“The claim by the Australian Workers Union’s Robert Flanagan that killing a rainforest with a mine waste tailings dam is good for the environment underscores how captured by the corporation this fellow is,” Bob Brown said today.

“The workers’ win-win outcome will be for MMG to treat its waste outside takayna / Tarkine and for the rainforest and its wildlife to survive into the much more barren world the next generation are going to inherit from us. It is a pity this individual is relegating that generation’s interests behind those of this mega-corporation.”

“And today’s claims by the Mining Industry Council that saving the Tarkine’s rare Masked Owls will stop the electric car industry are uninformed piffle. Our foundation has always maintained that the Rosebery mine should keep going but by taking up waste disposal outside the Tarkine.”

“MMG has known about the need for a new tailings disposal option for more than a decade. It has painted itself into a corner by saying it cannot put its tailings back underground. It has also touted other dam options for its wastes outside the Tarkine. This is a bullying company which is unreasonably demanding it get its own way regardless of the public and environmental costs. Minister Plibersek is not responding to approaches from environmentalists, but she should, and must, seriously weigh up the evidence for MMG’s good options outside the Tarkine. Otherwise, she will have the wool pulled over her eyes by this giant bullying corporation,” Bob Brown said.

This will bolster Plibersek’s hand - Bob Brown

The decision of the Federal Court by Justice Mark Moshinsky to uphold Bob Brown Foundation’s challenge to the former Environment Minister’s decision allowing Chinese state-owned miner to commence work on their toxic waste dump in Tasmania’s takayna / Tarkine rainforests, is one of the most significant decisions in environmental law made since the EPBC Act’s inception in 1999.
The Precautionary principle is critical to the environmental assessment of projects when not enough is known about the impacts of a development.

“This decision tells miners, loggers and other big project proponents that they can no longer profit from the uncertainty that follows a lack of quality scientific investigation,” Bob Brown Foundation’s Campaign Manager Jenny Weber said.

“The consequence of this decision for MMG’s mine in northwest Tasmania is significant. MMG must cease work and the new minister, Tanya Plibersek, will need to start the assessment afresh to consider the Tasmania Masked Owl. The Masked Owl was not considered at all in Minister Sussan Ley’s assessment decision made on 6 January 2022,” Jenny Weber said.

“This is huge. It is a judgement of environmental law which will extend beyond Tasmania’s takayna / Tarkine rainforest and its threatened wildlife to threatened environments all across Australia," Bob Brown said.

“It will bolster Tanya Plibersek’s hand in defending threatened species from the Tarkine to Cape York to the Burrup Peninsula.”

“Judge Moshinsky has simply upheld that the precautionary principle, which predicates decisions on the environment by the federal minister, is mandatory. Minister Sussan Ley failed to ensure its application, in particular in relation to the giant Tasmanian Masked Owl. In fact, she overlooked the impact of the loss of forest on the threatened Tasmanian Masked Owl altogether. Her delegate did not bring the ‘active intellectual process’ required in applying the precautionary principle. The minister, totally responsible for the delegate’s decision, failed in her obligation,” Bob Brown said.

“Here is a remarkable opportunity for Tanya Plibersek to right the terrible wrong of Sussan Ley’s failure. The nation’s environmentalists will be counting on her to apply 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 outside the Tarkine, in particular by pulverising them and returning them as paste fill to the mine spaces below,” Bob Brown said.

“The Commonwealth should compensate all of the nearly 100 forest defenders who have been arrested peacefully getting in the way of MMG’s wrongly licensed wrecking operations. They are the environmental citizen heroes who stood firm when the minister and government failed them and the law,” Bob Brown said.

Today is judgement day in the Federal Court of Australia for takayna / Tarkine and its Masked Owls threatened by mining company MMG’s proposed mine waste dump.

At a two-day hearing last week, our legal team asserted that former Environment Minister Ley did not take account of the precautionary principle when approving MMG’s destructive clearing and drilling. Our foundation told the Federal Court that Ms Ley’s decision to allow the mining company to undertake initial work at the proposed site was invalid as she did not properly consider the forest’s status as a feeding and breeding site for Tasmanian Masked Owls.

