Blue Derby Wild aims for High Court after logging conflict of interest case loss

Blue Derby Wild has lost an appeal to stop native forest logging near the beloved mountain biking trails, but it won’t be the end of the conservation group’s fight. What they plan to do next.

Louise Morris from Blue Derby Wild has described the case as “the fox guarding the hens’ house”.

An environmental group says it will head to the High Court after losing an appeal to stop Tasmanian government logging of native forests near the Derby mountain biking trails.

On Friday, an appeal waged by Blue Derby Wild against logging regulator, the Forest Practices Authority, state government forester Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT), and the Attorney-General – and thrashed out in court a year ago – was dismissed.

The Full Court of the Supreme Court of Tasmania judgment would have meant STT could have immediately started logging the two coupes that have been the subject of the years-long battle.

However Blue Derby Wild flagged on Friday that it wished to apply for an urgent interim injunction to stop this happening while it applied to the High Court.

The group’s lawyer, Angel Aleksov, said it understood the government-owned logger planned to start logging “in the coupes, immediately”.

“Any such action would destroy the subject matter of the dispute,” he said.

STT’s lawyer Bruce McTaggart SC replied that no logging practices were planned until at least Tuesday next week.

Justice Tamara Jago adjourned the matter until Monday, when she will hear arguments for whether an urgent interim injunction application should proceed.

In their published judgment, Justice Tamara Jago and Acting Justice Brian Martin noted one of the coupes, with an area of 43 hectares, had already been logged.

About 25 per cent of the other coupe, which is about 37 hectares in size, has also been logged.

Blue Derby Wild says it will take its case to the High Court after it lost a battle to stop the Tasmanian government logging coupes near the well-loved mountain biking tracks. Picture: Daniel Van Duinkerken

Last April’s appeal hearing came after Blue Derby Wild lost its case at an initial trial in May 2022, but granted an injunction as the court battle waged on.

The group has consistently raised arguments that there was a conflict of interest, an “apprehended bias” in Sustainable Timber Tasmania employees simultaneously working as for the Forest Practices Authority – and certifying their own plans for logging the coupes.

But the judges said that under the Forest Management Act, Blue Derby Wild could not be classified as a “person aggrieved” or as having a special “interest” that would entitle it to take part in contesting the plans – other than being a group that supports “the broad cause of environmental protection and the prevention of logging”.

“For these reasons, the appellant lacks standing to bring the proceedings,” Justice Jago said.

However she said even if Blue Derby Wild did have the standing to bring proceedings, the trial judge was correct in finding “the exercise of the power to certify the plans was not conditioned on the absence of apprehended bias”.

She repeated comments from trial judge, Justice Robert Pearce, that forest practices officers may “also perform duties while balancing competing interests”.

The judgment has been long delayed with one of the judges on the panel, Justice Gregory Geason, stepping down from duties while a criminal case against him is afoot.

Ultimately, the remaining two judges were able to deliver their judgment in Justice Geason’s absence.

Speaking to the Mercury, Blue Derby Wild co-ordinator Louise Morris said the case illustrated the injustice of “the fox guarding the hens’ house”.

“STT staff are both the logger and the regulator, which means they wear two hats,” she said.

“We need proper regulation and we need a clear independent authority and arbitrator.”

Ms Morris said Friday’s judgment was “by no means the end of anything” and that the group planned to lodge a case with the High Court in the coming week.

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