Legislative Council
STATUTES AMENDMENT (MINING ADMINISTRATION) BILL
Adjourned debate on second reading.The Hon. SANDRA KANCK: My comments on this Bill will be brief. The Democrats support the introduction of fees for services provided by the mineral resources group for PIRSA. In particular, the proposed scaling system for fees for advertising based on the size of the exploration licence application seems an equitable solution. It is appropriate that industry rather than the taxpayers cover these costs. I note from a briefing that I had with the Chamber of Mines last year that it seemed to think that the South Australian Government—aka the taxpayers—ought to cover more of the costs in assisting the mining industry in this State. Given the exploration and mapping that has occurred since 1992, the mining industry has been getting a fairly good go at the taxpayers' expense. We are happy with that section of the Bill, but we do not support clause 8.
Clause 8 allows parties to native title agreements to keep the terms of those agreements confidential if they should so wish. The Government argues that this is necessary because the terms of the agreements may contain private commercial dealings. The concern is that the terms of the agreement could set unnecessary precedents. Once again, we are seeing the mantra of commercial confidentiality dominating the decisions of this Government. We have seen on a number of occasions that this commercial confidentiality can be quite disadvantageous for South Australians. Commercial confidentiality is anathema to the democratic processes, and secrecy is rarely in the public interest. I certainly can see no justification for commercial confidentiality being the reason for the terms of native title agreements to be concealed. In fact, I am concerned that Aboriginal claimants could be hoodwinked into signing a very bad deal for themselves, and no-one would ever know. If we have the terms of the agreements open to public scrutiny and everyone knows that they will be open to public scrutiny, the likelihood of that occurring will be greatly reduced. While I indicate the Democrats support for the second reading of this Bill, we will oppose clause 8.The Hon. J.F. STEFANI secured the adjournment of the debate.
Bill passed: 18 February 1999