Tasmania’s Masked Owls are on the path to extinction. If allowed to proceed, MMG will cause serious and irreversible harm to ancient rainforests, melaleuca forests and habitat for rare and endangered species including the Tasmanian Masked Owls. The impact will be permanent and the landscape will be significantly altered.

The minister’s own EPBC act requires her to take account of the precautionary principle. In the case of MMG vs Masked Owls in takayna, the minister did not take the principle into account. The minister failed at the first hurdle.

Regarding the Masked Owl in these threatened forests, the minister claimed there was a lack of survey data by the company. She recognised more survey work was required.

In dealing with a species at high risk of extinction in the medium term, knowing that they’re there, not knowing how many are there, not knowing where they are by 25 references to the works, not knowing enough about the usage of the site, the delegate considered that protective measures were unnecessary despite her knowledge gaps. We say that this is further evidence of an approach that was not cautious and further evidence that whatever it was the delegate was doing – it cannot be described as taking account of the precautionary principle. A cautious approach required a very different conclusion. Kathleen Foley SC on behalf of Bob Brown Foundation.

Based on the evidence, or lack of, before the minister, we argued that her decision was unreasonable, irrational and illogical. The minister knew a species vulnerable to extinction is in this area, knew there’s habitat there, didn’t know how many owls there are or how they’re using the site and didn’t know where they are – and yet concluded it’s not likely to have significant impact.

Our foundation’s campaign scientists have carried out extensive research in these threatened forests for the breeding Tasmanian Masked Owls. They have proven there are breeding owls, that the forest is critical breeding habitat and that clearing for roads and drilling will cause serious and irreversible harm to the owls.

Today, the judge is announcing his decision, along with his reasons for reaching that decision. The undertakings that currently prevent MMG from clearing and drilling will remain in force until the judge makes a formal order dismissing the appeal. Next steps after the judgement today will be orders to resolve the case.

If we win today, it will prove the decision by Minister Ley was flawed, failing to account for the precautionary principle and will set aside that decision. This will compel the new Minister for Environment to make a new decision, which we argue should be to declare the proposed heavy metals tailings waste dump completely unacceptable.

If we lose, we will remain vigilant that Minister Plibersek’s reconsideration decision halts the destruction of takayna / Tarkine for this unnecessary proposal to dump 25 million cubic metres of mine waste into rainforests which are critical Masked Owl breeding habitat.

We have previously called for MMG to move to viable and accepted 21st century solutions like paste fill to dispose of its mine tailings instead of relying on dams, which have a long history of leaking acid.

Today in Koonya, the community met to express their displeasure at Tassal’s plans to restock their sixteen fish farm pens at Long Bay opposite the World Heritage listed Port Arthur Historic Site and next to Tasman Peninsula National Park.

The community is calling on Tassal not to put salmon back in Long Bay based on the recommendations of the legislative Council's finfish review, which explicitly stated that fish farms should be removed from shallow protected waters.

There was a large turnout from the community expressing that they had witnessed the damage that fish farms have already done to the Tasman Peninsula and Long Bay, particularly with algal blooms, nutrient overloading, noise and light pollution.

“The toxic salmon industry has a terrible reputation in the Tasman Peninsula, with all sorts of environmental damage occurring around these beautiful and protected areas. With World Heritage Port Arthur Historic Site right next to where these pens are and with the National Park and Three Capes walk right in view, it's incredible how fish farms were ever allowed to be here,” said Bob Brown Foundation's fish farm campaigner Alistair Allan.

“It's time for Tassal to remove these pens. It’s exactly what the Tasmanian Legislative Council report has recommended. It’s time the government does better.”

“Seeing the outpouring of support for removing these pens from the community, it’s clear that Tassal has lost its social license to be in Long Bay. As the meeting slogan read, it’s time to give back long bay.”

A culmination of two years of investigation has led TIME magazine to publish a piece ending with the emphatic phrase, “For now, transparency, better regulation, and accurate labels on farmed salmon are essential to ensure good choices for our health and the health of our planet. Until that happens, farmed Atlantic salmon from open-net pens is off our menu and should be off yours.”

Although the story is centred around the US market for salmon, the entire investigative piece is a near word-for-word recital of the very same issues that salmon farming has here in Tasmania.

