JUUKAN GORGE CAVES
762. Hon ALISON XAMON to the Minister for Environment:
I
ask this question on behalf of my colleague Hon Robin Chapple, who is out
of the chamber on urgent parliamentary business.
I refer to the pit outline in
section 125 of MLA4SA brought before the Environmental Protection Authority for
assessment by Rio Tinto in August 2005—figure
2—in relation to the Brockman 4 Syncline mine BS4 project area,
which has been shown to seriously impact the Juukan cave sites.
(1) Did the EPA
specifically assess the Juukan complex or rely on Rio Tinto's assertion
that it had not identified any sites of ethnographic significance in the area?
(2) According to
that pit outline assessed by the EPA, was the Juukan cave complex within the
pit outline as approved by the EPA?
Hon
STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank Hon Robin Chapple for some
notice of the question.
(1) The Environmental
Protection Authority assessed Hamersley Iron's Brockman Syncline 4 iron
ore project at the level of public environmental review with a four-week public
review period in 2005. I am advised that Hamersley Iron's public
environmental review document dated August 2005 did not specifically reference
the Juukan complex. The EPA report, bulletin 1214, dated January 2006 made no
specific reference to the Juukan complex.
(2) The
Department of Water and Environmental Regulation has reviewed the Environmental
Protection Authority's report, bulletin 1214, and advised that there is
no map showing the Juukan complex in relation to the pit outline.