The facts
Australia's Federal Court has overturned a protection order issued in 2024 by former environment minister Tanya Plibersek under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act. The order had been sought by the Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation to protect the headwaters and springs of the Belubula River in central-west New South Wales, which they described as central to creation stories. Gold-mining company Regis Resources challenged the order, stating it blocked the construction of a tailings dam for its McPhillamys goldmine project at Blayney and rendered the development unviable. Justice James Stellios ruled the order invalid on Wednesday, stating the decision says nothing about the site's significance or whether it faces harm, as those are matters for the minister. The court's full reasons are expected on Friday. Regis Resources argued during a hearing that it was denied procedural fairness and that the government made errors in its process. The company stated it anticipates the current environment minister, Murray Watt, will need to redetermine the application for a Section 10 Declaration. Regis Resources is also pursuing an alternative development plan involving an Integrated Waste Landform that would avoid the area impacted by the protection order.
Our take
Well, fuck. Tanya Plibersek’s big, ministerial ‘protect this place’ stamp has been officially crumpled up and tossed in the bin by the Federal Court, which is basically the legal equivalent of a teacher marking your heartfelt essay with ‘see me after class, you absolute fucking dunce.’ Justice James Stellios didn’t just overturn her order; he rendered it a nullity, a bureaucratic fart in the wind that once briefly stalled a billion-dollar digging operation. What an embarrassing legacy item: ‘Successfully delayed a mine for five minutes before the adults showed up and pointed out the paperwork was dogshit.’ She might as well have issued a protection order written in crayon for all the good it did. The Wiradyuri Traditional Owners, who had the audacity to ask the government to protect the headwaters and springs central to their creation stories, now get to watch as the legal machinery they appealed to grinds their concerns into a fine, legally irrelevant dust. The court was very clear: this ruling says fuck-all about whether the site is sacred or whether the mine will piss all over it. That’s still the minister’s problem. It just says Plibersek’s specific attempt to do her job was so procedurally fucked that a gold-mining company could cry ‘unfair!’ and win. Regis Resources didn’t just challenge the order; they whinged about ‘procedural fairness’ like a toddler who got the wrong colour sippy cup, and the judge nodded along. ‘You’re right, little mining buddy, the minister was very naughty for not letting you properly explain why you need to dump your toxic slurry right there.’ Now the whole pathetic circus gets handed to the new minister, Murray Watt, who gets to decide if he wants to be the next cunt in the hot seat. Meanwhile, Regis is already smugly touting its ‘alternative’ waste plan, which is corporate speak for ‘we’ll fuck up a slightly different patch of land, happy now?’ What a majestic display of governance: a hollow gesture from a departing minister, a court that upholds process over protection, and a mining company that gets to keep right on digging. The only thing truly protected here is the right to make money. Everything else is just collateral bullshit.