“The world is waking up when it comes to farmed Atlantic salmon and high-intensity, open-pen fish farming. Farmed salmon all around the globe, just like here in Tasmania, leaves a wake of destruction and pollution behind it,” said Alistair Allan, Bob Brown Foundation Marine campaigner.

“It’s the same story; it’s bad for our health, bad for the world’s fish stocks, bad for the environment and it’s cruel to the salmon themselves.”

“In Tasmania, we know firsthand just how shocking salmon farming can be, with the near complete destruction of the once pristine Macquarie Harbour near Strahan. Now TIME magazine is showing that it’s the same the world over.”

“Argentina has banned open-net salmon farms, like the ones we have here in Tasmania, due to their massive environmental impact. It’s time we followed their lead.”

Counsel for mining company MMG ended today’s federal court hearing on MMG’s proposed toxic waste dump in Tasmania’s takayna / Tarkine rainforest by flagging a possible application to the court for a ‘carve-out’ allowing MMG’s works to proceed while judgement is being considered.

“This, in simple terms, means MMG will be asking to potentially damage or destroy any of the large trees, currently protected by the court, which get in the way of its machinery. The large trees are potential habitat, including nesting places, for the Tasmanian Masked Owl which is vulnerable to extinction,” Bob Brown Foundation’s Jenny Weber said today.

On 1 July, the Federal Court’s Justice Moshinsky directed MMG not to use machinery within 15 metres of trees in the rainforest which are one metre or more in diameter. Since then, MMG began driving through these ‘exclusion zones’ but ceased after legal letters were exchanged between the foundation and MMG.

“We will vigorously oppose any application by MMG to roll back the judge’s decision,” Jenny Weber said.

We now await the judgement by Justice Moshinsky.

The hand-wringing and manufactured shock at the State of the Environment Report released today, as after the release of previous similar national and global summaries of the calamity, will once again quickly fade into token action and general dismissiveness, Bob Brown said today.

This is not a failure of the last decade of government. It is a failure of the last century of government, speckled with a few exceptional phases. The last thirty years have seen a parade of environmental recklessness and bloody-mindedness, inescapably tied to corporate capture, including:

• the Keating government’s meek cave-in to the 300 log trucks which illegally blockaded Parliament House in 1995
• PM Howard’s consequent washing of federal hands for the nation’s heirloom forests and wildlife habitat when he signed Regional Forest Agreements with the states in 1997-2001.
• indifference by Labor and the Coalition to repeated calls for climate and biodiversity action by scientists, including more than 100 Nobel laureates in 1993.
• the response to such calls being to increase fossil fuel extraction and forest and woodland destruction
• the failure of governments to give Aboriginal people a veto over mining and other destructive incursions on their land
• the absurdity of rebuffing international attempts to raise Australia’s performance by, for example, declaring the Great Barrier Reef ‘endangered’ as it so obviously is
• the new rush by Labor and Coalition governments to criminalise peaceful environmental protesters as the real villains of our times
• the relegation of World Heritage nominations to the states
• the promoting and subsidising of coal mines, gas fracking and native forest logging, effectively having the public pay for the environmental degradation this report so meekly brings forward.

Bob Brown Foundation is rallying supporters for the protection of takayna / Tarkine rainforest outside the Canberra Press Club today while the Federal Environment Minister releases the State of the Environment Report. Our NSW Campaigner Doro Babeck will rally citizens at 11 am to peacefully demonstrate outside the venue calling for Minister Plibersek to protect Australia’s largest temperate rainforest.

“The State of Environment report highlights inaction by governments to protect Australian species headed for extinction and the loss of critical ecosystems. Minister Plibersek can be the Minister for the Environment that Australia’s environment desperately needs and protects the environment from rapid decline. Minister Plibersek can protect the habitats of Australia’s rare and endangered species,” said Bob Brown Foundation Campaign Manager Jenny Weber.

“In Tasmania’s takayna rainforests, where endemic and threatened species like the giant Masked Owl, Tasmanian devil, and Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle are imminently threatened by new mines, logging and a mine waste dump, Minister Plibersek can save one of the last wild places on Earth. Nominating takayna for the World Heritage listing which it deserves, in terms of both Aboriginal and natural heritage is a long-awaited action to take.

On her desk right now, where environmental harm can be immediately prevented is the mining company MMG’s application to destroy 140 hectares of takayna rainforest and use it as a mine tailings waste repository. MMG needs to adopt the feasible alternative of paste-fill plant outside takayna,” concluded Jenny Weber.

