The Guardian 12 December, 2007
Gunns still blazing in pulp mill battle
Peter Mac
The battle over the proposed construction of a massive pulp mill in Tasmania’s pristine Tamar Valley continues with a number of new developments.
Last week a group of concerned law experts, Lawyers For the Forests, called on Peter Garrett, the Minister for the Environment, to reassess the former Howard government’s approval of the mill’s construction. Garrett has refused to do so. However, the matter has been taken to court, in a legal challenge which maintains that Malcolm Turnbull, the former Minister for the Environment, improperly exercised his power because no reasonable person could have made the same decision as he did.
In making that decision, Turnbull relied on information provided to him by the proponents, Gunns Ltd, concerning the nature and amount of effluent that would be produced by the mill.
He also sought the advice of the Commonwealth Chief Scientist, Dr Jim Peacock, who has now been involved in giving the green light to a number of proposals and policies which are highly questionable on environmental grounds.
The challenge claims that on six grounds relating to those issues Turnbull did not have enough information to make an informed decision, did not take into account the damage to the marine environment, and that the conditions he imposed on his approval exceeded the scope of his responsibilities under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Bill.
In a complete reversal of the normal procedure for development proposals, Turnbull stipulated that the scientific testing required as a condition of approval could be carried out while the mill was being constructed, rather than prior to the commencement of construction.
This is tantamount to saying that the mill was acceptable, regardless of the outcome of the tests. In reality, the chances of a future government banning operation of a completed $1.7 billion mill because of failure under scientific testing are extremely remote.
The legal challenge will doubtless be watched with avid interest by both proponents and opponents of the mill project, in the New Year. The Greens, who have resisted the proposal from the outset, have pointed out that they do not actually oppose construction of a pulp mill in Tasmania, but that they oppose the Gunns proposal because it is not chlorine free or "closed loop", and also that it does not produce paper, would utilise timber from old growth forests rather than plantations, and that the mill site in the immaculate Tamar Valley is entirely inappropriate.
The project would involve pumping 30 billion tonnes of effluent into Bass Strait each year, but pollution of the marine environment is not the only basis of objection to the mill’s construction.
The mill’s operations would involve the pulping of 3 million tonnes of wood per annum, much of which would be taken from the valley’s old growth forests, denuding vast areas and endangering many species, such as the wedge-tail eagles and the spotted-tail quolls. The atmosphere in the Valley would be polluted by hydrogen sulphide (rotten egg gas), probably as far away as Launceston, and would make it increasingly difficult for people to breath.
The legal challenge mounted by Lawyers for The Forests provides the Rudd Government with a priceless opportunity to reverse their earlier pre-election decision to accept Turnbull’s decision.
However, even though he called the pre-election approval process "a shambles", Garrett has doggedly refused to make a stand on the principles for which he was famous before he became a Labor politician. Let’s hope that the legal challenge to the mill succeeds in the new year, and that the new Rudd government finally takes a stand on behalf of the people of Tasmania and the nation, rather than on behalf of Gunns, one of Australia’s biggest environmental polluters.