Nick McKim MP | Greens Parks spokesperson
Commonwealth Environment Minister Greg Hunt has left the Tasmanian government completely isolated in its plan to allow logging and mining in Tasmania's World Heritage Area.
The United Nations has come down on the state government like a ton of bricks, and now Mr Hunt has failed to support plans for logging and mining. What more will it take for the Tasmanian government to see reason?
The state government's representative in Bonn will now be alone in arguing for logging and mining in the TWWHA. Minister Matthew Groom now has no option but to withdraw his plan and redraft it to ensure proper protection of natural and cultural heritage values.
If the state government fails to see reason, there is a real risk that the United Nations will declare the WHA as 'in danger', which would be an extreme international embarrassment for Tasmania and Australia.
Logging and mining in an area that has been protected for all of humanity for its outstanding universal values is like bulldozing the pyramids of Egypt and using the rubble as road gravel. It simply beggars belief.