Coroner & Legal
Mill Permits: Acid on Wightman as Giddings stays silent and flick-passes
MINISTER MUST COMMIT TO LEGAL ACTION ON GUNNS PULP MILL
The Tasmanian Greens today called on the Attorney General Brian Wightman to commit to seeking a court declaration on the status of Gunns Ltd’s Pulp Mill Permit after the Pulp Mill Permit expires tonight.
The Greens Forestry spokesman Kim Booth today released legal advice on the issue of “substantial commencement” which makes it clear that the permit expires today, not tomorrow as some commentators have been previously stated.
Further, the advice from Fitzgerald and Browne Lawyers found that the Minister has a right to bring proceedings in the civil courts to seek an injunction or declaration when public rights are affected.”
“This is clearly an issue where public rights are affected, and now independent legal advice has made it clear that from tomorrow morning, the Minister will have it in his power to finally bring some clarity to this messy and confusing issue of ‘substantial commencement’,” Mr Booth said.
“It’s not acceptable for Mr Wightman to handball this issue to the Director of the Environment Protection Authority, Alex Schaap. The Minister is responsible to act, not only to give reassurance to the public, but to ensure that Gunns is not operating outside the law if it decides to continue with earthworks beyond tonight’s deadline.
“Labor also has a responsibility to the Tasmanian public to make sure this issue is cleared up, after it abandoned due process and rammed through the shameful Pulp Mill Assessment Act. The current confusion over the whether the mill permit has expired is clear poof that this legislation was fundamentally flawed from the very start,”
“As this deadline approaches, the people of the Tamar Valley are now preparing to finally put this sad and distressing chapter in their history behind them. With the Pulp Mill Permit set to expire, this project must not be propped up any further by attempts to extend tonight’s deadline. Gunns must no longer be above the law,” said Mr Booth.
Download:
Aug30_Pulp_MIll_Permit_Legal_Advice_K_Booth_ATTACH.pdf
• Pulp the Mill: Time’s Up for the Pulp Mill
Media Release: 30th August 2011
Time’s Up for the Pulp Mill
Pulp the Mill said today the time had come for Gunns to bow to the inevitable, and accept the Pulp Mill project will not be built, and should now be completely abandoned.
PtM spokesperson Lucy Landon-Lane said aerial photographs taken of the mill site on Tuesday 30th August prove that any claim to ‘substantial commencement’ is farcical.
“According to Australian Case law the definition of substantial commencement is a ‘positive unequivocal step’ towards approved works, a step that results in a material change to the nature of the land. This definition is distinct from the alternative ‘notional or equivocal or sham commencement’. It is clear from these photographs that no genuine effort has been made,” said Ms Landon-Lane.
“We learned last week that Gunns is in debt to the tune of at least $658 million, most of which is reportedly repayable in three months time. It has sold off most of its assets – including the Lindsay Street offices – and has still to secure finance for its pulp mill. It is facing a number of legal challenges, and its share price remains suspended. That Gunns can still seriously consider it has the capacity to build a massively expensive pulp mill under these circumstances is nothing short of ridiculous,” said Ms Landon-Lane.
Today community members representing CODE GREEN and Pulp the Mill, walked onto the pulp mill site and unfurled a banner reading “NO MILL.” When asked to leave by security, they peacefully complied. Police intercepted the protesters after they had left Gunns’ property, and commended the peaceful nature of the protest and the safe manner in which the protesters conducted themselves on their exit via the Tamar River.
Spokesperson for CODE GREEN Ali Alishah said, “The entire Pulp Mill fiasco over the last seven years has made a mockery of democratic processes. The community’s concerns have been sidelined by a corrupt and flawed legislation system seeking not to serve public interests but to deliver a corporate agenda through the most disingenuous and irresponsible back-door means ever adopted by Australian governments,”
“CODE GREEN will not tolerate the State Government’s deplorable attitude towards local communities whose interests should be at the heart of any formulation of industrial, corporate or political policies. We stand as part of the community in solidarity with all Tasmanians against a project which endangers Tasmania’s unique natural and economic environments,” said Mr. Alishah.
Pulp the Mill and CODE GREEN are committed to Peaceful Community Protest to highlight the community’s concerns.
• Tim Morris: Have the pulp mill permits expired?
HAVE THE PULP MILL’S DAM PERMITS ALSO EXPIRED?
The minister must clarify the mill’s legal status
Tim Morris MP
Greens Water Spokesman
The Tasmanian Greens have received legal advice showing that dam permits issued to Gunns Ltd under the Water Management Act (1999) are also due to expire tonight, saying that it looks like this is the final nail in the coffin for the Tamar Valley Pulp Mill.
Greens Water spokesperson Tim Morris MP said that the received legal advice states that if the proponents, Gunns, required an extension for the pulp mill dam works permits, a request had to have been made before the expiry date of 30 August.
“The pulp mill quite clearly does not have the necessary dam works underway, let alone completed, yet Minister Green clearly had no idea that if Gunns did not put in an extension request by the 30th of July – the month before the expiry date as required – then it is too late to do so now,” Mr Morris said.
Section s8 (5) (b) of the Pulp Mill Approval Act states that:
(b) under the Water Management Act 1999 lapses under section 159(8) of that Act at the end of the period of 4 years commencing on the date on which the Pulp Mill Permit comes into force if the dam works within the meaning of that Act are not substantially completed within that 4-year period.
