Tasmania’s Tamar Valley Pulp Mill: A Comparison of Planning Processes Using a Good Environmental Governance Framework

Abstract

In November 2004, the Tasmanian Government requested the state’s planning body, the Resource Planning and Development Commission (RPDC) to undertake an evaluation of a proposal to establish a pulpmill at Long Reach near Bell Bay on Tasmania’s Tamar Estuary. In early 2007, Gunns Ltd, the project’s proponents, pulled out of the RPDC process and the Government established an alternative, ‘fast track’ process under the Pulp Mill Assessment Act (PMAA). This article evaluates the RPDC and the PMAA assessment processes using a ‘good environmental governance’ framework composed of eight criteria—transparency, accountability, openness, balance, deliberation, efficiency, science and risk. The comparison reveals that although the RPDC process fell short of the ideal, it was markedly superior to the PMAA process that replaced it. The case highlights how political economic power can be used to the detriment of public planning and the communities and environment that rely on it.