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- Lilliput Littleproud is the leader of the Nats and he's on the line. David, g'day. - G'day mate, good to be with you. - Doesn't make much sense to me. - No, it doesn't. And particularly when you look at the approvals that have been granted, the owners of the station on which this approval has been given for the solar panels and the lease options been given to Mike Cannon-Brooks has made it clear to me that no one from the Federal or Northern Territory EPA has entered the property to make any on-ground assessments
around that approval. It basically is a desktop. Now, they say that this is a formal pastoral part of land. From what the CEO tells me is that they would run around 70,000 head of cattle, that's your food security, and potentially do 10,000 hectares of cultivation and ore. So this is...
an extraordinary revelation that the owners say that unless they snuck onto the property and it's not something you can sneak onto that they've granted approval without any on-site assessments of the environment on which these solar panels will cover and you know it's not all necessary desert there is natural habitat for a lot of animals and a lot of species across that area and so for the
For the minister to decline an application for a gold mine at Blaney, that'll destroy their opportunity for growth, predicated on one individual effectively that doesn't like it, but yet the local Indigenous group
wholly supportive of just goes to show that this minister and this government is prepared to weaponize around an ideology rather than the practical reality of having consistency in their approval processes now if there's consistency and they can demonstrate it well and good but unfortunately um there seems to be no rhyme nor reason to any of their assessments nor their approvals at this stage are you on principle against this solar farm being built
Well, look, I think obviously not necessarily so long as we're not losing significant amounts of agricultural land. Now, I have concerns when the CEO tells me this. Yeah, but they leased it out. Exactly. And that's their right. But what worries me... Yeah, but they can't complain about it after they've leased it out. No, not them. I'm not worried about them. I'm worried more about the nation's interest than individuals' interest. And what I'm also worried about is the 800 kilometres of transmission lines and what imposition that puts.
But obviously that is for individuals to work through and for the government to work through what that looks like. But what I am concerned about is the approvals process and what we're seeing also with other renewable projects in terms of the assessment processes that are taking place with them, not necessarily sticking to the codes which have been put in place because of this race to get to 82% renewables by 2030 and all renewables approached by 2050.
that we are facing poor planning decisions, that we're being asked to bear the brunt of in regional Australia. Now, I'm not against renewable energy. I've made it clear. I think we should have an energy mix. But I think regional Australians should also have a say in what that energy mix should look like when you're asking us to actually bear the burden of that, but also in terms of not just energy. This goes to the opportunity of our nation's wealth around this gold mine at Blaney.
that Blaney Council want, the community want, the local Indigenous group want. Now, they've weaponised... There's jobs there. You know, Cowra, Blaney. The Central West is dying for some work and you've got 800 jobs there. But what concerns me, Chris... It's a big town in Tennant Creek, you know what I mean? This thing's in the middle of nowhere. Well, exactly. But let me just put this in perspective about Blaney. There's a cultural heritage act that was put in Western Australia...
Tanya Plebiscite has one of those nationally in her top drawer. She's now found a reason not even to have to implement that. She can simply just call in any project she doesn't like with Section 10 of the existing Act without having to bring in new legislation. She's going to impose that on the good people of Blaney and our nation, taking away a gold mine. And you saw what happened in Western Australia with the Cultural Heritage Act that happened over there.
Now, she's had that legislation sitting in her top drawer, but I suspect now with this Blaney example, she's sitting there going, well, if I get away with this, I can pretty well get away with anything. We just want consistency when I think in this Blaney case, if this goldmine is pure insanity, but when this, and you can show the processes that they put in place, when this is a significant project,
where no one has set foot on a place to make any assessment about whether some skink or some ant is going to become extinct because of it, you just see that there is a lack of consistency. And I think all Australians are. They're fair. They're fair people. They just want to see fair processes. What I also found interesting about this...
is it doesn't look like Indigenous groups were engaged on the solar farm proposal because I read that Mike Cannon-Brooks is now going to do deals with the Indigenous groups himself. So why did they have to be consulted by the Environment Department in the gold mine case, yet not the solar farm case?
Exactly. I mean, they've got two years of consultation that Mike Cannon-Brooks is going to undertake. Yet this approval for the gold mine at Blaney was held up on a small number of individuals from the Indigenous community. Do you know who they are? Well, no, I don't. And as I understand, they don't even live in the local area.
but has been utilised as the reason not to, whereas the Orange Land Council, who represent those Indigenous Australians living near Brony, wholly support this project, have been ignored, shows that really where is the consistency in the process here? Mike Cannon-Brooks can do it as...
A billionaire gets to get away with it, but the mine in regional New South Wales doesn't. I mean, that's where the consistency fails. And there's also reports that the Singapore government hasn't actually signed off on all the approvals for the cable. So it's not necessarily a done deal for our friend Mike. It's not going to happen.
We know that. Come on. Well, Twiggy, we remember Twiggy and he had a fight over it. And Twiggy walked away. Twiggy's not a billionaire either for no other reason. You and I aren't engineers, right? You're a smarter bloke than I am. But I would have thought 4,700 kilometre or 4,300 kilometre underwater cable plus 800 kilometres of transmission to a solar farm in the middle of the Northern Territory to Singapore could be problematic.
Yeah, mate. Well, look, sometimes when you've got the billions in the bank, you can take those sort of punts. But let me tell you, if I had the billions in the bank, because I definitely know we're near it, I'd be pretty careful with them. And I don't think I'd be taking a punt on that.
All right, David Little, where are we going from this? Is there any way Parliament can uncover the justification behind the goldmine decision or any information as to how the decision was come to for the solar farm? Yeah, and this is where, unfortunately, the processes that the government's put in place until we can get a hold of Senate estimates and get a hold of the department,
and that is the process that we will take is we will forensically be into this department about what's happened with not only Blaney but now with this approval and the allegations made by the owners of that land that no one's been on it about due process. That's the parliamentary processes that our constitution allow and I can tell you it'll be at the forefront of our questioning when Senate estimates take place.
Fancy not going. Like, you're not building a backyard shed. You know what I mean? It's the biggest solar farm in the world. I would have thought that a visit to the site would be appropriate.
Well, someone, I thought, would have thought, here's a week away from the office, if nothing else. Get a bit of a run around the NT, end up back in Darwin, end up on Mitchell Street, have a couple of quiet beers on there and then back home. But not even going to do that, not even bothered to do that, because apparently it's not necessary. There's apparently no living organism out there. But let me tell you, there is. And unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any consistency in this government.
in their decision-making. It's all ideology. Keep the spotlight on it. Appreciate you coming on. Thanks for having me, mate.
