Parks minister says development opponents are ‘bullies’

Parks Minister Peter Gutwein has hit back at opponents of the Lake Malbena proposal, who say the approval process for national park developments is flawed.

THE opponents of the controversial Lake Malbena development are bullies, Parks and Environment and Heritage Minister Peter Gutwein says.

The minister’s comment in state parliament yesterday came after the federal court set aside the federal government’s environmental assessment of the helicopter-serviced luxury standing camp proposal for Lake Malbena, in the state’s Central Highlands.

The court on Tuesday found the Federal Environment Minister had wrongly decided she did not need to assess the development as it was not deemed a “controlled action”.

The judgment also said the state’s Reserve Activity Assessment process, which is used by the Parks and Wildlife Service to assess tourism proposals, had “no apparent statutory basis”.

FEDERAL COURT REVEALS LAKE MALBENA DECISION

Mr Gutwein said opponents were “bullying” the developers.

“They want to have a full-frontal attack on a young Tasmanian family is doing its best to establish a world-class tourism venture that will create job and opportunity for Tasmania.”

“Let me put some facts on the table first and foremost.

“Halls Island has had a lease on it for a long period of time. It is not pristine wilderness – it sits within pristine wilderness, but Halls Island is not.”

“What the judgment does, in simple terms, is it simply sets aside the current federal decision to allows the parties to actually negotiate on the conditions that were brought forward voluntarily by the proponent in first place.

Leader of the state’s Greens Cassy O'Connor. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

The proponent of the development, Daniel Hackett, said the ruling was complex but he was confident the project would proceed.

“My layperson’s take on it is that the project is free to go ahead as proposed,” he told ABC radio.

“It just ensures a belts and braces approach that our avoidance and mitigation measure on impacts are legally binding at a federal level — and they already are at a state level.”

Mr Hackett declined to reveal how much he is paying for the exclusive right to develop the island.

PROPONENTS SAY THREATS HAVE SOURED CASE

Greens leader Cassy O’Connor said the process of approving developments in national parks in Tasmania was flawed.

“This mess was created by the Liberals in government. They politicised the Parks and Wildlife Service, so that it’s bending over backwards to progress developments to enable the work of proponents,” she said.

“What we’ve got here is developments being approved through a process which has been slammed by the federal court as a non-statutory process.

“The Liberals are approving developments through reserve activity assessments, which are written in secret, inside Parks, largely written by proponents themselves.”

[e-mail]