Reg No: A0000422H	
Submission to 
the Productivity Commission’s ‘Inquiry into 
the Impacts of Native Vegetation and Biodiversity Regulations’
by the 
Prospectors and Miners Association of Victoria Inc.	

July 2003

Overview
The potential productivity of Victoria’s prospectors and smaller scale miners has been severely restricted by the introduction of a plethora of regulations with the supposed aim of protecting biodiversity or native vegetation.

There is little doubt that Victorian regional communities need primary industries such as mineral exploration and mining: it is hard to see their current economic decline being arrested in any other way.  There has been a significant impact on these regional communities because State Government bureaucrats have placed an excess of environmental and other hurdles in the way of any Victorian prospector or miner trying to achieve anything.  And yet there is no evidence of improved environmental outcomes attributable to these legislative regimes.  Gorse and blackberries spread remorselessly across Victoria and the fox continues its slaughter of our native animals.

The Victorian Government wishes to be seen to be doing something environmentally but cares little about actually fixing the problems.  The paperwork (and administrative costs) associated with conducting exploration or mining has exploded but the environment continues to deteriorate – but not because of our activities.  Not nearly enough money is being spent on vermin and weed control or fire management.  The revenue flowing into State Government coffers from a vibrant mining industry would allow much of this work to be done.

Those who regulate gold exploration and mining in Victoria have little desire to help small operators.  If they did the present emotive, impractical, textbook attitude would give way to a commonsense approach.  A significant part of the problem is that environmental arguments have been used as a means to exclude prospectors from large areas of the Victorian goldfields and to make life miserable for the few who persist.

The initiative and endeavour needed to develop a meaningful gold industry in Victoria is being deliberately stifled by red tape.  Victoria is becoming less and less attractive for mineral exploration.  This will be reflected down the track in decreased mineral production and will mean that less money is available for fixing up the environment.  If a small-scale mining sector is to survive we need administration by sympathetic people who have been out in the real world.  The environmental requirements associated with running a small mine must be reduced to a practical level - conservation of the environment depends on it.

Small-Scale Mining
Victoria has not experienced the large resurgence in gold mining which has occurred everywhere else in Australia during recent decades.  Despite State Government claims that exploration and mining is being encouraged, the number of mining licences in Victoria has fallen steadily in the last 12 years.  This is not because the gold has all been dug up- as any geologist will testify.  It is because the regulators have deliberately made life so difficult that most small miners have thrown in the towel.  This decrease has coincided with the growth in influence of the green movement on government policy and regulation affecting mining.

While the State Government may be comfortable with a couple of large gold mines operating in Victoria this does not make best use of our mineral resources.  Victoria has widespread rich but relatively small deposits that are best exploited by smaller operators.  The level of environmental red tape involved in actually starting work is causing miners to leave the industry. Either stated government policy is a sham or the bureaucracy is overriding government process with its own blueprint for exterminating the prospector and small miner. 

The following table shows a significant decline in licence applications and grants over a 12 year period.  While we acknowledge that not all this is attributable to native vegetation regulation it is one of the major contributors.

Five hectare or less mining licences applied for and granted in Victoria

Year ending June 30	Applications
	Granted	
1989	93	?	
1990	101	?	
1991	118	?	
1992	42	32	
1993	57	27	
1994	32	31	
1995	43	20	
1996	42	19	
1997	26	24	
1998	21	12	
1999	16	13	
2000	20	13	
2001	16	8	
2002	18	15	
2003	12	11	
Source – Minerals Business Centre, Dept of Primary Industries (Victoria) 

Small-miners have been victims of a massive misinformation campaign on environmental issues.  One example is Environment Australia’s Investigation ‘Enhancing the Environmental Performance of Small to Medium Mining Enterprises.  This Investigation – which initially failed to reach the sector it was investigating or the regulators of that sector – was so misguided and misinformed that it became a joke.  I have attached the discussion paper and our response.  As far as we are aware the Investigation ceased following our response to the ridiculous discussion paper.

A second example is the recently released ‘Australian Terrestrial Biodiversity Assessment’ by the Natural Heritage Trust.  Page 181 of the Assessment lists ‘key threats to biodiversity in the Victorian goldfields’.  Included in the list are mining and fossicking.  We were obviously disturbed by this claim, as we are unaware of any evidence to support it.  We wrote to the Chair of the National Land and Water Resources Audit Advisory Council on 1st May asking for the evidence that supports their claim.  To date we have not received a response despite 3 follow up phone calls.  

