Australia’s most senior judge gives final word on long-running logging dispute at Derby

Logging of native forests is set to resume near the famed Derby mountain bike trails after an environmental group failed in its bid to escalate its battle to the High Court.

Blue Derby Wild has lost its bid to appeal in the High Court over Tasmanian government logging coupes near Derby’s well-loved mountain biking tracks. Picture: Daniel Van Duinkerken

Logging of native forests is set to resume near the famed Derby mountain bike trails after an environmental group failed in its bid to escalate its battle to the High Court.

On Tuesday, lawyers for the group in question - Blue Derby Wild - applied for special leave to appeal a decision made earlier this month in the Supreme Court of Tasmania.

But its application was refused.

The Tasmanian judgment, and now the High Court refusal, means Tasmania’s state government forester, Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT), has free reign to immediately continue logging the two coupes that have now been the subject of a dispute lasting years.

Sitting in Canberra, the most senior judge in Australia said he agreed with the Full Court of the Supreme Court of Tasmania that Blue Derby Wild did not have “standing” to take part in the fight.

Chief Justice of Australia Stephen Gageler said as a result, he would not hear an appeal from Blue Derby Wild.

That means the environmental group cannot contest STT’s logging plans, as it did not have a special interest in the logging operations or was a “person aggrieved”, other than being a group supporting the broad notion of environmental protection.

The ruling also means Blue Derby Wild will not get to argue its long-held “conflict of interest” and bias case - that STT employees wore “two hats” by simultaneously working for the Forest Practices Authority – and by certifying their own plans for logging the coupes.

Group coordinator Louise Morris has described STT as being both the logger and the regulator, which she said was like “the fox guarding the hens’ house”.

Blue Derby Wild coordinator Louise Morris says the High Court decision is “deeply disappointing”. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Suzette Weeding, STT’s general manager of conservation and land management, said the High Court decision was “further vindication” of the Tasmanian forest practices system and confirmed “the legality of forest operations in Tasmania’s public production forests”.

Newly-installed Business, Industry and Resources Minister Eric Abetz also celebrated the win.

“The decision provides further confidence that Tasmania’s forest practices system is well-managed, robust, and best practice,” he said.

“Tasmania’s forestry families can rest assured the Tasmanian Liberal government will always back them.”

Ms Morris the result was “deeply disappointing”.

“What’s most disappointing from a legal standpoint is the issue of bias in our view has not been tried at all,” she said.

She also said it was deeply troubling that community organisations, “who are not corporations or making money” from logging, did not have standing to challenge logging practices.

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