SOUTH A US TRALIA New Government and new Minister On 18 March the 2018 South A ustralian S tate Election elected the frst Liberal Government in 16 years In the lead up to the election AMEC published a P olicy Platform and advocated to both L abor Liberal and S A Best parties to promote the needs of our industry The Member for S tuart the Hon Dan van Holst P ellekaan was appointed as the Minister for Energy and Mines A Department of Energy and Mining was formed refecting the change in the composition of portfolios S tatutes Amendment Mineral R esources Bill 2018 The new Government introduced the S tatutes Amendment Bill in the frst session of P arliament The Bill implements 82 recommendations that were the culmination of an 18month Mining Acts R eview The e xhaustive process involved the mining farming and broader community in a wideranging discussion across all aspects of the current three mining Acts The Bill that resulted included head powers for potential innovations such as a Mining rehabilitation fund a low impact notifcation system and resolves a number of tenement processing issues The Bill also clarifed and resolved long standing issues in the Act streamlines the process of moving between an e xploration licence to a mining lease clarifes legal uncertainty around various court s jurisdiction resolves who is deemed an owner of land and cut red tape inherent in the change of operations process around lease or licence conditions Following the debate of the Bill four Government backbenchers crossed the foor and voted against the Government s own legislation The four backbenchers are seeking the inclusion of a right to veto mining and mineral e xploration on farm land As a result the discussion on this Bill was postponed In September 2018 AMEC wrote to the Minister for Mines and Energy and then met with him to e xplain our opposition to a right to veto AMEC met with other industry stak eholders to discuss combined advocacy going forward on this issue Throughout this process AMEC has met with the Minister the Opposition and the Department to discuss how to progress this important legislation W oomera Prohibited Area Coe xistence Framework R eview The Coe xistence Framework is under review AMEC met with the Department of Defence to discuss the current governance arrangements and ensure there is no decrease in the current level of access provided AMEC has provided a written submission calling for a S tak eholder R eference Group S tronger P artners S tronger Futures initiative Following the election the Government has restarted the S tronger P artners S tronger Futures initiative AMEC attended the working group progressing this review of P art 9B of the Mining Act The fnal recommendations for reforming P art 9B are to go to Government by the end of the year 19 AMEC R eport 2018