South Sister campaign withdraws from hearing

Issue 

Alex Bainbridge, Hobart

The Save Our Sisters campaign group has been forced to withdraw from a Resource Management Planning Appeals Tribunal hearing because the law is stacked against "small fish" in favour of corporate interests, according to campaigner Frances Daily. The appeal was due to begin on October 3.

The law under which the appeal would have been heard places a high burden of proof on the campaigners, who are trying to prevent logging from occurring at South Sister near St Marys on Tasmania's east coast.

Daily told Green Left Weekly that Forestry Tasmania could make claims in the reports it produces without having to provide conclusive evidence that would substantiate the claims. The Save Our Sisters group, on the other hand, had to provide such evidence to successfully appeal, even though in some cases such evidence may realistically take years to obtain.

This burden of proof meant that the case hinged around only one of several areas of concern — the threat of landslides if logging went ahead. "We had two landslide experts who both said initially that a landslide was likely to occur if [logging] went ahead", Daily told GLW.

In the face of last minute evidence from Forestry Tasmania, "one of the experts said he would have to downgrade the risk [assessment] from 'likely' to 'possible'", she said. The other expert still believes the risk is likely and that "likely" and "possible" are "technically the same, but legally different", Daily added.

Both experts and the campaign group still consider there is a real risk and are disappointed the appeal couldn't continue. However, an adverse finding at the hearing would have made the campaign group liable to pay Forestry Tasmania's costs — an untenable prospect.

The Save Our Sisters group will try every avenue to stop the logging, but the remaining options are "long shots", said Daily. The group will appeal to resource minister Bryan Green to stop the logging because the project "is worth only $150,000 [to Forestry Tasmania], which it already would have spent, but to the St Marys community the cost is unmeasurable".

From Green Left Weekly, October 12, 2005.
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