ABC
News, 26
April 2019:
The Morrison Government
signed off on a controversial uranium mine one day before calling the federal
election, and did not publicly announce the move until the environment
department uploaded the approval document the day before Anzac Day.
The Yeelirrie Uranium
mine, located 500 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, requires
both federal and state approval.
The state approval of
the proposed mine is still being fought in the state's Supreme Court by members
of the Tjiwarl traditional owners.
In 2016, the West Australian Environment Protection Agency advised
the mine not be approved, concluding it posed too great a risk of
extinction to some native animals.
The former Liberal
Barnett government controversially approved the mine in 2017, just weeks before
it lost the West Australian election.
Canadian company Cameco,
the world's largest uranium producer, is seeking to develop the uranium mine,
which would cover an area 9km long and 1.5km wide.
It would involve the
clearing of up to 2,422 hectares of native vegetation.
It is also approved to
cause groundwater levels to drop by 50cm, and they would not completely recover
for 200 years, according to Cameco's environmental reports.
A spokesperson for
Environment Minister Melissa Price said the approval was subject to 32 strict
conditions to avoid and mitigate potential environmental impacts.
Traditional owner of the
area, Tjiwarl woman Vicky Abdullah, said she was surprised by the announcement,
and was hoping for the project to be rejected.
"It's a very
precious place for all of us. For me and my two aunties, who have been walking
on country," she said.
Mine approval a
controversial move ahead of caretaker mode
Simon Williamson,
General Manager of Cameco Australia, told the ABC he was pleased Ms Price had
approved the mine before calling the election.
"Yeah, that's
likely to raise questions about rushed decision and all that stuff, but the
state [government] made their decision in January 2017," he said.
"The timing was
such that all of [the assessment] was completed to allow her to sign off before
the election. I think it's quite appropriate and I think the minster would want
to sign off on projects on her plate before she goes to an election……
Dave Sweeney, an
anti-nuclear campaigner at the Australian Conservation Foundation said the
timing suggested the decision was political.
"We need decisions
that are based on evidence and the national interest, not a company's interest
or not a particular senator's or a particular government's interest," he
said.
"This reeks of
political interference rather than a legal consideration or due process."
The approval is one of
several controversial moves the Government made before entering caretaker mode,
where such decisions would be impossible, including approving Adani's two groundwater management
plans for it's proposed Carmichael coal mine.....
The
Guardian, 27
April 2019:
A multinational uranium
miner persuaded the federal government to drop a requirement forcing it to show
that a mine in outback Western
Australia would not make any species extinct before it could go ahead.
Canadian-based Cameco
argued in November 2017 the condition proposed by the government for the
Yeelirrie uranium mine, in goldfields north of Kalgoorlie, would be too
difficult to meet.
The mine was approved on
10 April, the
day before the federal election was called, with a different set of
conditions relating to protecting species.
Environmental groups say
the approval was politically timed and at odds with a 2016 recommendation
by the WA Environmental Protection Authoritythat the mine be blocked due to
the risk to about 140 subterranean stygofauna and troglofauna species – tiny
animals that live in groundwater and air pockets above the water table.
A Cameco presentation to
the department, released to the Greens through Senate estimates, shows the
government proposed approving the mine with a condition the company must first
demonstrate that no species would be made extinct during the works.
Cameco Australia said
this did not recognise “inherent difficulties associated with sampling for and
describing species”, including the inadequacy of techniques to sample
microscopic species that live underground and challenges in determining whether
animals were of the same species. It said the condition was “not realistic and
unlikely to be achieved – ever”.
The condition did not
appear in the final
approval signed by the environment minister, Melissa Price, which was
made public after being posted on the environment department’s website on 24
April…..
