I speak in support of the Mining Amendment (Mineral Claims—Opal) Bill 2023. The bill addresses a series of issues arising from invalid mineral claims for opal mining in both the Lightning Ridge and White Cliffs mineral claims districts. Miners and landholders had been proceeding on the basis that opal mining was authorised; however, earlier this year it was revealed that the Department of Regional NSW had incorrectly issued thousands of mineral claims since 1 January 2015. As such, people with these claims had no lawful right to mine, and that mining needed to stop.
The amendments proposed in the bill seek to remedy this issue. The bill will retrospectively validate the affected mineral claims and manage rehabilitation and potential compliance issues. The amendments will also ensure that the department can lawfully collect moneys in relation to mineral claims and prevent legal claims. This Government will protect the rights of stakeholders affected by this issue and minimise further disruption to the opal industry, which is important to the State and nation. The bill recognises the interests of stakeholders, including impacted landholders, and provides them with protections. It does this by retrospectively validating mineral claims, thus recognising the lawfulness of mining activities carried out under affected mineral claims since 2015.
The bill provides protections for the rights of people who purchased or accepted the transfer of a mineral claim by helping to ensure that they are not unfairly disadvantaged. Reversing these transfers would be logistically difficult and unjust to the transferees, who believed they were paying for a valid mineral claim. The bill also protects people who had an affected mineral claim devolved to them, for example, where the holder has died and the claim is inherited, by validating that person as the lawful holder of the mineral claim. The bill also gives certainty to landholders where mining is taking place. By validating mineral claims, compensation paid to them will not have to be refunded; rather, it will be taken as legally paid. Validating mineral claims, as the bill will do, helps to ensure as far as possible that no-one is disadvantaged by this invalidity error.
Importantly, the bill does not affect land claims under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, nor does it validate mineral claims for native title purposes. As is appropriate, the bill makes it clear that requirements under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 and the Native Title Act 1993 of the Commonwealth apply and are not impacted by the validation of mineral claims under the bill. In addition, validating the affected claims offers landholders protection by ensuring that the NSW Resources Regulator can monitor and enforce compliance with the conditions of mineral claims. This includes ensuring that rehabilitation requirements are met. The bill will ensure that we uphold appropriate standards for the people of New South Wales now and into the future. These will be regulated through the conditions of mineral claims.
Our Government has heard the concerns of landholders about the potential that rehabilitation may not occur due to invalid mineral claims, and we are seeking to mitigate that potential risk. Validating the affected mineral claims will ensure that the conditions of the mineral claim are enforceable. This will allow the NSW Resources Regulator to take compliance action against miners who may have breached the conditions of their mineral claims. The Department of Regional NSW has also allocated additional resources within the NSW Resources Regulator to further improve environmental and compliance outcomes. The department has established a dedicated opals team to oversee this—not to be confused with the national women's basketball team, the Opals. A recent article inThe Guardian on the issues the bill seeks to rectify was titled "Is this Australia's last generation of opal miners?" I trust that, with the passage of the bill, the answer to that question is no.
Australia supplies somewhere in the range of 95 per cent to 98 per cent of the world's opals. As such, opals and the opal mining industry are an iconic part of not only New South Wales but also the nation. It is our national gemstone. I note that, all going well, the bill will pass this month—October—and the birthstone for people born in October is the opal. We are learning a lot about opals today. The opal mining industry is an important part of life in Lightning Ridge and White Cliffs. The industry plays a large role in the local economies of those places, including through tourism. Many of us have popped into Lightning Ridge and bought opals. It really is an important part of its economy. The Government sympathises with the situation that has unfolded on the ground, and believes it is critical that it minimises disruption to the operation of the opal mining industry to ensure it continues for generations to come. For those reasons, I support the bill. I believe it is in the best interests of the Parliament to ensure its quick passage.
