Response to Submissions Tarkine Forest Drive Tasmania Reference: EPBC 2011/6210 Table of Contents 1. Purpose .................................................................................................. 1 2. Background .............................................................................................. 1 3. Submissions Received ................................................................................. 2 3.1 Submission 1 ..................................................................................... 2 3.2 Submission 2 ..................................................................................... 4 3.3 Submission 3 ................................................................................... 10 3.4 Submission 4 ................................................................................... 20 3.5 Submission 5 - The Tarkine National Coalition........................................... 22 3.6 Other non-formal submission ............................................................... 35 4. References ............................................................................................. 36 Appendix A Public submissions Prepared by: ____________________________ Date: 19 December 2012 Dion Lester Reviewed by: ____________________________ Date: 19 December 2012 Ian Woodward Authorised by: ___________________________ Date: 19 December 2012 Dion Lester Report Revision History Rev Description Prepared by Reviewed by Authorised by Date No. 00 Response to Submissions Dion Lester Ian Woodward Dion Lester 13/12/2012 Tarkine Forest Drive Tasmania – Reference: EPBC 2011/6210 Ref: HB09080H002 Response to submissions 33P Rev 01/DL/jw 1. Purpose This Response to Submissions has been prepared by the Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources (DIER), following the public advertising of DIERs Draft Public Environment Report (Draft PER) for the proposed Tarkine Forest Drive in Tasmania’s north west. The Response has been prepared to assist the Commonwealth’s environmental assessment of the road upgrade under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the Act). Following the advertising of the Draft PER for public comment, section 99 of the Act requires that DIER finalises the PER (incorporating any required amendments) and prepares this companion Response to Submissions which is to include at least a summary of public comments and how they have been addressed. The Act requires that DIER provides the final PER to the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water Population and Communities (SEWPaC), along with this Response and copies of any comments after finalising the PER. The Act requires that DIER then publish the finalised PER and this Response within 10 business days of providing them to the Department. Subject to any requests from the Minister for further information, a decision on whether the proposed action will be approved will be due within 40 business days of the Department receiving that documentation. 2. Background On 18 November 2011 a referral for the Tarkine Forest Drive Project was submitted to SEWPaC. The Minister determined that the proposal was a controlled action (EPBC 2011/6210) and that the level of assessment was to be a Public Environment Report (PER) on 3 January 2012 The Minister issued final guidelines for the PER in March 2012. A Draft PER was prepared by DIER in accordance with the PER guidelines. The Draft PER describes the proposal, examines the potential environmental impacts and describes how those impacts will be avoided, mitigated and/or managed. In accordance with section 98(1)(c) of the Act, the Draft PER was made available by DIER for public review and comment. Its availability was advertised in The Australian, The Advocate and The Mercury newspapers. The public review was open from 15 October 2012 until 12 November 2012. The Draft PER was made available for viewing and downloading from the DIER web site (http://www.transport.tas.gov.au/infrastructure_projects/public_displays/tarkine_pu blic_environment_report). Copies of the Draft PER were also made available for viewing at: Circular Head Council offices, 33 Goldie St, Smithton The Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources, 10 Murray St, Hobart Smithton Library, Nelson St, Smithton Service Tasmania, 134 Macquarie St, Hobart Cradle Coast Authority, 30 Marine Terrace, Burnie Ref: HB09080H002 Response to submissions 33P Rev 01/DL/jw 1 The Library of the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, John Gorton Building, King Edward Terrace, Parkes, Canberra. 3. Submissions Received Five public submission on the Draft PER were received. For privacy reasons the names and addresses of each submission author has been omitted. The only exception to this is the organisation - the Tarkine National Coalition. It was deemed necessary to highlighted this submission given the background and also the TNC are on the public record a number of times for this project. This Response to Submissions provides responses to the issues raised in these submissions and describes the revisions made to the PER. The submission comments requiring a response are provided below in blue italic font, with a response directly following the specific points raised. A statement as to the changes required to the Draft PER completes each response. A full copy of each submission can be found in Appendix A. 3.1 Submission 1 We, the undersigned, hereby lodge this written objection to the proposed project and provide in support the following most important reasons for objecting most vigorously. 1. We are totally convinced that the purpose behind these road improvements is to allow access for commercial activities, other than tourism. We are advised that under all the current Laws, irrespective of any World Heritage Listing, the state Government can still carry out forest logging and mining activities. For this reason alone, until these Laws are amended, this proposed heavy duty ‘all purpose’ road will be forever, at the risk of being used to exploit and ruin forever this vast natural wilderness area. Why not just leave the good existing ‘very useable’ roads and only upgrade any needed repairs to reach the same standard and repair or replace any bridges to the same ‘moderate’ standard? Thereby saving the State Government millions of taxpayer’s funds and allows the tourists to see the Tarkine Wilderness as it now is and how it should remain. The existing road not only slows traffic for visitors to view the beauty of the area but also protects the wildlife and must remain, as the last real Tasmanian natural wonder. The Tarkine Forest Drive was conceived as a tourist road (please refer to sections 1.6 & 1.7 of the PER) and directly corresponds with one of the five corridors identified in the Tarkine Tourism Development Strategy, developed in 2008 by the Tarkine Discussion Group. The Tarkine Discussion Group is a key regional representative stakeholder group, consisting of regional tourism bodies, Tourism Tasmania, local government leaders, public land managers and special interest groups, including the Tarkine National Coalition and the Arthur Pieman Conservation Management Committee. The group has been extensively consulted (and continues to be) in the development and planning for the Tarkine Forest Drive. There is considerable uncertainty over the future of Forestry in this region (as a result of the Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement, refer to Figure 1.2 in the PER) and mining (as a result of the potential National Heritage Listing); however, the planning of the Tarkine Road has continued unabated. This is because the Tarkine Forest Road is a tourist road. Ref: HB09080H002 Response to submissions 33P Rev 01/DL/jw 2 The State-owned road network consists of 3,650 km of road. It is a subset of the broader road network that focuses on connectivity and movement functions at State and regional levels. To plan and manage this network within a clear and strategic framework, DIER has adopted a five-tier hierarchy. The hierarchy identifies five categories of roads: Category 1 Trunk Roads - The primary freight and passenger roads connecting Tasmania Category 2 Regional Freight Road - Tasmania’s major regional roads for carrying heavy freight Category 3 Regional Access Road - The main access roads to Tasmania’s Regions, carrying less heavy freight traffic than Regional Freight Roads Category 4 Feeder Road - Allowing safe travel between towns, major tourist destinations and industrial areas Category 5 Other Roads - The remainder of the State Roads. The Tarkine Forest Drive is a Category 5 Other Road. Other Roads are primarily access roads for private properties. Some may be used for comparatively low frequency heavy freight vehicle transport and for log transport but they are not the most important log transport roads, and experience fluctuation in use. The works proposed are the minimum necessary to facilitate safe tourist access – there is certainly no “heavy duty ‘all purpose’ road” proposed. In fact, the design width is 0.6 m narrower (shoulders are each 0.3 m narrower) than DIER’s target standards for a Category 5 road. The existing roads will be improved so that they can facilitate increased and improved tourist access to the area. Moreover, many tourists are denied access to this area as hire car companies do not allow vehicles to travel on gravel roads. DIER has recently assumed responsibility for all of the previously Forestry Tasmania roads that make up