Government Will Not Appeal McPhillamys Heritage Ruling

Sunday 1 November 2026The minister says the government will redetermine the matter and that heritage laws are slowing projects Australia needs.

Featured image: Photo by Thennicke (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons. Illustrative image of the Old and New Parliament Houses in Canberra.

The government’s decision

The federal government will not appeal a court decision that overturned an Aboriginal heritage order which had stalled the McPhillamys gold project in central-west New South Wales. Environment Minister Murray Watt confirmed the decision in an interview with Sky News, SBS News reported.

Mr Watt said the government will focus on redetermining the issue, which he said the court had ordered.

Background to the dispute

The project was halted in 2024 after then-environment minister Tanya Plibersek approved a heritage order to protect waterways that Traditional Owners said are connected to Dreaming stories. SBS News describes the McPhillamys project as worth a billion dollars. Earlier in October, following the court ruling, the mining sector claimed victory and urged planning reform.

Calls to change heritage law

Mr Watt said the heritage laws are not doing a good job of protecting cultural heritage and are slowing down projects that Australia needs. He said reform of the laws is progressing.

What happens next

The matter returns to the government for redetermination, as ordered by the court. Reform of cultural heritage laws is continuing, and the source does not give a timetable for either.

More from this day: News Today: 1 November 2026, Australia and World Headlines