“While I can accept that there may be some debate about the concept of ‘substantial commencement’, the concept of ‘substantial completion’ is far easier to determine. It is clear that the three relevant parts of the proposal under the Water Management Act (1999) are nowhere near completion, which would require some kind of visible work. “
Mr Morris pointed out that the deadline for renewing these permits expired nearly a month ago. Section 159 (10) of the Water Management Act states:
(10) An application for an extension under subsection (9) must be –
(a) in accordance with section 12A; and
(b) made no later than one month before the permit is due to lapse.
“The necessary dams for the pulp mill have not been started, let alone constructed. The imminent expiry of these dam permits – along with the simultaneous expiry of the Pulp Mill Permit issued under the Land Use Planning Approvals Act – spell the end of the mill. People in the Tamar Valley will welcome the extinguishing of this project. There are a lot of people that want to get on with their lives and invest in their businesses, who will now be looking to the Minister to enforce the Act,” Mr Morris said.
• Nick McKim: Yet another Liberal Motion of No-Consequence
YET ANOTHER LIBERAL MOTION OF NO CONSEQUENCE
Liberals Must Stop Wasting Taxpayer Resources
Nick McKim MP
Tasmanian Greens Leader
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
The Tasmanian Greens today expressed deep disappointment at the Liberal Party’s latest wasteful, pointless and frivolous motion of no confidence.
The Greens Leader Nick McKim said today’s Liberal Party motion has nothing to do with protecting jobs and everything to do with vacuous political posturing, in the guise of concern for timber workers.
“It seems that rather than trying to be part of an effective, functioning Parliament, the Liberals’ only political strategy has become, like Tony Abbott, to try to create as much division and animosity as possible. While the Liberals’ negative position may have some support from vested timber industry interests, they don’t speak for the majority of timber workers.”
“The Greens have been warning for a number of years about this crisis in the timber industry approaching. Now it’s here and the Liberals don’t have a single idea to get on top of it. They have missed yet another opportunity to put forward ideas on how a Liberal Party government might actually start to deal with the troubles that exist in the forest industry.”
“When Parliament could be dealing with important issues like education, law and order and health, the Liberals are more interested in taking a wrecking ball to parliament. I accept that criticising government policy is part of the job of an opposition, but it’s not the only job. The Liberals have no viable plan of their own to address problems like the lack of Forest Stewardship Council accreditation, which is a major factor in the industry’s collapse.”
“This industry is in the process of a major transition. Either we can take control and shape the future of the industry, or we will be shaped by it. It’s time for the Liberals to wake up.”
First published: 2011-08-30 02:53 PM
• ABC Online:
Premier silent on mill permits
The Tasmanian Premier is maintaining her distance from the debate about the status of Gunns’ permits to build its $2.3 billion Tamar Valley pulp mill.
The construction permits are set to expire at midnight if there has not been a “substantial commencement” of work at the site, east of Launceston.
The Greens MP, Kim Booth, today released legal advice saying the Attorney General has the power to seek a court declaration to clarify the meaning of the term “substantial commencement”.
“It should be up to the Government now to clarify this whole matter, it should be up to the Government to fund a court case rather than relying on the long-suffering Tamar Valley residents.”
The Premier Lara Giddings says it would be seen as a very political move if the Attorney-General stepped in.
“I’m keen to ensure we keep politics out of this, there is a proper process in place.”
The Greens have also produced legal advice saying Gunns’ permit to build dams for the mill will also expire at midnight if the work is not “substantially completed.”
Mr Booth says there is no evidence of dam building at the site.
“Without the dams, the project can’t proceed,” he said.
The Greens say the advice also says Gunns had the opportunity to extend the permits by lodging an application with authorities by July the 30th.
The Water Minister, Bryan Green, says it is not up to him to shed light on whether the company did so.
“The permit process is at arm’s length from Government.”
A spokesman for Gunns would not comment on whether the timber company had applied for a dam permit extension.
The Gunns’ boss Greg L’Estrange said today he was confident the company had met the pulp mill’s permit conditions.
• The Advocate: Future of pulp mill rests in bureaucrats’ hands
THE State Government has continued to distance itself from the potential lapsing today of permits required by Gunns Ltd to build its pulp mill.
The Tasmanian Greens said yesterday Gunns’ construction and water infrastructure permits might have lapsed at midnight last night, calling on Attorney-General Brian Wightman to seek a court ruling.
However, Mr Wightman and Forestry Minister Bryan Green said it was a matter for the Environment Protection Authority, guided by advice from the Solicitor-General.
Mr Green said the “permit process is at arm’s length from government”.
Gunns must have demonstrated by today that “substantial commencement” of the project had occurred on the site.
A court challenge has been flagged by mill opponents who say construction is virtually non- existent.
Forestry dominated the first day of the spring sitting of State Parliament yesterday.
In the latest developments:
The government will legislate to ensure 265,000 cubic metres a year of peeler wood supply for Ta Ann, which has veneer mills at Smithton and the Huon Valley. Greens forestry spokesman Kim Booth dubbed it a “monopoly provision” to help Ta Ann;
The Liberals partly blamed the government for the growing demand for mental health counselling among forestry workers. However, Mr Green said he was approached by Rural Alive and Well, seeking $500,000 for extra counselling services, well before the forestry deal was sealed;
Liberal forestry spokesman Peter Gutwein said the government continued to ignore Forestry Tasmania advice that the forestry deal could not fulfil timber contracts;
Premier Lara Giddings said the deal provided certainty, including at least 155,000 cubic metres per year of high quality sawlogs, 12,500 cubic metres of speciality timber, while protecting an estimated 430,000 hectares of native forest; and
Ms Giddings said the government might have to explore “an alternative” to the Triabunna woodchip mill, which remains shut, “if that’s what’s required”.