‘Tarkine showdown’: Clock ticking until Tanya Plibersek delivers mine dam decision

The clock is ticking until federal politician Tanya Plibersek hands down a decision that could precipitate a “showdown” for Tasmania’s most heated environmental conflict in years.

Bob Brown Foundation's Jenny Weber. Picture: Luke Bowden

The clock is ticking until federal politician Tanya Plibersek hands down a decision that could precipitate a “showdown” for Tasmania’s most heated environmental conflict in years.

In the coming months, Ms Plibersek is expected to make her announcement over whether she approves of Chinese mining company MMG’s plans to build a waste dam in the Tarkine.

Jenny Weber, campaign manager for the Bob Brown Foundation, said environmentalists were nervously counting down the days since a public comment period closed last Wednesday.

“It’s a terribly stressful time,” Ms Weber said.

“We don’t like to be naive about the powers of vested interests and we’re very concerned about what it means for those forests.”

She said the federal environment minister’s announcement could go one of four ways, including approval for the dam with conditions, which environmentalists say would be the “worst outcome”.

Federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek is expected to soon hand down a decision over a controversial Tarkine development. Picture: NCA Newswire/Gaye Gerard

Ms Plibersek could also “stop the clock” by delaying a decision and calling on the company for more information.

She could also rule the proposed South Marionaok dam is a controlled action under Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, and order an environmental impact statement that could be a year in the making.

Ms Weber said environmentalists had been lobbying for Ms Plibersek to choose a fourth outcome - to announce the plans were “clearly unacceptable” and “shouldn’t proceed”.

Environmentalists have now spent years protesting the dam, in a large-scale, ongoing campaign featuring the likes of 1980s band Goanna, arguing the area is habitat to several threatened species including the Tasmanian masked owl, the swift parrot, the Tasmanian devil, the wedge-tailed eagle and the spotted quoll.

A wedge-tailed eagle in August 2023 , which environmentalists say they spotted in the Tasmanian Tarkine forest, between Pieman and Helilog Road. This bird is a four-year-old female. Picture: Adam Hardy, Bob Brown Foundation

Ms Weber said protesters were moving back to the Tarkine this Wednesday, to hold a vigil as they waited for a decision, and to run a “training camp” on how to defend the forests.

“It’s our way of occupying the space but not putting out a red alert that the machines are coming,” she said.

“We’re aware that if we sit in our offices in Hobart and wait, it could happen very quickly.”

Ms Weber said environmentalists were not “holding out much hope” given Ms Plibersek was under a “controversial cloud” of approving coal mines and Darwin’s Lee Point development.

“We know the power of the mining industry and their power over politics,” she said.

Ms Weber said she was also concerned the Tasmanian government would start using its new anti-protest laws for the first time in the midst of a “Tarkine showdown”.

“We’re very on-alert,” she said.

“We’re 100 per cent ready to roll out protests.”

Ms Plibersek’s office confirmed the decision would be handed down in the latter part of 2023.

MMG has been contacted for comment.

Follow @ambervwilson