While the Minister releases the State of Environment report today, Bob Brown Foundation is in the Federal Court for a two-day hearing in our case challenging the former Environment Minister Sussan Ley’s flawed approval of the building of 15km of roads and clearing of rainforests and melaleuca forests for 165 drill sites by MMG for their proposed tailings waste dump in takayna.

Former Greens leader and honorary life member of the Australian Conservation Foundation Bob Brown says Prime Minister Albanese should negotiate a climate strategy with the Greens and teals in the new federal parliament.

“Every Green and teal MP was elected with an equal mandate with Labor MPs. It is high-handed and warlike for Anthony Albanese to refuse to negotiate with those MPs voted in by Australians to take stronger action to avert the oncoming tragedies of the climate emergency,” Brown said.

“As a life member of ACF, I am very alarmed that it and the good Greenpeace, as reported in today’s Australian, seem to be backing Labor over the Greens’ and teals’ stronger action commitments and willingness to negotiate. I can understand the Business Council of Australia backing Labor’s strategy but it is passing strange to see these environmental giants in the same camp. Many people who voted for the environment will be stonkered by that line-up,” he said.

“I suspect they have not been fully reported by the Murdoch media which is once again in full flight for coal, gas and forest burning rather than a mature reflection on the growing impacts of the heating atmosphere on every Australian’s wellbeing.”

“PM Albanese may not want to talk with the Greens but he is getting an earful from Pacific Island leaders in Suva about Labor’s weak and unsatisfactory climate change policies, not least its backing of huge coal and gas and deforestation projects.”

“I'm calling on the Albanese government to abandon the Marinus link cable. It's a huge cost to taxpayers, but worse still, a huge financial impost on Tasmanians. Not only has it the potential to break the hydro and turn it into a corporation with a begging bowl, but it will mean much higher power prices for Tasmanians for no benefit to the state. The impact on Tasmania's biodiversity, its forests and its communities is great. People in the Northwest do not want to have massive transmission lines running through their properties, destroying forests and threatening migratory birds. We are losing our sense of place and industrializing the North supposedly for a benefit for the mainland when the whole thing is not beneficial to the climate or economically,” said Christine Milne.

“Hydro Tasmania and the Tasmanian Government have always argued that being linked to the mainland, to the national electricity market, was a good thing. It has been a bad thing. Recently, when power prices surged in the midst of the gas crisis, the Australian energy market operator had to suspend operation of the national electricity market. When that happened, Tasmania effectively disconnected from the national electricity market and our power prices immediately went down. The minute the national electricity market started again the power prices went up. That is a clear indication that being linked to the national electricity market forces power prices up in Tasmania. So not only will we have an increase in power prices because we are linked to the national electricity market and our prices will be set by the Victorian price, but we will also have to recoup the cost of the $2.5 billion that Hydro will have to spend to reorganize Hydro Tasmania for Marinus. As if that is not enough, we will also have to pay for whatever percentage of the $4 billion cost of Marinus that is allocated to Tasmania. This is a disastrous proposition,” concluded Ms Milne.

“We have all imagined that Tasmania had hydro storage capacity to share. In fact, we find it needs $2.5 billion before it's useful to Victoria. This will sink the economics of battery of the nation to Hydro Tasmania and to the Tasmanian people," Professor Bruce Mountain, Director, Victoria Energy Policy Centre said.

“Even if the Commonwealth government paid for the entire network connection, Tasmania still needs to incur a great deal of expenditure on Hydro Tasmania. They'll be left with a corporation that's not more competitive compared to the mainland producers. If you're not more competitive, there's no profits to be had. Even if you pay nothing to ship the product, you have to be able to compete on the underlying production. And if you don't have an advantage in that cost, how you're going to make your money?” said Professor Mountain.

“If the underlying economics of Tasmania and energy was so advantageous, why wouldn’t private developers buy the cable and gain the benefit themselves? That's what they were trying to do with Basslink. They fell flat on their faces with what was then a cheaper interconnector and arbitrage based higher value based business proposition.They need to learn from past eras,” said Professor Mountain.

Professor Bruce Mountain’s presentation to the Australian Conference of Economists 2022