An environmental group has been successful in its Federal Court bid to derail plans for a controversial tailings dam within the Takayna/Tarkine rainforest in north-west Tasmania.
Key points:
- The Federal Court says the Morrison government’s initial approval for works at the MMG dam was invalid
- Bob Brown says those who have been arrested during past protests are “heroes” who should be compensated
- The company has yet to respond to the court’s ruling
After a two-day hearing, Mr Justice Mark Moshinsky found the Morrison government’s initial approval for preliminary work on the dam at MMG’s Rosebery heavy metals mine was invalid.
The Bob Brown Foundation argued that former Environment Minister Sussan Ley’s decision to allow work to start on the site was not authorized under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.
Mr Justice Moshinsky told the court that Ms Ley, through her delegate, did not correctly consider the state of the forest to be the habitat of Tasmania’s rare masked owl.
Judge Moshinsky said the threat to the habitat of Tasmania’s rare masked owl had not been properly considered. (Steve Castan/@estebanthenatureman)
“In my view, the delegate failed to comply with the duty to have regard to the precautionary principle,” Judge Moshinksy said.
“To comply with this obligation, it is necessary for the councillor, or in this case the delegate, to consider whether there are threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage.
“I am satisfied that the delegate did not do that.”
He said that while the minister’s delegate identified a number of threats to the owl, they did not come to a conclusion as to whether these threats were “serious or irreversible”.
“In the absence of any discussion or findings on this issue, I infer that the delegate did not consider it,” he said.
The court ruled that the original approval by then Environment Minister Sussan Ley was invalid. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)
Veteran environmental campaigner Bob Brown said the decision was “significant”.
“This is an important decision for the environment,” he said.
“It means that as long as there is not enough information to say that species will not be driven to extinction by a project, that project should wait until that evidence is available.”
Detainees deserve compensation: Brown
Bob Brown says MMG protesters were “heroes” and deserve compensation. (Facebook: Bob Brown Foundation)
He said environmentalists who had campaigned at the site should now be compensated.
“The Commonwealth should compensate all the nearly 100 forest defenders who have been peacefully arrested for impeding MMG’s improperly licensed demolition operations,” he said.
“They are the heroic environmental citizens who stood firm when the minister and the government failed them and the law.”
Brown said Labour’s Tanya Plibersek, as the new environment minister, now had a “remarkable opportunity” to “correct the terrible mistake of Sussan Ley’s failure”.
“The nation’s ecologists will be counting on her to enforce the law and protect this ancient rainforest and all of its threatened wildlife, trees and ecological communities.
“MMG has options to dispose of its acid mine off Tarkine, in particular by pulverizing it and returning it as paste fill to the mine spaces below,” he said.
Conservationists argue that the area has significant environmental heritage values and should be protected. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)
Earlier this year, the foundation lost its attempt to stop preliminary work because the court determined that MMG had pledged to protect the masked owl.
The Chinese-owned company agreed to apply a 15-metre exclusion zone to trees suitable for nesting masked owls, with the trees marked with tape and their GPS coordinates recorded.
Tasmania’s Rosebery Mine, which has been operating since the 1930s, produces zinc, copper and lead concentrates as well as gold ore.
The mine has two existing tailings dams, but a new one is needed for the mine to survive beyond 2024.
South Marionoak, across the River Pieman from the Rosebery mine, is where MMG has proposed to build the dam, which was to have a footprint of 285 hectares.
Judge Moshinksy will issue orders on the project’s next steps in the coming days.
MMG said it would not comment until after the orders were placed.
The federal government must also respond.
The mine’s owners have yet to comment on the court case. (ABC News: Simon Cullen)
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