While Gunns Ltd struggles to secure finance for its controversial Tamar Valley pulp mill which labours under a cloud of doubt over its environmental impacts and diminishing public support, a further challenge to its future is being played out in a Victorian court. This challenge has ramifications not just for the pulp mill, but for environmental regulation across Australia. The Melbourne-based group, Lawyers for Forests, is challenging the approval of Gunns’ pulp mill by former federal environment minister Malcolm Turnbull. The arguments are complex, but at their centre is the question of whether Commonwealth environment law allows the Minister to approve the mill and then require further testing to see what the impact of the effluent from the mill would be.

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Mr Rudd described the SMEC report into four new dams to pump water to Queensland as being full of assumptions and generalisations. “There’s no site visits, no costings, it looks to me as though it’s been done on Mr Turnbull’s kitchen table.” Mr Albanese said that various solutions to Queensland’s water shortage were already underway, including the largest project for greywater recycling in the southern hemisphere, a desalination plant at Tugun, and better water efficiencies.

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Updated on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 09:25AM by stevem

PETER Garrett’s political credentials were in tatters last night after Kevin Rudd forced his environment spokesman to issue a humiliating clarification of Labor’s greenhouse gas policy. The backdown came after a Labor crisis meeting, which followed a day of sustained assault by John Howard and senior ministers on Mr Garrett’s approach to a new post-Kyoto climate accord. Mr Garrett started the day by committing a Labor government to signing a new global agreement on greenhouse gas emissions targets that might not include developing nations, such as China and India.

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Updated on Friday, October 12, 2007 at 10:31AM by stevem

Dear Members and Friends, Firstly, thank you to everyone that has already reacted to our last email and sent messages voicing their concerns. We still need your help in order to win this campaign…….in three ways- 1. We need to send letters petitioning the federal Minister for the Environment not to approve this proposal (attached). The attached letter can be sent to Malcolm Turnbull in its entirety as a form of petition. Alternatively, you can draft your own letter and send it to the same address. It is essential that you include your name, signature and postal address or it will not be accepted as a true letter of petition.

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QUEENSLAND’S Traveston Dam is looming as the next environmental flashpoint, with an impact statement to be released in the middle of the federal election campaign. The prospect of the EIS being released during the campaign comes as the Prime Minister yesterday branded Labor’s environment spokesman Peter Garrett “pathetic” over his stance on the Gunns pulp mill in Tasmania. Deputy Premier Paul Lucas yesterday confirmed the long-awaited environmental report on the unpopular $1.7 billion, 180,000-megalitre dam near Gympie would be released as promised this month. “The process remains on track, it has not been delayed,” Mr Lucas said.

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Updated on Friday, October 5, 2007 at 12:29PM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, October 6, 2007 at 11:01AM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, October 6, 2007 at 11:09AM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, October 6, 2007 at 11:12AM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, October 6, 2007 at 11:15AM by stevem

Updated on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 09:07AM by stevem

The Queensland Greens have warned the decision to approve a pulp mill in Tasmania’s Tamar Valley has paved the way for the Traveston Dam. “Today’s pulp mill decision is yet another approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act for a proposal which will damage the environment,” said environmental lawyer and Greens Senate candidate for Queensland, Larissa Waters. “In the seven years of the EPBC Act, there have been only three projects refused. “It now seems likely that the Minister (Malcolm Turnbull) will approve the Traveston Dam by imposing conditions, such as a fishway which is meant to enable lungfish to travel through impoundments via a ladder system.

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FEDERAL Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull has approved the controversial $1.9 billion pulp mill project in Tasmania, with 48 conditions imposed upon it. Mr Turnbull has announced the findings of a review of the proposed mill in the Tamar Valley, near Launceston in Tasmania’s north, which would pump 64,000 tonnes of effluent a day into the Bass Strait.

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Opponents of the $2 billion project reacted with outrage yesterday after the federal Environment Minister revealed that Gunns had been briefed on the contents of the Peacock report into the marine and threatened species impact of the mill. “I suspect some deal is being done, otherwise why hasn’t the Peacock report been released publicly for all of us to see?” former Howard adviser and anti-mill campaigner Geoffrey Cousins told The Australian. Mr Cousins, a leading business figure, said he feared Mr Turnbull was horse-trading with Gunns, just as the Tasmanian Government allowed the company to amend state operating permits.

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The federal Government will spend $50 million to develop a national groundwater action plan, which will include an investigation into underground dams, as well as the potential of vast water resources in aquifers in northern Australia. Some of the money will also be used to improve the management of groundwater resources that cross state borders. Under the plan, a working group will assess sites suitable for managed aquifer recharge.

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Updated on Thursday, September 27, 2007 at 11:54AM by stevem

ENVIRONMENT Minister Malcolm Turnbull is under increasing pressure to make a quick decision in favour of the Tasmanian pulp mill after new Liberal polling showing a jump in the party’s support in the crucial seat of Bass. Although Labor remains ahead, the Liberals are now far more confident of their chances of retaining the seat and say they can cement their momentum by giving the mill formal approval before the election. Liberal strategists dismiss any suggestion this could put Mr Turnbull at risk in his Sydney seat of Wentworth despite a high-profile campaign led by former advertising executive Geoff Cousins to hold the Environment Minister accountable.

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