Liberal government in South Australia caught in middle of mining and agriculture stalemate

Four rebel Liberal rural MPs (back row) voting in the South Australian House of Assembly with the Labor party and independents against changes to the Mining Act.

A change to the South Australian Mining Act, to remove farmers’ right of refusal for mining companies to use their land, has been put on hold after it was deferred in 2018 by four state Liberal government rural backbench MPs voting against it with the opposition Labor party.

The impasse continued into 2019 when the state energy and mining department overruled its minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan’s compromise to win over the group of rebel backbenchers.

The proposed Mining Act changes mirror those proposed by the former state Labor government. It was heavily criticised for being “rushed” through by the former government without holding a proper consultation with South Australian farmers.

Yorke Peninsula MP Fraser Ellis, one of the rebel MPs, said the Liberal government would only “further alienate the party’s ordinary members” if it pushed through the mining legislation as it was. A meeting of the Liberal Party’s rural and regional council had also decided the government should the section of the bill that gives mining companies the power to appeal in court to access land used for cultivation.

Primary Producers SA and two of its commodity group members, Grain Producers SA and Livestock SA, couldn’t support the Mining Bill in its current format and had provided a big list of changes. They called again for an independent review into South Australia’s mining laws that would examine best- \practice land access frameworks in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia.

South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy (SACOME) chief executive Rebecca Knol said the mining industry “categorically opposes” farmers being given a right to veto mining access. SACOME supported the bill as it stood and it pointed to a resources sector employing more than 26,000 people, with $5.2 billion in production, $3.8 billion in exports and $214 million in royalties to South Australians.