Greens MP to table Denmark Environment Centre’s petition for the creation of mining-free zones

Greens MLC Brad Pettitt will table a petition in State Parliament on behalf of the Denmark Environment Centre calling for the creation of mining-free zones after community backlash to an application in William Bay. The Denmark Environment Centre launched the petition is response to mining company United Funds’ exploration licence application for an area near William Bay National Park, submitted in May last year. The mining company withdrew its application on May 16 this year after landholder and community backlash, which includes a petition with more than 12,000 signatures created by local group Save Denmark. The Shire of Denmark also lodged a formal notice of an objection with the WA Mining Warden and requested the objection period be reopened to let landowners and other community members have their say. Mr Pettit is expected to table the petition with 608 signatures on behalf of the Denmark Environment Centre in State Parliament this week. The petition calls for WA’s mining laws to be reviewed in relation to extending the notice of mineral exploration licences to all landholders and stakeholders in the proposed area irrespective of depth. According to a report prepared for the Denmark council, no landowners were served with notice of the United Funds application and there were no objections received from Denmark residents during the objection period The petition also calls for the objection process to be simplified and for exclusion zones to be created in certain areas to protect existing environmental, social and economic activities. “We the undersigned, believe the regulations regarding objections to applications for mineral exploration licences are inadequate and unnecessarily difficult,” the petition reads. “The regulations should require notice to be given to all landholders and other stakeholders of their right to lodge an objection. “We also believe that there should be excluded areas where mineral exploration must not be allowed under any circumstances including high value conservation areas, wetlands, towns and tourist area, among others.” Mr Pettitt said the petition called on the State Government to review the “outdated” Mining Act 1978. “What we saw through the process of United Funds application at William Bay is that there were some anomalies around how the Mining Act works and how people are informed,” he said. “I think it’s an indicator that the Act is way out of date and it’s time for a review and for it to be updated to reflect transparency and public involvement.” Mr Pettitt said creating exploration licence exclusion zones would protect certain areas of value in the State. “It would acknowledge that there are places in the State that we don’t want to have mined and that it would be appropriate to have exclusion zones around those,” he said. “Along the south coast there are many locations we wouldn’t want to see mined because it’s not compatible with the environment, social or cultural values of the area. “It would give confidence to the community that mining won’t occur in those areas but also give confidence to those who are investing funds in exploration in that they are exploring places that would seriously entertain mining.” Mr Pettitt said the exclusion zones would provide clarity for all parties. “Part of the argument was that some of these applications are just for exploration but there is no point letting people explore if you’re not going to let them mine,” he said. “It’s expensive, it’s time-consuming and it’s disruptive for the community, so there is no point going through that if mining is not going to be entertained. “People would be able to hear about where those exclusionary zones are and that way everybody has clarity.” DEC member Bart Lebbing said the United Funds application highlighted the “complicated” process of viewing and objecting to exploration licences. “This application at William Bay from United Funds really showed us that the way that we find out about an application like that is really complex,” he said. “So we decided to put this petition together and it is mainly to ask for the process to be simplified and also for the landholders to be notified, because in this case only the Shire of Denmark was notified and no one else knew about it.” Mr Lebbing said an exclusion zone around Denmark would be beneficial to avoid conflicting interests. “If we don’t have an exclusion zone around Denmark or William Bay then the next company will try the same thing,” he said. “If we have exclusion zones in certain areas — like Margaret River has an exclusion zone for coal mining with a radius of 200km — something like that would be really beneficial in certain areas where there are conflicting interests with agriculture and tourism.”