'i can imagine what they are'

I think this interview between ABC North and West's Annette Marner and acting Minerals Minister Jack Snelling deserves wider attention - particularly for those seeking to understand just how the government is justifying making such an unpopular decision - so I'm posting a transcript below.

Any reader of the following who took the time to comment online on the Advertiser's recent articles on the lease renewal can feel vindicated!

It's nice to see the ABC doing a good job of holding the government's feet to the fire, and you'd have to say that Paul Holloway owes Jack Snelling big time for having to be the actual man-on-the-spot who takes the flack for this decision!... (and the Mount Barker announcement, too! Biiiiiig time!...)

Interview : ABC Radio 639 SA North and West's Annette Marner interviews Jack Snelling, acting Minister for Mineral Resources Development, 21st December 2010

Marner:

I want to go back now to February 2008 when the Rann Government suspended the mining exploration licence of Marathon Resources after Marg Sprigg and her brother, Douglas, of Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary found 23,000 bags of drilling waste illegally dumped at Mount Gee, which is in ... the wilderness sanctuary ... Marathon then admitted to dumping a further 40,000 tons in one of the deepest gorges in the Flinders Ranges ... Premier Mike Rann said at the time that this was a significant breach of the company’s licence conditions ... you’ve probably heard on the news that it appears that Marathon’s exploration licence will be extended, give or take the details of it, will be extended for 12 months. Jack Snelling is the Acting Minister for Resources in South Australia and joins us ...


So where does it actually stand? You can’t actually say that the licence has been extended for 12 months, can you at this point, are there not negotiations going on between the Government and the company?

Snelling:

There’s consultation ... the advice to me as Acting Minister was the Government was obliged to renew the licence. The company asked for a renewal of two years - the Government’s granting them a renewal of one year. We’re also proposing to remove the automatic right of renewal that was previously in the licence ... we’re also attaching greater conditions to the ... exploration activities that Marathon can undertake at Arkaroola.

Marner:

Minister, what is the obligation that the Government is under to extend the licence?

Snelling:

Under the existing licence Annette there was a right of renewal, so the company, unless it was in some sort of significant breach of the exploration licence, the Government was obliged to renew the licence, otherwise we’d be exposing South Australian taxpayers to compensation to Marathon-

Marner:

... a significant breach is not the dumping of about ... 53,000 bags of drilling waste illegally?

Snelling:

Well the company, as I understand, have remediated ... the site... the advice to me was that the Government was obliged to renew the licence, without South Australian taxpayers ... to compensation to Marathon.

Marner:

Now you said that there are greater conditions that apply this time, what are some of the key things?

Snelling:

... what I’ve said to the company ... written to the company saying, ‘look, the Government’s prepared to extend your licence. It’ll only be for one year, it won’t be for the two years that you’ve asked for and it’ll be proposed to remove the automatic right of renewal ... there’ll also be conditions on your exploration activity’ ... the Government is in consultation with the company at the moment, but essentially what we’ll have is greater control over the activities that they undertake ... make sure that the ... previous environment in Arkaroola is protected.

Marner:

Well greater control, does that mean greater scrutiny? I mean will officers from the department actually go up there and have a look at what’s going on?

Snelling:

Well, the detail of that’s got to be worked out ... the department will be discussing exactly what those conditions are with Marathon in coming days, but suffice to say that we want to make sure that any exploration activity that’s undertaken at Arkaroola ... causes minimal disruption to the environment.

Marner:

What is your stand about whether mining should actually go ahead anywhere in the wilderness sanctuary at Arkaroola?

Snelling:

Well, the Government’s looking at all the options that are before it. I’m not in a position really to canvass what those options are, but the Government’s acutely aware of the environmental significance of Arkaroola and the importance of protecting it ... we know that there are very strong feelings about it ... we want to make sure that any activity that happens there is done in such a way that the environment is protected.

Marner:

I don’t know if you had a look at page 17 of The 'Tiser [The Advertiser, Newscorp's Adelaide daily BJD] today – the on-line responses under the heading ‘mining at Arkaroola’, what readers to the paper have been sending in to the Tiser-

Snelling:

-I’ve seen the article but not the responses, but I can imagine what they are-

Marner:

“This government has no morals”, says Rhonda of Whyalla; “The most powerful force in all earth, the mighty dollar”, says someone else in the south; “This is disgusting, how can the Government in all logic grant this licence”, says another; “I suppose this is just seeking a balance on how to best reward really bad behaviour.” So that’s just some that are in today’s press Minister.

Snelling:

Look, there are two issues ... firstly there’s the renewal of the exploration licence ... the advice to me as Minister is that the Government was obliged to do it – if we didn’t renew Marathon’s exploration licence then South Australian taxpayers would be liable to pay out potentially millions of dollars to Marathon Resources to compensate them. That’s not something I wanted to do ... so we’ve renewed the licence and fulfilled what we believe is a legal obligation. What the advice from the Government’s lawyers is is we have a legal obligation to renew this licence.

Now as to the issue of mining in Arkaroola that’s I think another issue again. Remember that no application to do any mining has been received by the Government – no-one has put in an application as of yet to do any mining at all; this is purely exploration not mining ... the Government is looking at what its options are, but the Government’s very mindful of the environmental significance of Arkaroola. We want to make sure that that unique landscape is protected ... how we go about that, there is a number of options which are before the Government at the moment which we are considering.

Marner:

Well Minister, thank you very much for joining us ...

...and what a happy time he must have had!