Kim Booth Greens MR
Greens Shadow Pulp Mill spokesperson Kim Booth MP said that concerns raised during debate on the fast-track pulp mill approvals process last year about the extraordinary and undemocratic provisions of Section 11 had been ignored deliberately by the Labor government, and challenged Premier David Bartlett to heed the current court action and move to overturn Section 11 of the Act.
PULP MILL COURT ACTION PRESENTS CHALLENGE TO ‘DEMOCRATIST’ BARTLETT
Overturn Section 11 of the Pulp Mill Assessment Act
Kim Booth MP
Greens Shadow Pulp Mill spokesperson
Saturday, 16 August 2008
www.tas.greens.org.au
The Tasmanian Greens today congratulated Environment Tasmania for taking legal action in the Supreme Court challenging the validity of Section 11 of the State’s controversial Pulp Mill Assessment Act 2007, but said it was an indictment on the Labor and Liberal parties, who both supported the fast-tracking approvals process in the Parliament, that members of the public had to resort to the courts in order to restore people’s rights to obtain information about the mill’s permit conditions.
Greens Shadow Pulp Mill spokesperson Kim Booth MP said that concerns raised during debate on the fast-track pulp mill approvals process last year about the extraordinary and undemocratic provisions of Section 11 had been ignored deliberately by the Labor government, and challenged Premier David Bartlett to heed the current court action and move to overturn Section 11 of the Act.
“This Supreme Court action presents a challenge for Premier Bartlett, who, as a self-professed ‘democratist’, must recognise that things are in a very bad way indeed if the public have to take court action to restore their democratic rights to critical information regarding the pulp mill permit conditions,” Mr Booth said.
“Mr Bartlett stated loudly early on in his Premiership that he had drawn a line in the sand when it came to Gunns’ receiving further government help over the pulp mill proposal, so here is another opportunity for the Premier to demonstrate that such a line in the sand has not been washed away, by moving to overturn Section 11 and open up the Pulp Mill Permit to public scrutiny.”
“It is a strong indictment on both the Labor government, and the obliging Liberal Party, who turned a deliberate deaf ear to concerns raised during the debate about the unfair and anti-democratic provisions of Section 11 of the Pulp Mill Assessment Act, that members of the public are now having to go to the courts to challenge this section and restore their democratic right to relevant information.”
“Other business people and property owners who share the Tamar Valley, will suffer sever impacts upon their farming operations and livelihoods should the Gunns’ pulp mill be constructed, yet they are being denied critical information about how those impacts have been approved under the permit process, which is a fundamental denial of natural justice,” Mr Booth said.