These wild and unsubstantiated claims of supposed environmental impact are then used by green groups to pressure Governments to exclude activities from public land – or to further control them.  Political pressure from the greens is so great that unnecessary regulations are introduced that make life either very difficult or impossible for small operators – but reduces pressure on the politicians.

Mining Regulation
The Mineral Resources Development Act is the main point of regulation for the mining industry in Victoria.  The Act sets out various categories of land including prohibited and restricted.  Prohibited land includes national and state parks, wilderness areas, reference areas, water production areas and various other parcels of land where mining is prohibited.
Restricted Crown Land includes nature conservation reserves, flora and fauna reserves, historic reserves, etc.  This category of land has such significant additional requirements and regulation before mining can be done that small miners are effectively excluded.  For small miners the ‘restricted’ category is effectively the same as the ‘prohibited’ category.  
‘Other’ land still has significant environmental controls. Additionally, all Mining Licensees must enter into a financial rehabilitation bond with the Department of Primary Industries before they are permitted to commence work.

The Mineral Resources Development Act is just one of the Acts regulating the environmental side of mining.  Other Acts of Parliament referred to in the MRDA include the National Parks Act, Environment Protection Act, Crown Land (Reserves) Act, Victorian Plantations Corporation Act, Forests Act, Conservation Forests & Lands Act, Planning & Environment Act, Heritage Act, Reference Areas Act, Land Conservation Act, Flora & Fauna Guarantee Act – the list goes on.

For an industry with such an incredibly small footprint we are over-regulated to a degree where any possibility for growth is strangled.  The potential productivity of the mining industry is being destroyed by unnecessary red tape.

A search of the Victorian Parliamentary website indicated that there are 50 pieces of legislation referring to ‘native vegetation’ and 280 referring to ‘environment protection’ admittedly some of the latter are referring to safe environments of another kind – the bulk, however, are aimed at vegetation.

Victorians, and all Australians, are enduring a period where bureaucrats are actively looking for things to regulate rather than responding to actual needs.

It is time some reality returned to land use policy decisions particularly those made in relation to the mining industry.  The financial return per hectare of land disturbed for mining is extremely high, the mining industry is a very efficient provider of jobs and wealth.
  
It must also be remembered that mining is only a temporary land use, most land disturbed by mining is reinstated to its former use and often to an improved condition. Rehabilitation techniques following mining have evolved markedly over the last 20 years.  None of this is recognised by the regulators who continue to pile on more restrictions.

It is nonsensical that at a time when the mining industry is at its most regulated the regulators are continuing to investigate the possibility of even more restrictions.  And yet we are told the state of the environment is continuing to decline!  Obviously the answer to any environmental concerns will not be found in the exclusion of the mining industry.

Prospecting
Even the productivity of prospectors using benign tools such as a gold pan or metal detector has fallen victim to the pressures of environmental controls.
Under Victorian legislation prospecting is not permitted in national and state parks or wilderness areas – unless specific exemptions are given.
In 2002 the PMAV fought – at a significant cost to our resources – Government plans to prohibit prospecting from much of the central Victorian goldfields when new parks were created.  That time we were successful – albeit being possibly only a temporary reprieve.  The Government has given an undertaking to allow prospecting to continue in the new park areas until the management plans are developed, at which time we expect to be excluded from many areas.
Elsewhere in Victoria vast areas of important goldfields are unavailable to prospectors as they are locked away in parks and reserves.  This being despite there being no proof (and we have repeatedly asked for evidence) that prospecting causes any significant environmental impact or that excluding prospectors brings any environmental gain.  
This is another case of regulation to suit the regulators – not the environment or those they are regulating.
The prohibition of eductor dredging in Victorian rivers followed a flawed Parliamentary Inquiry in 1994 that failed to acknowledge that there was no evidence to prove this activity caused any serious environmental impact. 300 dredgers lost their livelihoods – or at least a significant part of their income - with no real justification.  The impact of this prohibition is still being felt in remote communities.

Perverse effects
When regulations are considered absurd by those they are intended to regulate they will be ignored.  This is now happening in Victoria.  Cases of illegal mining have occurred where the frustration of trying to work within the law has become overwhelmingly difficult for individuals.  We expect that as the level of regulation grows so will the level of non-compliance.
There are examples of previously law-abiding prospectors forced to hide behind trees when they are searching through an area that they have prospected for all of their lifetime that has now become a national park.  To make normally law-abiding citizens act in this manner is ridiculous.

