I am concerned that the state and federal government are in the process of delegating commonwealth environmental approval powers to the Tasmanian government, with minimal public awareness/scrutiny or debate in Tas.
There is a current call for public comment on a draft bilateral approval agreement, but apart from one small ad in the mercury there doesn’t seem to have been any public attention to this very important issue.
If signed, this agreement would remove the veto power used by the Federal Government to stop the Franklin Dam.
The Tas govt does not have the necessary political will, independent regulatory agency structures (eg compliance and monitoring) resources or systems in place to take on these national legal approval powers to protect nationally significant matters, like world heritage values. The Tas EPA has never been keen on this.
I am a public servant and therefore unable to write publicly on this myself.
Please help draw attention to this issue and encourage people to look at and submit comments on the draft agreement – 11 sept is the deadline. The Federal environment minister is legally required to consider all comments.
http://www.environment.gov.au/topics/environment-protection/environment-assessments/bilateral-agreements/tas
John
