Don’t erode our state’s very soul

Government must protect Tasmania for its own sake, says Rosemary Sandford

THE extent of the Tasmanian Government’s lack of transparency and its rapacious attitude to our natural environment in the name of “jobs and growth” is alarming.

Incessant promotion of development for the “good” of Tasmania is used to justify unfettered, private tourism developments in our national parks and reserves and our World Heritage Area. This erodes the very essence of Tasmania, its soul.

Our environment and biodiversity are what make Tasmania unique. They differentiate it from mainland states and contribute to its national and international appeal. Once destroyed or altered significantly, there will be no legacy of unspoiled landscapes, clean seas or wildlife for Tasmanians and visitors to marvel at and enjoy. Our natural world will take centuries to recover, if it ever does, in the face of climate change and human activity.

All that is precious and special as we know it will have vanished into the maw of greed, self-interest and power, camouflaged in the State Government’s “open and transparent framework”, the Expression of Interest process. The EOI process is reinforced by the opaque, statewide planning scheme.

“Secret parks deals” whose licence and lease conditions are to remain secret forever ( Mercury, October 24) epitomise the contempt this government has for the community’s right to know what is going on in its public spaces. Tasmania’s natural environment should not be for sale to the rich, the politically powerful or overseas interests.

Our future lies in preservation of the natural world, our remarkable birds and wildlife, our mountains, forests, lakes, streams, wetlands and oceans whose interactions form the basis of life on this green and blue planet. “In wildness is the preservation of the world” (Henry David Thoreau 1817-62), and in the protection of wildness lies the future of our children, grandchildren and their descendants

Scientific evidence of climate change impacts gives a glimpse of what lies ahead. Warming oceans, sea level rise, more severe storms, extinction, and bushfires of the magnitude of the summer of 2019 will become the norm.

Through the orchestrated lack of transparency in public policy, planning and development processes, government is choosing to compound the negative effects of unsustainable development in an era of climate change.

Coal exploration and mining of agricultural land risk water and food security; developments in national parks and coastlines put pressure on vulnerable ecosystems; industrial-scale fish farms pollute our seas and waterways; the unrestrained spread of windfarms risks devastation of endangered raptor and migratory shore birds; and helicopter tourism traffic not only shatters the quiet of wild places, but poses a hazard for birds and wildlife.

All in order to turn a profit for private developers.

Closer to Hobart, we witness construction of a private tourism venture for private gain in a public nature reserve; and approval for residential expansion in the foothills of kunanyi/Mt Wellington. This expansion requires extensive clearing of bird and wildlife habitat to reduce the risk of fire on properties built in areas known for loss of life in 1967.

I believe the Tasmanian Government has a moral obligation to protect the natural environment not for its economic utility, but for its own sake, as well as for future generations. Surely Tasmania’s very essence, its soul, is not for sale?

For a government to offer Tasmania’s soul to the highest bidder is the ultimate betrayal. How do you put a monetary value on soul, and should you? Yet our island’s soul and our future are in jeopardy when secrecy, rather than democracy, becomes the hallmark of government.