The Joint Strategic Action Plan (JSAP) signed by the Hodgman government’s minister for the environment Matthew Groom and Tourism Industry Council Tasmania’s supremo Simon Currant is selling into slavery the once-proud Tasmanian Parks And Wildlife Service environmentalist Bob Brown said today.
The public, media and environment groups were excluded from the JSAP’s secret formulation.
The role of Minister Groom in the arrangement with Mr Currant will be referred to Tasmania’s Integrity Commission by Brown’s environmental foundation. “The real question here is whether the Hodgman government can remove the Integrity Commission’s investigative role before this deal gets the scrutiny it deserves,” Brown said.
“How can a deal which subordinates the Parks and Wildlife Service’s vision of wild and scenic heritage protection for the Tasmanian community to the interests of private sector developers be in the public interest?” Brown asked.
The JSAP requires the PWS to identify opportunities for private capital investment in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area and national parks and protected heritage areas. “This is prostituting the Parks and Wildlife Service to Mr Currant and his Council in a way that has never happened before. The ideals of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, set up by the more eco-ethical Bethune Liberal government in 1971, are out the window,” Brown said.
“In the same week that the Hodgman government announced a $30 million public subsidy to debt-ridden Forestry Tasmania, it announces this plan to effectively privatise the mission of the Parks and Wildlife Service. This is a perversion of public interest priorities. The Tasmanian public is the big loser.”
“Meanwhile, magnificent tourism development opportunities such as the Wellington Range Walk, Tarkine river rafting and eco-education, Lake Pedder restoration and West Coast Range lookouts are being ignored by the TCIT and Hodgman government because they are not inside the World Heritage Area”, Brown added.
The Bob Brown Foundation’s Jenny Weber
