Ralphs Bay: A black day

Cassy O’Connor, Press Release

We have a comprehensive legal brief on this subject which makes it clear the Lennon Government acted in undue haste in seeking to shrink the Conservation Area — at the prompting of Walker Corporation’s lawyers — last July. The Government knows it’s on the shakiest legal footing, and that’s why it has put this obnoxious, anti-environment bill forward.

The Lennon Government has tabled a bill in Parliament to remove the sandflats from the Ralphs Bay Conservation Area in a move that puts corporate interests before coastal conservation and community.

The Ralphs Bay Conservation Area (Clarification) Bill 2006 is Lennon Labor’s answer to Walker Corporation’s desire to have a smooth run through the planning process. If passed along with the PoSS Bill, it will ensure the conservation values of Ralphs Bay are not fully assessed by the RPDC.

SRB Inc. communications’ coordinator, Cassy O’Connor, said it’s a black day for conservation in Tasmania.

“This bill will undo twenty-four years of understanding by government mapmakers, who to this day depict the Ralphs Bay Conservation Area at Lauderdale as extending to low water mark.

“We have a comprehensive legal brief on this subject which makes it clear the Lennon Government acted in undue haste in seeking to shrink the Conservation Area — at the prompting of Walker Corporation’s lawyers — last July. The Government knows it’s on the shakiest legal footing, and that’s why it has put this obnoxious, anti-environment bill forward.

“There is no question it was the original intent of the Crown Lands Act Order of 1982, creating the Ralphs Bay Coastal Reserve (which became the Conservation Area under the RFA Act 1998, ‘by name change only’) to include the area to low water mark. This was admitted by then Lands Minister, Lyons MHR, Dick Adams, on ABC radio news a fortnight ago.

“If passed by the Parliament, this bill will make sure the conservation values of Ralphs Bay ARE NOT adequately assessed by the RPDC, because it would just be another piece of Crown Land.

“The Parliamentary Liberal Party cannot, in all conscience, support this bill. Here is one issue where the party has to recognise the arguments and do the right thing, rejecting Lennon Labor’s destruction of a Conservation Area.

“Upper House members have information before them which sets out a clear case for rejecting this so-called ‘clarification’ bill, and we are strongly urging them to do so.

“If the government is so sure the sandflats DON’T belong in the Conservation Area, let that be tested beyond the raucous reach of partisan politics, and allow a court of law to come to an evidence-based conclusion.

The Tasmanian Conservation Trust and Save Ralphs Bay Inc have requested the State Government fund a test case on the boundary question in the Supreme Court. We submit this is a far more legitimate approach to what is a legal question. Naturally, this request has been ignored in the Lennon Government’s rush to please Walker Corporation.

The full extent of the Ralphs Bay Conservation Area is recognised on government maps to this day (L.I.S.T and RPDC Background Report on Bruny Bioregion).

Background actually clarifying a complex issue can be found at www.saveralphsbay.org