Conservationist upset over plans for Tiwi Islands

Conservation groups threaten action over planned development, without proper consent, on Aboriginal land.

Conservation groups have threatened legal action over the federal government’s decision to allow a petroleum industry marine supply base that may one day host US warships to be developed on pristine Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory without an environmental assessment.

The Australian has revealed the federal Department of the Environment had ruled the controversial, partly built Port Melville Marine Supply Base on the Tiwi Islands north of Darwin could be finished without assessment if works were done in a “particular manner”.

The project had been on hold since May, when Environment Minister Greg Hunt ordered a snap investigation in response to concerns the port had “opened for business” without any environmental approvals. Construction was ongoing at the time.

The Australian Marine Conservation Society’s northern marine campaigner, Jacqui Taylor, condemned the department’s decision as “outrageous.”

“The chances of environmental catastrophe are very high with 30 million litres of fuel sitting on the water’s edge in a cyclone-prone area,” Ms Taylor said. “A full environmental impact assessment should be the bare minimum required for such a massive scale operation.

“We are looking into legal advice to challenge both the Territory and Commonwealth governments on this decision.”

Acting director of the Environment Centre NT, Anna Boustead, said the “disgraceful decision … makes a mockery of our environmental laws”.

“If this type of development occurred anywhere else in Australia, I have no doubt that the Minister would require environmental assessment,” Ms Boustead said.

But a spokesman for Mr Hunt said the project had received a “rigorous and thorough” review and was unlikely to pose a risk.

“The Department of the Environment has conducted a rigorous and thorough review of the Port Melville Marine Supply Base proposal to see whether it needed to be assessed under national environment law,” the spokesman said.

“The proposal was found to be unlikely to have a significant impact on matters protected under national environmental law provided it is undertaken in a particular manner.”

The comments are significant because Mr Hunt is required under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to have a reasonable belief development works will be carried out in the specified manner before assessment can be waived.

Singapore-based developer Ezion (which later sold the project to AusGroup) failed to refer Port Melville to be considered for assessment before construction began, sparking Mr Hunt’s investigation.

Head of the NT Environmental Protection Agency, Bill Freeland, said at the time that both companies had failed to “abide by the spirit” of NT environmental law, although his agency ultimately also deemed the project required no further assessment, as revealed last week.

Federal opposition environment spokesman Mark Butler said controversy over the Port Melville project raised “serious questions” about the Coalition’s plans to hand responsibility for environmental approvals to state-based “one stop shops.”

Dr Freeland said earlier this year that his agency lacked the power to enforce its decisions.

The federal Department of the Environment review included consideration of the impacts of the “potential impact of fuel storage and use on terrestrial and marine species, the potential impact of increased vessel traffic on marine species including turtles, dugongs, dolphins, whales and migratory shorebirds, and the potential impact of light pollution on marine turtles”, Mr Hunt’s spokesman said.