BHP urges to government overhaul of environmental laws

Mining giant BHP is urging the Albanese government to revive a promised overhaul of environmental laws.

Transcript

00:00Last week, there were negotiations going on between the Greens and the Government to pass

00:07these what are known as nature positive laws, but they're essentially about how approvals

00:12are regulated for land use, for miners, for farming activities and the like.

00:17Now those negotiations fell apart on Tuesday after a pushback from quite a large section

00:24of the resources industry which doesn't like the way they've been written.

00:29The Prime Minister ended the negotiations with the Greens, there's plenty of rancour

00:34and recriminations about who is to blame for that falling apart, but at this stage they

00:38didn't pass through that big week last week with a lot of bills.

00:42They could potentially come back on the agenda if Parliament resumes in February.

00:47That all depends of course on whether the Prime Minister goes to an early election or

00:51not Ros.

00:52And BHP Australia boss Geraldine Slattery has just given a speech, what did she say

00:57Jacob?

00:58There was a very interesting speech, she's pointing out that Australia's competitiveness

01:03against other big resources countries is slipping and one of the reasons is the permitting system

01:09here is not fit for purpose.

01:12Now that's an allusion of course to what these nature positive laws were originally about,

01:18they came out of a review that was done by Graeme Samuels, started under the previous

01:22Coalition Government.

01:24He pointed out that permits take up to 1,000 days on complex mining projects.

01:30Remember BHP is arguing and Geraldine Slattery makes this point in the speech that we used

01:36to have a natural competitive advantage on iron ore and coal but we don't have one on

01:41many of the minerals that are critical to the green energy transition, copper, lithium,

01:47rare earths and it's the whole process by which mines get approvals that's holding things

01:56up and the BHP boss, the Australian boss pointing out that that needs to be looked at.

02:02So that's very much a reminder that the reforms that underpin these nature positive changes

02:07are still very much unfinished business.

02:09So do you think this pressure from the big miners will make a difference?

02:13So it's an important signal coming from as you say the big miners, BHP is one of the

02:19biggest players globally, Rio Tinto, it's big Australian rival has also put out statements

02:26in favour of reforming these laws to streamline these approvals processes but there's been

02:32a backlash from smaller miners, from the industry particularly in WA, it'll be interesting to

02:38see who prevails.

02:39They too need permits to be much more efficient, there's been lots of complaints about issues

02:44such as the Macphillimies gold mine in New South Wales being held up and other projects.

02:50So very much a live issue still for the government to address.