The Greens will (today) move in the Senate to call on the Minister for the Environment to immediately include the Tarkine on the National Heritage List to ensure that the extraordinary wilderness’s heritage values can be considered in the environmental assessment of proposed mines.
“The Tarkine is renowned around the world as a spectacular and important wilderness area, but it has been ‘under consideration’ for heritage listing since 2004 with no final decision,” Australian Greens Deputy Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said.
“Time is swiftly running out if we are to prevent this magnificent part of Australia from being turned into just another hole in the ground.
“If the Tarkine is not listed by December 2, the Environment Minister, Tony Burke, will be legally unable to consider the heritage values of the wilderness in the assessment of the massive proposed Venture Minerals mine at Mt Lindsay
“In reality, if Minister Burke doesn’t list the Tarkine by December 2, he is making a deliberate choice to exclude the Tarkine’s heritage values from his assessment of Venture Minerals’ mine.”
The Motion reads:
I give notice that on the next day of sitting I shall move that the Senate:
1. Notes:
a) The Tarkine is the last great unprotected wilderness in southern Australia, and is recognised to be of World Heritage significance;
b) The Tarkine has been under consideration for inclusion on the National Heritage List since 2004, making it the longest continuous assessment process in the history of the National Heritage process;
c) The delay in heritage listing means mining companies only need be assessed on potential impacts on threatened species and not the impacts on heritage values which include wilderness, geological, cultural, flora and fauna diversity and natural history values;
d) The recently referred Venture Minerals tin, tungsten copper and hematite mine at Mt Lindsay is a Pilbara style open cut super pit to a depth of 220 metres that will devastate an area 3.5 km by 3 km of the Tarkine rainforest wilderness;
e) This proposed pit is within an existing reserve, and is completely inconsistent with the protection of the Tarkine;
f) The Minister for the Environment is legally unable to consider the impacts on the rainforest, the 25 watercourses to be disrupted, or the recognised wilderness values of the area in the mine’s assessment under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act unless the Tarkine is Heritage listed;
g) A diseased Tasmanian devil has been discovered on the eastern side of the Arthur River, making the area to the west of the Arthur River the only disease free part of Tasmania, highlighting the urgent need to permanently protect the Tarkine from further major developments including mining and roading that directly threaten the devil.
2. Calls on the Minister to:
a) Immediately include the Tarkine on the National Heritage List before he considers the Venture Minerals proposed mine under the EPBC Act;
b) Acknowledge that Venture Minerals have deliberately split the project for assessment purposes;
c) Require Venture Minerals to submit the entire mining proposal for the Tarkine area for assessment;
d) Recognise that failure to list the Tarkine before the December 2nd is a deliberate choice to exclude heritage values from the mine proposal assessment;
e) Acknowledge that a decision not to list the Tarkine on the National Heritage List is a decision to prioritise mining over the protection of wilderness values.
• MINISTER SHOULD DEFEND OUR ENVIRONMENT NOT HELP MINE IT
But Tony Burke’s stalling on Tarkine Heritage Listing makes mining more, not less, likely
Paul ‘Basil’ O’Halloran MP
Greens Member for Braddon
The Tasmanian Greens today warned that the Tarkine is where mining and Heritage Listing are on a collision course, with the Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke MP’s high-stakes stalling on Heritage Listing for this world-class area suggesting mining could win out.
Greens Member for Braddon Paul ‘Basil’ O’Halloran MP said the latest reports [1] show the state’s tourism industry is on the up, that tourism is one of the state’s largest renewable industries and that more tourists are flocking to the Tarkine, which has the potential to be recognised as Tasmania’s Kakadu of the North West.
“Here we have tourism, a viable, profitable, jobs-rich industry across the state competing with mining, a short-term, extractive, environmentally destructive industry. Why is Minister Burke refusing to learn the lessons of the past? What happens after a mining boom in the Tarkine? I can tell him: bust, and a damaged tourism industry and degraded world-class environment and heritage,” said Mr O’Halloran.
“Yes, Tasmania desperately needs jobs but our tourism industry provides them without us having to sell the family silver.”
“If the Tarkine is not listed by December 2, Mr Burke will be unable to consider, in context of the latest mining proposals, the impacts of these mining operations on the area’s heritage and environment, the very reasons it has been nominated by the Australian Heritage Council for listing on the National Heritage Register”.
“The inertia looks suspiciously as if Australia’s Environment Minister, of all people, is stalling to allow mining in the Tarkine.”
“This area matches the Kakadu, the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree for its majestic biodiversity, natural richness and sheer wonder for tourists and Tasmanian residents alike. That is why the National Heritage Council wants the area put on the National Heritage List.”
“But the Tarkine has been ‘under consideration’ for National Heritage Listing for seven years, the longest unresolved listing in Australian history.”
“Time is running out for National Heritage Listing as the region and its unique values are under real and immediate threat from mining.”
“A mine in the Tarkine would be like siting a mine in the middle of the Daintree or an oil rig on the Great Barrier Reef, but that is what the Greens fear bureaucracy is being deliberately used to bring about.”
“The Federal Minister must ensure Tarkine is on the Australian Heritage List by December 2 this year or risk looking like he is using his Environment portfolio as a fig leaf for his mining ambitions,” said Mr O’Halloran.
[1] “Tassie tourism campaign hitting the target,” The Advocate, p 4, November 22, 2001:
“…Tasmania, with a tourism spend miniscule by comparison [with Queensland], is punching above its weight in terms of hitting its target market in eastern Australia…. Tasmania was [ranked] second [among those Australians actively considering a holiday in Australia].
