Media release – The Wilderness Society Tasmania, 13 April 2021
Secrecy, Rule Bending & Watering Down Are How Tasmania’s National Parks Are Being Privatised
A new ABC report that reveals the full list of previously-secret tourism proposals for Tasmania’s national parks, many within the world’s highest-rated World Heritage wilderness area, is symptomatic of the secrecy that veils the push to privatise the island’s public national parks.
The Wilderness Society Tasmania is calling for the Tasmanian Government to publish the full and current list of tourism proposals for public national parks (which we understand it can do, despite being in caretaker mode).
“The reason that these proposals are hidden from the public is because there is no social licence for the privatisation of our World Heritage Area and national parks*,” said Tom Allen for the Wilderness Society Tasmania.
“These projects don’t have a social licence to operate and, in our view, would be non-starters without secret deals and Government assistance to coach them through the planning process, which is itself being watered down so that local communities having less of a say.
“The reported financial disparities between the costs of these private leases suggests an ad hoc approach to appreciating and valuing public land that is priceless in terms of World Heritage wilderness but valuable to those who want to privatise and seek to profit from it.
“Given we’re in an election, we’re calling for all parties and independent candidates to commit to scrapping the parks privatisation policy, the tourism EOI process it sets up and to manage nature tourism with ecological integrity, transparency and public collaboration.
“If the next government wants the island to be a global ‘eco tourism’ destination this will be achieved if nature tourism is managed with ecological integrity, transparency and public collaboration, not by secretly privatising national parks, rule bending and watering down regulations against social licence,” said Mr Allen.
* Of the 940 public EPBC submissions & the 1,343 public submissions to Central Highlands Council, about five submissions were in support.
Unidentified backpacker looks out to sea from Three Capes Track, southern Tasmania. Image courtesy Parks And Wildlife Service/Tasmanian Government.
ABC: Nearly half of Tasmania’s development proposals for wilderness areas have not been disclosed to the public.
Recreational fishers and environmentalists have accused the major political parties of turning Tasmania into a “development wonderland” as more details of secret tourism proposals are revealed.
Documents obtained by the ABC show the Tasmanian government has received almost 60 proposals for tourism developments in wilderness areas, but only 30 have been disclosed.
Other documents reveal amounts paid to lease parts of areas such as Three Capes Track and Cradle Mountain range from between one cent to $20,000 per quarter.
Among those yet to be made public are proposals for a campground and huts at Mount Field in the state’s south, a cable car at Mt Owen on the west coast, and an eco-pod and motorhome facility at Freycinet, on the east coast.
Documents show those proposals as among 10 sitting with the Office of the Coordinator-General. It is not clear from the documents whether they will progress; none have been updated since 2019.
Media release – Cassy O’Connor MP | Greens Leader and Parks spokesperson, 13 April 2021
Liberals and Labor Back Secretive Wilderness Destruction
Tasmanians have long known the EOI process is a stinky exploitative process, initiated by the Liberals and supported by the Labor Party that would degrade Tasmania is wilderness, and privatize its priceless treasures.
Despite that, revelations there are 60 Expressions of Interest for tourist developments in public protected areas will shock many. This is a process that is completely hidden from the people of Tasmania.
Where are the remaining proposals, and at what scale? What assurances have been made to potential developers? What values will be compromised by developers to make a profit at the expense of wilderness?
Tasmanians from all walks of life care about our island home’s unique wilderness. They recognize this is an assault on public protected areas designed to shut them out in favour of the Liberals’ developer friends.
The Greens are proud defenders of lutruwita/Tasmania’s wild places. We have strongly opposed the Liberals’ secretive, corrupted EOI process. It’s becoming clearer and clearer just how secretive it is.
Unlike Labor, we will not stand by in silence while this government does its best to destroy this island’s globally significant wilderness and ignores communities disenfranchised and angered by the EOIs.
A strong tourism industry, with environmental integrity, is crucial in providing jobs for Tasmanians – particularly in regional areas. The Liberals’ plan would erode everything that underpins that and makes this state unique in the world.
The EOI process not only degrades wilderness, it undermines the tourism industry and the hard won globally recognised, clean green brand.
Rather than supporting businesses around the state in an open and transparent way, the Liberals have been running dodgy backroom deals through the Office of the Coordinator General. The information that has come to light over the last seven years has primarily been made public through whistleblowers or lengthy Right to Information requests undertaken by the Greens.
What we have found out has been shocking. The Liberals gifted an “exclusive possession” lease of an entire island in the World Heritage area to a private company for just $80 a week.
Many Tasmanians – from all walks of life – care deeply about lutruwita/Tasmania’s wilderness. For every person who wants to see these special places properly protected, there is only one choice this election – voting Green.
