Greg Ogle MR
We are very pleased that this legal challenge will now be able to go ahead. There is a real question about whether the decision to approve the mill considered all relevant data and whether the Minister is allowed to approve a project without full knowledge of its environmental impacts.
The Wilderness Society welcomes the Federal Court decision today to give the green light for a legal challenge to the Federal government approval of Gunns’ controversial pulp mill. The challenge was launched by the group Lawyers for Forests in December last year, but Gunns sought an order for the lawyers’ group to pay a substantial bond before it could proceed with the case. Today Justice Marshall dismissed that application and tentatively set down the case for hearing on 18 June (if a judge is available – Justice Marshall is not available until September).
Spokesperson for The Wilderness Society, Greg Ogle said
We are very pleased that this legal challenge will now be able to go ahead. There is a real question about whether the decision to approve the mill considered all relevant data and whether the Minister is allowed to approve a project without full knowledge of its environmental impacts.
Gunns today renewed its attack on the on the right of Lawyers for Forest to bring the case, but Justice Marshall dismissed the attack as being “without merit” saying that the pulp mill would have an impact on forests and it was therefore appropriate for LFF to bring the case. Dr Ogle continued
This decision vindicates the rights of a community group to seek a review of a Minister’s decision without the impediment of costly security bonds. This is an important precedent.
While Lawyers for Forest is a small community group reliant on voluntary donations to finance this case, they will be representing the majority of Australians who know that the process to assess the mill was not independent, was fast-tracked and ignored major impacts of the project.
The Wilderness Society congratulates Lawyers for Forests for overcoming the hurdle put up by Gunns and look forward to the trial of the Federal government approval of this environmentally damaging mill.
LFF was awarded costs for today argument. Lawyers for Forests is challenging the mill approval on 6 grounds relating to the mill’s impact on the marine environment and the inadequacy of the decision and the conditions placed on the mill in relation to the marine environment. The Wilderness Society welcomes that challenge as an important part of a wider campaign to stop the mill and protect Tasmania’s environment.
