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Faster approvals alone won’t unlock Australia’s critical minerals potential, with industry representatives telling a parliamentary inquiry that community trust, Traditional Owner agreements, and investment certainty are equally important.
That was a central message delivered to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Primary Industries during its public hearing in Melbourne into the factors shaping social licence and economic development outcomes in Australia’s critical minerals sector.
On Monday, October 19, Southern Cross Gold, Spektrum Development, and the Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations each highlighted the importance of establishing community trust early while outlining different approaches to improving project development outcomes.
Southern Cross Gold managing director Michael Hudson said the company’s Sunday Creek gold-antimony project in central Victoria provides a practical example of how social licence, regulatory certainty and critical minerals development intersect.
Located approximately 60km from Melbourne, Sunday Creek is advancing underground exploration alongside plans for domestic antimony processing, and is also negotiating with the Taungurung Land and Waters Council.
Hudson told the committee that community relationships must be demonstrated through tangible actions rather than treated as a communications exercise.
“First, social license is served through conduct, not communications,” Hudson said.
“We engage before decisions are made and not after, when something goes wrong; be self-supported; bring it to independent verification. I think that’s a key point in independent verification.”
Hudson emphasised that concerns raised by neighbouring communities, including traffic, dust and water management, needed to be addressed through practical responses.
However, he also identified uncertainty regarding Traditional Owner agreement-making and sequential approvals as obstacles to the progression of critical minerals projects.
“Second, the traditional agreement-making needs legal certainty when they’re negotiating in good faith, such as the Taungurung people, towards an agreement on real economic participation, revenue sharing, equity option, and employment capability,” Hudson said.
He said that clearer legal arrangements would benefit mining proponents, Traditional Owners and governments while allowing negotiated economic benefits to be delivered more effectively.
Southern Cross Gold also advocated coordinated, time-bound approvals for nationally significant critical minerals projects.
“But approvals still run in series rather than in parallel, and that leads to just simply longer-term time frames, where perhaps they can do otherwise,” Hudson said.
“So unpredictable timing is often a bigger obstacle than any single requirement. Time is national sovereignty.”
While Southern Cross Gold focused on the practical challenges of developing Sunday Creek, Spektrum Development chief executive officer (CEO) Anna Quillinan said that the mining industry needed to fundamentally reconsider how social licence was incorporated into project planning.
Drawing on almost three decades of engineering experience, Quillinan told the committee that community legitimacy should be assessed alongside the technical and commercial feasibility of a mining development.
She argued that social licence was frequently pursued after decisions concerning project design, infrastructure and environmental impacts had already been made.
“Instead, we tend to treat social licence as something to secure for engagement after a lot of the important project decisions have been made,” Quillinan said.
“And I think that’s where we’re getting it wrong. It’s a very expensive mistake.”
Spektrum’s submission recommended that engagement begin before project designs were finalised, with affected communities given access to relevant information and opportunities to influence development decisions.
The organisation also said that governments should prioritise legitimate decision-making processes rather than focus exclusively on accelerating regulatory approvals.
Quillinan pointed to international examples where attempts to fast-track strategic mining developments had encountered opposition, suggesting that faster regulatory processes could not necessarily resolve underlying community concerns.
“What it shows is that accelerating the approval process doesn’t necessarily resolve the underlying issues affecting the project’s ability to proceed,” she said.
Spektrum instead advocated incorporating community legitimacy into the earliest stages of project assessment, allowing proponents to identify social constraints while retaining flexibility to modify their development plans.
“A workforce plan can’t fix a legitimacy problem,” Quillinan said.
“In fact, it actually depends on it.”
The Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations similarly called for stronger foundations for critical minerals development, particularly through formal agreements that provide Traditional Owners with meaningful participation in projects occurring on Country.
Representing Traditional Owner interests across Victoria, the Federation highlighted the historical barriers that have prevented Aboriginal communities from sharing equitably in the economic value of mineral resources.
Its evidence outlined the need for clearer legislative requirements, adequately resourced negotiations and stronger mechanisms for benefit-sharing.
“With the right regulatory settings, traditional owners can partner with proponents to manage the impacts of projects on country, and access any equal benefit, equitable benefits associated with them,” the Federation CEO Kaley Nicholson said.
The Federation recommended that governments consider making negotiated Traditional Owner agreements a condition of accessing financial support through programs such as the Future Made in Australia initiative.
It also discussed its work with the Victorian Government on an agreement-making framework designed to establish consistent expectations for proponents and Traditional Owners.
The proposed approach could provide clearer guidance on engagement requirements while allowing agreements to reflect the circumstances and aspirations of individual communities.
Beyond employment and procurement opportunities, Nicholson highlighted the potential for revenue sharing, equity participation, and involvement in project decision-making.
Together, the three presentations reinforced the relationship between community legitimacy and economic development, while demonstrating that social licence cannot be established through regulatory compliance alone.
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