Statement – Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA), 29 June 2021
Calls for law change to ensure transparency around development in Wilderness World Heritage Areas
A change to the law is needed to ensure transparency around private development in environmentally significant parts of Tasmania, says the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA).
“Greater transparency is needed around the development approval process,” said Greg Barns SC, spokesperson, ALA. “The current Expression of Interest program for development inside our national parks has been secretive and controversial, and we need to make change to ensure the public can have confidence in the process.”
“Our World Heritage Areas are incredibly valuable and it is critical that any development is progressed with complete transparency. We have international obligations to protect these sites and so it is especially important that the development process cannot be influenced by politics or personal connections.”
ALA member and barrister Fabiano Cangelosi has drafted a Bill which makes a small change to the Right to Information Act 2009 to prevent some exemptions for disclosure from applying to information relating to such developments.
“This amendment will ensure transparency in development proposals for certain environmentally significant areas,” said Mr Barns SC. “It is an important issue of governance and political accountability, and can be addressed with this recommended change to the existing Act.”
“Transparency around developments in World Heritage Areas is critically important, and the public interest is always in favour of disclosure. The amendment would allow anyone concerned about these developments to apply for disclosure, and this would allow and encourage public debate.
“We urge the Government to make this change to ensure an open and fair planning process.”
Media release – The Wilderness Society Tasmania, 29 June 2021
Wilderness Society Tasmania Welcomes Legal Push For Greater Transparency On Parks Privatisation
The Wilderness Society Tasmania has welcomed a legislative amendment that would significantly improve transparency around the continued push for the privatisation of public National Parks by Tasmania’s Gutwein Government.
The amendment has been proposed by leading Tasmanian barrister Greg Barns SC in his capacity as a representative of the Australian Lawyers Alliance. The amendment would end the exemption of “proposed use or development in a conservation area, national park, nature recreation area, nature reserve, public reserve, reserved land, or State reserve” from Tasmania’s Right to Information Act 2009.
“The fact that developments in national parks and other public reserves are currently exempt from Tasmania’s Right to Information Act is a shocker and is a critical part of the veil of secrecy behind which the ongoing push for public parks privatisation operates,” said Tom Allen for the Wilderness Society Tasmania.
“Ending this exemption would allow the disinfecting light of public interest to shine into the murky parks privatisation regime and to give the public a new foundation to know what’s happening to their public nature reserves, including National Parks and World Heritage wilderness.
“We also need to focus on one of the most suspect parts of the tourism expression of interest process, ‘guiding principle’ five. This clause allows tourism development proposals to be submissitted even if they are not compliant with the statutory Management Plan. As this Plan derives from the national Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, it’s hard to see how the provision is constitutional.
“It’s now over to the Tasmanian Parliament to make this public-interest amendment law,” said Mr Allen.
Proposed Right to Information Act Amendment.
