Article by Editorial, courtesy of The Australian
07.12.2025
Government lawyers securing a 30-year suppression order to bury key evidence surrounding the decision by former environment minister Tanya Plibersek to block the $1.3bn Blayney goldmine in the NSW central west makes a mockery of Anthony Albanese’s promise to “bring transparency” back into government after the “secrecy” of the Morrison era and “shine a light on politics and bring back accountability”. Federal Court judge James Stellios granted the non-publication order on Friday.
Ms Plibersek’s decision in August last year to block the development of a tailings dam for Regis Resources’ McPhillamys project under Indigenous heritage protection laws, scuttling the project, has been clouded in secrecy, James Dowling wrote on Saturday. Her decision relied on the blue-banded bee Dreaming story submitted by a member of the Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation late in the consultative process. The contents of the submission were never publicly disclosed.
But the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council, the representative body for Indigenous people in the area, warned Ms Plibersek that there was no evidence for the dissident group’s claim.
Wiradjuri leader Roy Ah-See, a former prime ministerial Indigenous policy adviser, told The Australian in May that self-identifying Aboriginal activists with fringe ideals were establishing dissident groups to block developments and “delegitimise” the network of 121 land councils across NSW that by law were the representative bodies for Indigenous people in specific areas.
When developments and productivity need to be encouraged and unnecessary, obstructive green lawfare curtailed, it would be a serious matter if a seasoned frontbencher such as Ms Plibersek were taken in by unsubstantiated claims of a fringe group.
It would be just as serious if she sided with the group to pander to green-left activists in her inner-city seat. In her statement of reasons, Ms Plibersek cited a blue-banded bee mural in Bathurst as central evidence in her final decision to veto the Blayney mine’s proposed tailings dam site. The mural, however, was made in consultation with the Wiradyuri corporation and designed during the decision-making process for the heritage protection order.
The Dreaming story reportedly was passed down by Wiradyuri elder Brian Grant, who died in 2022 and whose family told The Australian they had never heard of it.
The evidence on which Ms Plibersek made her decision needs to be scrutinised. Kicking what should be a transparent process down the road to 2055 is unjust – for the company, for local people who supported the project or did not object to it, and for the nation.
Indigenous advocate Warren Mundine is correct when he says the court’s decision has compounded the secrecy of the heritage process, adding to the mistrust surrounding it: “Whether people agree with the mine going ahead or not, it has to be a transparent, clear process that people can feel confident in … If you’re going to lock all this information up from the very beginning, there’s a whole lot of questions.”
