. And it has not stopped Western Australia reaping huge royalties from significant mining operations. So it is possible to have a win here. And I absolutely believe that's what we should be heading for.

KELSO: My guest this morning is Member for Mallee, Anne Webster, speaking about the fact that the Avonbank mine at Dooen and also Goschen mine in the Mallee were both approved, had their environmental effect statements approved by the government yesterday. We heard from Dean Johns, a landholder there earlier, Ms ebster, and you said you've spoken - I believe you've actually spoken to him personally as well. We don't have much more time, but I do have to ask: The mining industry is saying that this venture, that it will inject billions of dollars into regional communities. And as you said, you're not anti mines. But are there potential benefits to come from this project? How do you balance that?

WEBSTER: Well, that's for the Victorian government to determine. It's certainly not me. I would say that you don't toss out one industry for another one.  The Victorian government describe it as temporary. I don't call 36 years temporary, just quietly. And on the one side we have farmers who are generational farmers. And as I said earlier, they want to provide food and fibre for the world and for the nation. And we need to make sure that farmers have primacy in the decisions that are made. And I will certainly continue to fight for that. I've just ... I haven't actually spoken to Dean. I have spoken with other members of the Johns family and also other farmers yesterday and over the course of the last few months. I've received a very distressing text from Chris Johns this morning. And, you know, they need to feel that we as a nation have their back and they don't feel it at the moment.

KELSO: Thank you. Anne Webster there, the Member for Mallee speaking about the fact that the mine at Avonbank has been given an environmental effect statement that was approved, and just speaking there about the fact that she has actually written to the federal environment minister calling for a review into this. But as she also said, now that has been approved, that EES process, whether it activates a federal review automatically on environmental and radiation grounds. So we're not sure exactly when that will happen, but that will happen and is the next step essentially in the process. This is obviously not a story that you'll that is going away anywhere, anytime soon. And it's obviously affecting lots of people. So we'd love to hear from you about this.

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