Tony Burke’s ‘Tarkine sellout’

Minister Burke green-lights fast track mining assessments in the Tarkine

The Tarkine National Coalition has condemned Minister Burke’s decision to allow mining proposal in the World Heritage recommended Tarkine to be assessed by the Tasmanian Government, despite the Tasmanian Government’s clear bias and history of compromised assessments.

“Minister Burke has bowed to mining pressure to first remove the heritage protection on the Tarkine, and now wash his hands of the responsibility for conducting the environmental assessments by handing over control to the same state government who has not only advocated these projects, but recently fast tracked one of the mine leases so fast that the Minister for Mines didn’t even know which lease he had signed,” said Campaign Coordinator, Scott Jordan.

“This is a sell out of the Minister’s responsibilities and if Tony Burke doesn’t want the responsibility of the job, he should resign the post”.

“The Tarkine National Coalition has no faith in the compromised assessment process, and will move to expedite campaigns to prevent construction of the Venture Minerals projects.”

• Paul Oosting, GetUp! Campaigns Director

GETUP MEDIA RELEASE – TASSIE MINES APPROVAL PROCESS ‘COULD HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY MINING COMPANIES’.

Political action group GetUp has criticised Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke’s decision to allow the Tasmanian Government to assess the environmental impact of three proposed mines in same region the Tarkine separately.

Under the approval process announced today, the impact of the mines will not be properly assessed. They will assessed individually, rather than assessing the full impact on the environment.

“This approval process sets a very low bar,” GetUp Environmental Campaign Director Paul Oosting said. “The Federal Government should be doing its own environmental assessment and it should be looking at the overall impact of the three mines rather than pretending that other mines don’t exist when assessing each other mine.”

The Tarkine, in Tasmania’s north-west is the largest temperate rain forest in the Southern Hemisphere and home to the last population of healthy Tasmanian devils in the wild.

“This is shaping up to be another ‘Franklin Dam’ style battle,” Mr Oosting said. “No-one should mine the Tarkine rainforest.”

Mr Oosting expressed concerns about the impact the proposed mines would have on the last remaining healthy Tasmanian Devil populations which currently call the Tarkine home.

“Tasmanian Devil facial tumours have had a devastating effect on Devil populations,” Mr Oosting said. “And now mining companies want to bulldoze the only areas in Tasmania where the Devils are healthy. How hard does the Government want to make it for the Tasmania Devil to survive?”

• Senator Christine Milne, Greens Leader: Burke puts short term mining profits ahead of Tarkine protection

Environment Minister Tony Burke’s decision today on assessment of the mining threat to the precious Tarkine wilderness still fails to protect this magnificent natural heritage.

“Tony Burke is once again putting short term mining profits ahead of proper protection for the Tarkine wilderness which is too precious to lose” Leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Christine Milne said today.

“Instead of preparing the way for full-scale mining, Minister Burke should be immediately heritage listing the Tarkine.

“The public will be dismayed to know that the Minister meant to protect the environment has just refused to act to protect a world heritage class rainforest from a 118 hectare strip mine and a 78 hectare open cut pit.

“These two mines between them will see nearly 200 hectares of rainforest destroyed, but it is the 9 other mines which will follow which are the even greater threat.

“These two mines have only two years’ life each and will provide only 20 jobs each, which will most likely go to ready to go fly-in contract workers, not local Tasmanians.

“Venture Minerals has been open about the fact that it has fast-tracked these two mines in order to raise capital for its major tin mine operations centred around Mt Lindsay.

“It is shameful and farcical for Minister Burke to pretend these aren’t all part of a larger project- Venture has made its intentions to expand very clear to the stock exchange and Tasmanian Minerals Council.

“We can also expect further threats to nationally threatened species such as the Tasmanian Devil from roads and habitat loss.”

‘Federal Environment Minister Burke Fails Again’

• Environment Tasmania today called on the Federal Environment Minister to step up to his responsibilities

Environment Tasmania Chief Executive Officer Peter Skillern said “the announcement today by the Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke that two mine referrals in the Tarkine will be assessed under a bilateral agreement with the Tasmanian Government was unacceptable and showed a clear failure to understand community expectations.”

“It is time for both the State and Federal Governments to recognise that any environmental assessments under the Environment Protection Biodiversity and Conservation Act 1999 act should be undertaken by the Federal Government solely. We have already seen a near disastrous outcome in Queensland when that State was initially permitted to undertake its own assessment, only then to have the Federal Minister intercede at the last moment” he said.

“For the Minister to suggest that these two mine referrals should be assessed as separate projects defies the reality of the situation. These projects are economically contiguous and will, if approved have a cumulative as well as an individual impact on an internationally recognised significant rainforest which is home to a number of threatened species such as the wedge tailed eagle and the white-bellied sea eagle. This trend to abdicating Federal responsibilities to State Governments in critical environmental issues only serves to undermine further the Federal Governments already tarnished record in this area. The community expects better of its elected Federal representatives” said Mr Skillern

Environment Tasmania is committed to proper environmental assessments undertaken under the Environment Protection Biodiversity and Conservation Act by the Federal Government. We look forward to a reassessment of the current view that it is acceptable to pass on this vital role to State Governments who often do not have the expertise or the national vision to adequately make sound decisions.

• BURKE FAILS TARKINE
Mining Bias Undermines Heritage Values