The Conservation Council of South Australia today calls on the state government to release the Assessment Report for the Olympic Dam mine expansion to the public well in advance of any announcement regarding its approval.
While the official process for major developments is for the Planning Minister to release the Assessment Report to the public before any decision is announced by the Governor, there is no prescribed minimum timeframe. On a number of occasions, (including for the Adelaide desalination projects) the government released the relevant Assessment Report on the day it announced the approval.
Conservation Council SA Chief Executive Tim Kelly said: "Denying members of the public prior access to the Assessment Report makes it impossible for anyone to scrutinise or understand the basis for the final decision made."
"It might be convenient for the government to avoid this kind of public scrutiny, but it is far from meeting the standards of democracy South Australians expect, especially for a project of this unprecedented magnitude.
"Today we call on Planning Minister John Rau to ensure that this time round, South Australians are given a proper opportunity to understand the government's decision-making process. The Assessment Report for the Olympic Dam expansion should be released a minimum of five weeks before any decision is announced.
"Given the Premier has effectively promised the expansion will be approved by 20 October at the latest, we should be expecting to see the Assessment Report any day now.
We are waiting to see how the South Australian government has assessed the following aspects:
- The economic impact of processing the ore within Australia or offshore
- Commitments to renewable energy (currently proposed to supply only 8% of the total expanded mine operations)
- Greenhouse impacts and commitments to mitigate these
- Any unintended impacts associated with the scale of this mine and its resource consumption (such as the impact of the massive diesel fuel increase on diesel prices in Australia)
- The impacts of any desalination plant on the Upper Spencer Gulf, particularly on the Giant Australian Cuttlefish at all stages of its life cycle
- The cumulative impacts of millions of litres of polluted water leaching into rock structures every day for decades to come
- The continued impacts of the liquid acid tailings ponds on thousands of birds each year
- The adequacy of monitoring, and ensuring that data is accessible for all South Australians to follow the progress and management of environmental issues associated with this mine.
"These are significant matters to be addressed by the government, and five weeks is a very short time for the community to make sense of it all. However five weeks is better than no time at all," said Mr Kelly.
"We believe the government should commit to a minimum standard of five weeks between the release of Assessment Reports and the announcement of decisions for all major developments, not just this one.
"All South Australians have a stake in these large development projects and we deserve better than to be kept in the dark," Mr Kelly concluded.
Release Ends
For further information on the Blueprint for a Sustainable Future go to:
http://www.conservationsa.org.au/blueprint.html
For additional media information or to arrange an interview please contact
Tim Kelly on 08 8223 5155 or 0417 879 439.
