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Power & Environmental Policy : Tasmanian Ecopolitics from Pedder Power & Environmental Policy: Tasmanian Ecopolitics from Pedder to Wesley Vale. bY Catherine M. Crowley" B. Arts, (Mon.), Dip. Ed., (Rusden) & Dip. Rec., (Phillip Inst.). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Political Science, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia, May 1994. 1 all other publications by the name of Kate Crowley. Statements This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any tertiary institution. To the best of the candidate's knowledge and belief, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis. This thesis may be available for loan and limited copying in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968. v1/1274 Catherine M Crow elf - Date ii Power and Environmental Policy: Tasmanian Eco politics from Pedder to Wesley Vale Abstract It is argued that the realisation of ecopolitical values, interests and demands is inevitably constrained by material interests within advanced industrial societies. The policy environment in the state of Tasmania is examined, and both a traditional affirmation and accommodation of the goals of industrial development, and a resistance to the more recent ecopolitical challenge to established state interests is found. However, a review of four key environmental disputes finds that the politics of ecology ('ecopolitics'), despite routine constraint by material interests, continues to defy predictions of its inevitable demise as a 'single issue', and continues to gain ground as an ideological force in Tasmania. In reviewing the capacity of environmentalists to realise their aims (i) the nature and significance of the ecopolitical challenge is considered; (ii) ideological contention as a constraint in the realisation of ecopolitical interests is examined; (iii) the limits of state response to ecopolitical demands are reviewed; (iv) the political expression of conflicting values over two decades of Tasmanian ecopolitical conflict are examined; and (v) the Tasmanian tradition of underwriting industrial development is found to have acted as a 'policy paradigm' confining state action on environmental issues. A policy based framework of analysis is adopted that acknowledges ideological, political and institutional constraints, and is informed by (i) ecopolitical theory, given the deficiencies of traditional policy analysis in capturing the nature of the ecopolitical challenge, and (ii) power analysis in addressing policy constraint. -This framework recognises ecopolitics as a struggle between value contenders, and ecopolitical demands as potentially limited by the constraining influence of dominant values and industrial interests. This framework is applied to analysis of the Lake Pedder, Franklin River, Electrona silicon smelter and Wesley Vale pulp mill disputes. These disputes are detailed in Chapter Four, then reviewed in Chapter Five in terms of the nature of the environmental values at stake, the accommodation or frustration of these values, and the actions of the state in resolving the disputes. Whilst the ecopolitical challenge is not found to have been contained in Tasmania, environmental demands are nevertheless found to have been constrained by material values, the accommodation of industrial interests, and the institutionalisation of the traditional pursuits of development and resource exploitation. Power and Environmental Policy: Tasmanian Eco politics from Pedder to Wesley Vale Acknowledgments Peter Hay, Ralph Chapman and Peter Larmour have successively supervised me through this thesis with great interest and assistance for which I thank them. I would also like to acknowledge a debt of gratitude to the staff and students at the Centre for Environmental Studies at the University of Tasmania, where I began my research, and where I enjoyed great companionship and intellectual challenge. Bob Burton deserves warm thanks for his insightful critiques of my work, Peter Walker for his help both with my Elect rona research and for his excellent proof reading, and Melva Truchanas for her enthusiasm and kind support. My dearest thanks go to my family, and to my partner Jerry de Gryse. Map preparation is by Jerry de Gryse. if iv Power and Environmental Policy: Tasmanian Eco politics from Pedder to Wesley Vale TABLE OF CONTENTS Statements ii Thesis Abstract iii Acknowledgments iv Table of Contents List of Maps, Tables & Appendices vii Chapter One: Introduction 1.1 The Greening of Tasmania? 1 1.2 Research Aims, Content and Limitations 6 1.2.1 Argument & Aims 7 6 1.2.2 Thesis Structure & Content 9 1.2.3 Sources, Scope & Limitations 12 1.3 The Tasmanian Ecopolitical Context 15 1.3.1 'South of the Smallest Continent' 15 1.3.2 Hydro-industrial Dreaming 17 1.3.3 The Politics of Power 19 1.4 Conclusion - Power & Environmental Policy Analysis 20 Chapter Two: The Political Challenge of Environmental Values 2.1 Chapter Outline 22 2.2 Environmentalism and its Political Imperatives 23 2.2.1 Dominant & Environmental Values 23 2.2.2 Difficult Shades of Green 26 2.2.3 Transforming Industrialism? 