Lid to come off secret parks deals

LAWS will be passed by the state government to increase transparency around development in national parks after years of complaints the process was too secretive.

Parks Minister Jacquie Petrusma has announced the Reserve Activity Assessment process will become mandatory and will be assessed by an independent panel.

The RAAs — used to assess proposals and developments in national parks — have been criticised by the Federal Court for “having no statutory basis”.

Ms Petrusma, pictured, says the new laws will provide for appeals against proposals and will see the publication of all leases and licences over public land.

“These reforms will be robust and give the community full confidence in the decisionmaking around reserved land once implemented,” Ms Petrusma said.

And state parliament on Thursday heard that a new “great walk” proposed for the state’s West Coast would lure inexperienced bushwalkers into an area of ferocious and unpredictable weather.

Parliamentary budget estimates hearings have heard the $37m Tyndall Ranges walk proposal would charge visitors about $570 for a room for three days and two nights of hut access and “half price or less” for camping.

Parks chief Jason Jacobi said 7000 walkers were expected to tackle the walk during the most favourable nine months of the year and projections were it will make a $600,000-a-year profit.

The walk would create 139 jobs during construction and 40 jobs during operation, he said.

But Greens MP Rosalie Woodruff described the walk as a “barely break-even” proposition with “heroic estimates of visitation”.

“We are attracting them into an area where they would find themselves in dangerous areas with unpredictable weather … extremely unpredictable, it rains 216 days a year,” she said.

Ms Petrusma said she had visited the area and it had left its mark on her.

“The feasibility study shows this project will be a massive boost for the West Coast community,” she said.

“There’s something about it that’s so earthy, it just gets deep into your soul.

“The feasibility study showed a benefit of 1.13 for Tasmania as a whole. The benefit for the West Coast community is 12.71.”

She said the walk proposal overlapped with one put forward by former Australian Greens leader Bob Brown

“There’s a lot of similarity between our proposal about what Dr Brown put forward as the Trans-Tarkine trail,” she said.

“Ours is a three-day walk instead of a seven-day walk, which is more feasible.

“This is an initiative that I would think you would warmly welcome.”