Impact on representative organisations
The PMAV’s primary reason for being is to protect the interests of its members.  This includes improving the conditions within which the activities of members take place.  For as long as I have been a part of the Association’s executive almost all of our resources have been taken up battling against further restrictions and regulations on our activities.  On some occasions we have failed to represent our members on important issues because we did not have the resources to do so – such has been the landslide of regulatory imposition over recent years.  The basis of most of these regulations was ‘protection of the environment’.
This is a major impact on our productivity.  Our limited resources would be much better used in improving the knowledge base of our members through education about existing regulations or methods of working and rehabilitation etc.  We are constantly denied the opportunity to do this because we’re just too busy fighting the imposition of yet more environmental regulations.  

Consultation
For the past 6 years the PMAV has been involved in the Victorian Government’s Environment Conservation Council’s Investigation into Public Land Use in the Box Ironbark region of Victoria.  
I was appalled by the behaviour of the Councillors and their support staff.  Their inability to properly consider the evidence put before them, they simply pushed their own green based ideological agenda.  At one stage we sent Council a comprehensive list of mistakes – including multi-million dollar errors in additions - in their Draft Report. Any decent body would have withdrawn the Report and corrected it.  This Council vaguely responded to the list direct to the PMAV but didn’t make anyone else making submissions based on the incorrect information aware that the Report was so fundamentally flawed.  It really was disgraceful.  

At one public meeting in Dunolly in front of 80 people, ECC Councillor Eda Ritchie uttered her famous words ‘We know the figures are wrong but that won’t affect the outcomes.’ She admitted she was aware of the mistakes but the Council then went on to use those same discredited figures at subsequent public meetings to justify their position!  The Council failed to properly consider any economic or social impacts and failed to deliver any science to support their recommendations.  Their consultation was a sham, they didn’t listen to our issues – they only held meetings so they could claim that they had followed the required process – we were simply ticked off on a list.  

The above is typical of the ‘consultation’ regarding environmental matters in Victoria.  We often attend meetings but believe it is rare that anyone really listens. 

The Victorian Government – who we had told repeatedly of our concerns – ignored the inadequacies of the ECC’s process and accepted most of the recommendations.  Then, with the support of the Victorian Liberals, the ‘Box Ironbark’ legislation to create new parks and reserves was rushed through both Houses of the Victorian Parliament.  The Legislative Council received the legislation only hours after it had been passed in the Assembly allowing no time for investigation or proper review.  It was passed by the Legislative Council later that same day. The role of House of Review was seriously undermined by the actions of the two major political parties working in collusion.  We acknowledge the integrity of the Victorian Nationals who opposed the legislation in both Houses.

Inequity
The environmental debate lacks any semblance of balance in many areas including the resources available to those participating.
For example, one of the major supporters of new national parks in Victoria is the Victorian National Parks Association which has a significant number of paid staff, offices, etc with a multi-million dollar budget to support all this and more.  Many organisations that oppose parks because of the impact on their activities – such as the PMAV – operate on a shoestring budget with no paid staff, no office etc.  When we participate in Government committees or meetings it means a loss of income to whoever attends. Preparing submissions such as this means someone either working after hours or taking time off from paid employment to prepare it.  This is a broader definition of productivity but indicates the widespread impact of the infiltration of biodiversity paranoia that has infected our society.

Final Word
I hope that we have made it clear that much of the restriction on mining and prospecting in Victoria is unwarranted and unnecessary. It is having significant impact on both the productivity and potential of the smaller-scale miners and prospectors.  

So it goes - the Government is pressured by green groups to improve the state of the environment.  It appears incapable of understanding the real environmental issues.  So, to be seen to be acting decisively, places more and more unwarranted regulation on struggling industries and harmless activities.

If you require clarification of any points raised or further information we can be contacted as below.

I would like to close by thanking the Commission for the opportunity to bring these concerns into the open and wish the Commissioner the best of luck in handling this controversial and complex issue.  

Submission prepared by:
Rita Bentley (President) 
Prospectors and Miners Association of Victoria Inc.
GPO Box 1706P, Melbourne Vic 3001
Email: ritabentley@ihug.com.au
Phone: 0408 328 640

Attachments:
Environment Australia’s Discussion Paper on Enhancing the Environmental Performance of Small to Medium Mining Enterprises.
PMAV response to Environment Australia’s Discussion Paper.