29 2.2.4 The Limitations of 'Issue Attention' 33 2.2.5 Legitimation & the Clash of Values 37 2.2.6 The Persistence of the Ecopolitical Challenge 40 2.3 The Boundaries of Ideological Constraint 44 2.3.1 The Difficulty of Influencing Policy 44 2.3.2 The Power of Industrialism 48 2.3.3 Communicative Distortion as Policy Privilege 51 2.3.4 Rationality, Domination and Bias Mobilisation 55 2.3.5 Greening the Policy Margins? 58 2.3.6 Beyond Ecopolitical Constraint 63 2.4 Ecological Integrity and the Role of the State 66 2.4.1 The Logic of Ecological Integrity 66 2.4.2 Crisis and the 'Neo-Hobbesian' Response 69 2.4.3 Beyond the Leviathan State 72 2.4.4 Environmental Theories of the State 75 2.4.5 The Contradictions of Ecology 80 2.4.6 The Ecologically Sustainable State? 83 2.5 Conclusion - The Quest for Ecological Justice 87 Power and Environmental Policy: Tasmanian Eco politics from Pedder to Wesley Vale Chapter Three: The Problem of Environmental Policy Analysis 3.1 Chapter Outline 89 3.2 Environmental Policy Analysis 90 3.2.1 The Nature of the Environmental Problem 90 3.2.2 The Problem of Environmental Analysis 93 3.2.3 Crenson & the Un-Politics of Air Pollution 96 3.2.4 Sandbach & Environment, Ideology and Policy 100 3.2.5 Blowers & Power in the London Brick Dispute 104 3.2.6 Hill et al & Policy Inaction on Pollution Control 107 3.3 Explaining Policy Constraint 112 3.3.1 The Role of Power & Causality 112 3.3.2 The Explanatory Limits of Pluralism 115 3.3.3 Power in Three Dimensions 119 3.3.4 The Value of Corporatism 122 3.3.5 Reviewing Ideological Constraint 125 3.3.6 Syntheses of Power Approaches? 128 3.4 Frameworks of Analysis 133 3.4.1 Power and Policy Analysis 133 3.4.2 Macro, Middle & Micro Levels of Analysis 136 3.4.3 Downey's Categories of Analysis 139 3.4.4 The Policy Flow Model 143 3.4.5 An Environmental Policy Approach 146 3.4.6 Environmental Policy Analysis 149 3.5 Conclusion - The Role of Values, Power & the State 152 Chapter Four: Ecopolitical Disputes from Pedder to Wesley Vale 4.1 Chapter Outline 155 4.2 The Pedder Dispute - 'a jewel impounded' 157 4.2.1 The Policy Context - the hydro-industrial imperative 157 4.2.2 The Pedder Dispute - conservation to green politics 161 4.2.3 The Role of the State - failed federal support 166 4.2.4 The Aftermath of Dispute 168 4.3 The Franklin Dispute - 'last wild river' 170 4.3.1 The Policy Context - countering hydro-industrialisation 170 4.3.2 The Franklin Dispute - reform to 'business-as-usual' 174 4.3.3 The Role of the State - decisive federal intervention 178 4.3.4 The Aftermath of Dispute 180 4.4 The Electrona Silicon Smelter Dispute - development 'at any cost' 4.4.1 The Policy Context - the hydro-industrial legacy 183 4.4.2 The Electrona Dispute - up & down with industry 186 4.4.3 The Role of the State - federal non-intervention 192 4.4.4 The Aftermath of Dispute 193 4.5 The Wesley Vale Dispute - 'licence to pollute' 195 4.5.1 The Policy Context - the industrial imperative 195 4.5.2 Wesley Vale Dispute - corporate politics, public response 199 4.5.3 The Role of the State - federal intervention 204 4.5.4 The Aftermath of Dispute 205 4.6 Conclusion - Ecopolitical Opportunities and Constraints 206 vi Power and Environmental Policy: Tasmanian Eco politics from Pedder to Wesley Vale Chapter Five: Values, Power and the State in Tasmania 5.1 Chapter Outline 209 5.2 The Clash of Irreconcilable Values 210 5.2.1 Early History Behind Later Conflict 210 5.2.2 Value Clash From Pedder to Wesley Vale 214 5.3 The Power of Prevailing Interests 216 5.3.1 Explaining Ideological Constraint 216 5.3.2 Overt, Covert & Latent Policy Influences 218 5.4 The Politics of Underwriting Industry 221 5.4.1 From Pedder to the Franklin Dispute 221 5.4.2 From Electrona to Wesley Vale 223 5.5 Conclusion - Power & Policy Analysis in Tasmania 225 Chapter Six: Conclusions 6.1 Chapter Outline 228 6.2 The Efficacy of Environmental Demands 229 6.3 The Value of Broader Analysis 232 6.4 The Greening of Tasmania? 235 6.5 Conclusion 239 List of Maps, Tables & Appendices Locality Maps 1.1 - South West to World Heritage 3 Locality Maps 1.2 - Ecopolitical Dispute Locations 4 Locality Map 4.1 - Lake Pedder 158 Locality Map 4.2 - Franklin River 171 Locality Map 4.3 - Electrona 185 Locality Map 4.4 - Wesley Vale 200 Table 2.1 - Counter Paradigms 24 Appendix 1 - A Century of Hydro-Industrialisation in Tasmania 241 Appendix 2 - Tasmanian Premiers - from 1934 to 1994 241 BIBLIOGRAPHY 242 vii Power and Environmental Policy: Tasmanian Eco politics from Pedder to Wesley Vale Dedicated to the inspirational memory of Dr.
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