Environment groups urge Burke to reject current pulp mill proposal

Joint Media Release
The Wilderness Society Inc
The Australian Conservation Foundation
Environment Tasmania
9 March 2011

Environment groups have urged Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke to reject Gunns’ current proposal to build a pulp mill in Tasmania’s Tamar Valley.

“Environment Tasmania believes the current proposal for the pulp mill is totally unacceptable as it proposes to use native forests, it involves significant pollution of a pristine marine environment in Bass Strait and it has failed to gain a social licence from the community,” said Dr Phill Pullinger, Director of Environment Tasmania.

“The Federal Environment minister, Tony Burke, has before him crucial decisions relating to the mill’s proposed effluent outfall and issues about wood supply – and we urge him to not approve poor conditions – but the question of social licence is not something the federal minister can resolve,” said Don Henry, Executive Director of the Australian Conservation Foundation.

“It is the responsibility of the two Governments to deliver a legitimate, independent, and transparent process, with public participation, to assess the impacts of any major development, including the Tamar Valley Mill,” said Lyndon Schneiders on behalf of the Wilderness Society.

“The fast tracked and discredited Tasmanian process put in place for the Tamar Valley Pulp Mill in 2007 has only delivered division and community opposition,” Mr Schneiders said.

The environment groups noted the Tasmanian Greens’ attempt to repeal the pulp mill legislation, saying this move highlighted the need for the proponents to understand the project does not have a social licence or any form of genuine community support.

Last week Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke announced a week’s extension to the deadline for decision declaring that the company was seeking more stringent environmental controls.

Contacts:
Phill Pullinger, Environment Tasmania
Lyndon Schneiders, The Wilderness Society
Lindsay Hesketh, ACF