The Minister for the Environment, Tanya Plibersek, left Tasmania after a two-day trip to the takayna / Tarkine having:
• not seen the Masked Owl breeding territory and takayna rainforest whose fate she is about to decide.
• refused Bob Brown Foundation’s offer to show her this threatened forest
• not taken Aboriginal guides on her flight over their heritage coast
• dined with miner MMG, the company set to invade takayna with a waste dump
• afforded Aboriginals and environmentalists one hour at a Burnie office just before she flew out
• made it clear she was not there to answer any questions
• disallowed a media presence or video or sound recording of the meeting.
“We were effectively strangled from giving the minister the insight into the threatened forest and wildlife in takayna. Pro-waste-dump Labor senator Urquhart, who presided over today’s meetings, says Plibersek was there at her invitation, not the environmentalists.”
“It was a beautiful morning in the rainforest with its spring bird calls, fungi, waratahs and flowering native laurel. So we feel Tanya Plibersek has failed a marvellous opportunity to see what is at stake. She is Minister for the Environment, not for mines. She should be preparing takayna’s World Heritage nomination, not its death by a thousand cuts. I told Tanya that, as Australia’s most powerful environmentalist in this extinction crisis, she has a duty to save such a global environmental gem and not let MMG turn it into a waste dump.”
Prime Minister Albanese should intervene and come to takayna to see the targeted forest his minister has ignored.