Environment groups have criticised federal environment minister Tony Burke for ignoring a recommendation to make Tasmania’s Tarkine rainforest a protected heritage area.
The Tarkine National Coalition has accused Burke of suppressing a report by the Australian Heritage Council, which said the government should create a Tarkine National Heritage Area. The report has since been leaked.
Tarkine National Coalition’s Campaign coordinator Scott Jordan told the March 9 Tasmanian Times: “The minister has ignored and hidden the Australian Heritage [Council’s] recommendation, and this leaked copy of the report makes it clear that he has betrayed the legitimate protection of the Tarkine to mining development.”
The Tarkine, which covers about 430,000 hectares in Tasmania’s northwest, is Australia’s largest temperate rainforest.
Tasmanian Greens MP Paul O’Halloran said state and federal governments must “stop procrastinating on this issue and enshrine the world-class Tarkine region on the National Heritage Register and protect it as a National Park, to protect the unique sanctuary that it is”.
But Tasmanian Labor ministers have backed Burke’s decision. State resources minister Bryan Green told the Tasmanian parliament he would not rule out allowing mining in the Tarkine, ABC Online said on March 9.
“The [Tasmanian] government will continue to work with these proponents from the mining sector to ensure we give those projects the best opportunity,” Green said.