Peter Garrett
In the context of the Gunns pulp mill, my responsibilities are confined to significant impacts on nationally listed threatened species, the Commonwealth marine environment and listed migratory species. Other environmental matters are the responsibility of the Tasmanian Government.
Dear Mr de Burgh-Day
THANK YOU for your email of 4 February 2008 concerning the Gunns pulp mill.
The Gunns pulp mill was approved on 4 October 2007 by the former Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, the Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP, under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity
Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).
The approval is dependent on Gunns meeting forty-eight conditions for environmental protection. As part of these conditions, Gunns must submit an Environmental Impact Management Plan (EIMP) for my approval. This Plan will impose stringent requirements, including controls on effluent discharge, which will ensure that matters of national environmental significance are protected and closely monitored. The Plan is being prepared in parts known as modules, each module relating to a particular aspect of work.
So far I have approved the first three modules of the EIMP. These modules comprise an Overview Module (Module A), the Mill Site Vegetation Clearing Module (Module B) and the Mill Site Bulk Earthworks Module (Module C). My decision to approve the vegetation clearing and bulk earth works on the mill site was based on extensive advice from both the Independent Expert Group set up for this purpose and my Department. Further modules will also require my assessment and approval before additional work can be undertaken.
It is important to be aware that the EPBC Act only confers on me as the Federal Environment Minister the power to intervene where an action may have a significant impact on matters defined in the Act as matters of national environmental significance. Specifically, the seven matters of national environmental significance to which the EPBC Act applies are:
* world heritage sites;
* national heritage places;
* wetlands of international importance (often called “Ramsar” wetlands after the international treaty under which such wetlands are listed);
* nationally threatened species and ecological communities;
* migratory species;
* Commonwealth marine areas;
* nuclear actions.
In the context of the Gunns pulp mill, my responsibilities are confined to significant impacts on nationally listed threatened species, the Commonwealth marine environment and listed migratory species. Other environmental matters are the responsibility of the Tasmanian Government.
There are requirements for transparent and regular reporting by Gunns in order to ensure that the relevant matters of national environmental significance are protected. My Department is also actively monitoring Gunns’ activities to ensure that they comply with Commonwealth Government environmental approval conditions. As an added safeguard, I have appointed an Independent Site Supervisor to monitor compliance with the approved EIMP.
Thank you for your interest in this matter and for taking the time to write to me.
Yours sincerely
Peter Garrett AM
Federal Member for Kingsford Smith
Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts
