Birds: the crazy double standard of Australia’s ruling class. By Brad Thompson in The Australian.
Andrew Forrest’s high-flying gold play, Greatland Resources, has had its wings clipped by the mysterious and elusive night parrot.
The environmental watchdog in Western Australia has recommended strict conditions to protect the endangered parrot as Greatland seeks to build the Havieron underground gold and copper mine to complement its existing Telfer operations.
The conditions are based on three audio recordings of what might be the night parrot over what has been a five-year approval process. No one has seen a night parrot anywhere near the site, including environmental scientists hired by Greatland. …
It is now Australia’s third biggest gold miner with a market capitalisation around $10.2bn, behind Northern Star and Evolution Mining. …
In the case of the Telfer-Havieron envelope, EPA recommendations released on Wednesday include a ban on night-time haulage and other conditions to protect the parrot, including speed limits and “fauna spotters”.
Greatland may also have to re-route its haul road to avoid areas considered potential parrot habitat.
The EPA also recommends 300m buffer zones around anything that could be a night parrot roosting site, and similar measures to protect greater bilby burrows. …
An EPA report on Telfer-Havieron said the species was recorded on three occasions with “two confirmed calls at one location, and one unconfirmed call at a different location” based on information from consultants hired by Greatland. …
Gold, currently fourth, is on track to overtake LNG and coal to become Australia’s second most valuable export after iron ore.
Rio Tinto too:
Rio slashed its planned footprint for Winu – dubbed the “copper whopper” when discovered in 2017 – last year after shock evidence that one of the world’s rarest birds might reside in the area.
Audio monitoring carried out on behalf of Rio detected the call of what experts later identified as that of a lone night parrot in mid-2024. No one in the monitoring team saw the night parrot and no calls were picked up in the previous 2500 nights of monitoring.
So, our ruling class is happy to degrade Australia’s exports for a bird that may or may not exist, but it is completely different when it comes to their renewables and their mythological role in changing future weather. (Follow the money?)
