Media Release – Tasmanian Government Ignored Formal Advice on Missing State of the Environment Report

Independent Member for Nelson Meg Webb said today an RTI request reveals the Tasmanian Government ignored formal advice in 2019 to progress the overdue State of the Environment Report.

Ms Webb called on the Government to resolve as a matter of urgency which agency has responsibility for delivering the next State of the Environment (SoE) Report and detail how and when that work will be undertaken.

“These RTI documents reveal a formal Minute from the Tasmanian Planning Commission to the then-Minister for Planning Roger Jaensch – approved and dated May 13, 2019 – made it clear the Commission did not consider itself to be the appropriate agency to produce the SoE report, and nor did it have the resources to do so,” Ms Webb said.

“Importantly, this Minute also detailed three alternative models by which to secure an appropriate and effective SoE. Sadly, despite being sent to the Minister in 2019, those options appear to have gathered dust ever since.”

Ms Webb said the Tasmanian Government could follow the Victorian and ACT model by establishing a new dedicated agency with the express purpose of producing the SoE.

“But potentially the promised new independent EPA may provide a logical home for the SoE as occurs in NSW, South Australia, Queensland and at the Commonwealth level.”

Ms Webb said since 2019, Government has had four years to fix this problem but instead sat on formal advice.

“Obviously, it’s been put in the too hard basket. It is appalling negligence for the Government to dither for four years on the basic question of which agency will be responsible for the SoE report – all the while missing yet another reporting period and failing its legal requirement.

“It’s clear Ministers in this unstable Liberal Government are too busy and overburdened to ensure their key statutory responsibilities are met – or perhaps they simply don’t place a high value on the monitoring and stewardship of our State’s environment.  It is simply not good enough.”

Ms Webb said released emails reveal the Government was warned in March this year that the matter of the missing SoE report was bound to be raised during the June Budget Estimates scrutiny hearings.

“Yet instead of developing a meaningful action plan, Ministers again relied on fobbing off the parliament with out-of-date excuses:

• ‘I have no doubt that this issue will be raised in Budget Estimates again this year, and the Minister will need to provide a response about the Governments [sic] intentions.
• If asked in Budget Estimates, I am not in a position to advise any differently to what I stated last year.’ John Ramsay, TPC Executive Commissioner, 21 March 2022.

“As warned by the TPC, the sorry saga of the missing State of the Environment Report is ‘contrary to the principles of good government and public law values’. 

“No more excuses. The government needs to accept its responsibility, reprioritise and immediately deliver a workable plan detailing the who, when and how of our long overdue State of the Environment Report.”

Ms Webb is expecting to receive a second tranche of documents from the TPC relating to her State of the Environment Report RTI request in coming days.

The first tranche of RTI documents are contained in three pdf files available on the TPC website: https://www.planning.tas.gov.au/other-resources/right-to-information/right-to-information-disclosure-log

• RTI-SoE-Part 1 – consists of email correspondence, Minutes to Ministers and draft TPC reviews and reports 2022-2019;
• RTI-SoE-Part 2 – consists of 2018 TPC internal meeting minutes, the 2018 Update of the 2013 Review of the State of the Environment Reporting, etc.
• RTI-SoE-Part 3 – consists of the October 2020 Independent Review of the Tasmanian Planning Commission, Prof. Roberta Ryan and Alex Lawrie, and associated materials.

Media Contact: A.Mark Thomas, M&M Communications, 0422 006 732