Rio Tinto wrote to the Morrison government last year urging it to transfer environmental approval powers to Western Australia before a major review of national environment laws was completed, a letter obtained under freedom of information laws reveals.
The mining giant's then-iron ore chief, Chris Salisbury, asked the federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, to consider a bilateral approval agreement between the two governments “as a matter of priority”. The letter, dated 21 November 2019, said “duplicative” state and federal processes were causing delays and increased costs for the resources sector.
Salisbury wrote that although the statutory review of the EPBC Act was under way, national laws already provided a mechanism for the transfer of approval powers to states. He told Ley that WA’s environmental processes were “robust” and a deal would save costs and time for industry “without compromising environmental regulation”.
The move came 10 months before the Coalition announced plans to change the laws to set up “one-stop shops” at state level for environmental approvals, starting with Western Australia. The legislation was introduced in August, while the review by former competition watchdog Graeme Samuel was still under way.
Federal environment officials had at least four meetings with Rio Tinto between August 2019 and April 2020 at which a bilateral approval agreement or reform of Australia’s environment laws were discussed. Rio Tinto’s iron ore projects were on a list of major projects the government announced in June would be “fast-tracked”.
An environment department spokesman said the minister was not present at meetings its officials had with Rio Tinto and the company’s representations “did not play a role” in the bill before the parliament. A spokesman for Ley said the bill “reflects the interim findings of the Samuel review”.
