Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt published a ‘statement of reasons’ yesterday, outlining why he granted Alcoa an 18-month exemption to continue mining in WA’s Northern Jarrah Forest, despite being found to have cleared land over 15 years without permission.
The exemption will allow the US-based mining giant to clear up to 1,200 hectares of vegetation associated with its mining operations at Huntly and Willowdale to maintain bauxite supply to its two alumina refineries located in Pinjarra and Wagerup.
The decision has been slammed by the End Forest Mining Alliance (EFM) alliance, which includes the Conservation Council of WA (CCWA), the WA Forest Alliance and The Wilderness Society (TWS),
CCWA Executive Director Matt Roberts said learning that Alcoa had been illegally clearing the Northern Jarrah Forest since 2011 was outrageous and an affront to every West Australian.
“In his statement of reasons, the Minister paints a grim definition of the term ‘clearance’ – ‘…it means the killing, destruction or removal of vegetation’,” Mr Roberts said.
“Remarkably, the federal government has prioritised corporate interests and foreign defence interests above the ‘killing’ of our forests, the future of the endangered species which rely on them, and the potential contamination of Perth’s drinking water dams.
“This statement of reasons is a clear indication of just how wrong their priorities are – it provides assurances to a company that has flouted our national environment laws for more than 15 years and bulldozed 320 square kilometres of the world’s only jarrah forest since the 1960s.
“It’s devastating that the national interest provision has been used primarily to allow Gallium processing at Alcoa’s Wagerup refinery, at the expense of our jarrah forests.
“This government is advancing critical minerals mining for defence purposes and pandering to the interests of our trading partners and sidelining nature in the process.
“It’s high time we saw that same level of commitment from the government to protect nature and biodiversity, which are in crisis. Just this week the government added more species to the critically endangered list – four of those are in WA.
“Alcoa’s operations pose enormous pressure on threatened species like the black cockatoos, numbats, woylies, and chudditch, through fragmentation, loss of habitat, potential contamination, changes to the environment and introduction of feral predators.
“We can’t rely on rehabilitation and offsets that have both failed to deliver the protections needed. Even Alcoa has acknowledged in its environmental assessment that
“even after strict adherence to the mitigation hierarchy (avoid, minimise and rehabilitate), clearing vegetation within State Forest may result in significant residual impacts to environmental values”. (Appendix 13 – Environmental Offset Strategy.pdf p9)
“A WABSI report published last year, which was paid for by Alcoa and South32, found that there is no like-for-like area available for Alcoa to offset its damage.”
In a media interview on Thursday, Minister Watt said Alcoa has determined three different organisations based in WA that they have offered to pay to assist with their conservation efforts and their research.
“The Minister admitted that only ‘some of that will go towards remediating what has occurred on that land’. So again, Alcoa can potentially buy a licence for destruction simply by paying for environmental work unrelated to the Northern Jarrah Forest, then put out a media release shouting about its ‘green’ initiatives.
“This is the world’s only jarrah forest and the species that rely on it are being pushed closer and closer to the brink of extinction. Once this forest is gone, it’s gone forever and $55 million won’t bring it back. You can’t put a dollar value on this area or the species and culture it holds.”
Mr Roberts pointed out that Gallium was a critical mineral that is yet to be processed anywhere in Australia, let alone in WA. “According to the statement of reasons, Rio Tinto has ‘only just’ developed the technology at its Canadian mine site,” he said.
“The Minister’s statement reads: ‘Exemption will enable a gallium project that has been endorsed by both the US and Japanese governments, with commitments made in terms of funding and equity.’
“The federal government has put an agreement between Alcoa and Tokyo-based trading company Sojitz, before the future of the world’s only jarrah forest. There is no timeline on this project, and no estimates on economic benefits – if any – for Western Australians.
“People have had enough and we can see that in the 59,000 people who put in submissions rejecting this project. These forests are irreplaceable, and rehabilitation efforts have and continue to fail, despite Alcoa’s greenwashing claims. We must protect what is left.”
Also commenting on the statement of reasons, The Wilderness Society WA Campaigns Manager Alyx Douglas said for over a decade, the government has been complicit in Alcoa’s widespread and unauthorised clearing of critical black cockatoo habitat.
“In doing so, it allowed Alcoa to treat the law as a matter of opinion, not an obligation. In what other context would you be able to defy national legislation and—instead of being held to account—you’re rewarded with a green light to carry on?”
“The ‘statement of reasons’ makes it clear that the government has forgone national agency and sacrificed ecological integrity for the sake of ‘reinforcing and giving confidence’ to geopolitical allies under a framework that isn’t even legally binding.
“By granting a National Interest Exemption based on a gallium proposal that has faced zero environmental scrutiny—while the very bauxite operations required to feed its supply chain are still under active state-level assessment—our environmental safeguards have been sidelined.
“In the past, the National Interest Exemption has been used to protect species from extinction. Now, it might go down in history as the catalyst for accelerating the collapse of our forest.
“This decision might well deny future generations the opportunity to experience Western Australia’s iconic black cockatoos. In such a case, the ultimate price won’t be defined in dollars, but by the silence of our skies.”
ENDS
Media contact: John Cooke – 0433 679 780