#11.  The Greens, the ENGO's, and the Bob Brown Foundation all want and expect yet more extension of the TWWHA, (Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area), and they have been trying to raise it as part of the election campaign. They are specifying the area as being all of the 477,000 hectares listed in the rescinded Tasmanian Forest Agreement as possible future reserve lands, and which includes areas known as the Tarkine.

Well, sorry, but it does not work like that.

An election does not give a mandate for such a thing, and nor should it.

If anything further is to be added to the already extensive TWWHA, then there are a series of steps that must be gone through. The area was previously suggested by the green groups, but it was comprehensively rejected.

The only election result that would help their cause would be if there was a hung parliament, and one where Labor could form government, but only with the support of the Greens and possibly others, and they would also need the Greens to have the balance of power in the Senate. They would then have to wait for the outcome of the next Tasmanian state election, which is not due until 2018, where they would also need a Labor minority government, but with Greens support helping them to 13 seats, or more. They would then be able to again fiddle the requirements, causing the area to fist be placed on the Register of the National Estate, and then be nominated for World Heritage assessment.
That was what they talked Labor into last time, and they would be looking to try it on again.

However, it is unlikely to happen again, even if the election scenario came about as described. This is the case for a number of reasons. Firstly, state Labor lost in the biggest landslide in its history as a result of the previous stunt, having lost support of not only timber workers in the regions, but many others in the community. Tasmanian Labor has since done a major re-write of policy, and has come out strongly in support of the timber industry, and the Special Timbers sector in particular. The Tasmanian Legislative Council remains extremely annoyed at how it was treated, how it was misled, and how it was lied to. It is not going to fall for the same tricks again. Federal Labor also lost seats in Tasmania, and as of the time of writing, only has one in the House of Reps., Julie Collins. Tasmanian Labor is unlikely to agree to handing over powers to the federal government, and that would only be to a federal Labor government, on matters dealing with the environment, and land use. The Tasmanian Legislative Council is extremely unlikely to agree to such a move, as would the current Tasmanian Liberal government.

Given that the polls are suggesting a narrow coalition victory, there is unlikely to be another TWWHA extension proposal being considered any time soon.

That is as it should be, as the area has had extensive degradation, and is subject to many active mineral leases. It is one of the most complex and highly mineralogical areas in the country, and any reserve proposal that would automatically exclude any mineral exploration or development would be highly contested. As well as minerals, it remains an area of crucial interest to the Special Timbers sector, although Forestry Tasmania is not interested in managing much of it for timber production, especially as it is seeking FSC Certification.

Those proposing further TWWHA extensions need to be conscious of the fact that if they trigger community backlash, they are not doing the concept of World Heritage any favours, and if they are trying to use World Heritage as a weapon against the timber industry, they are risking that industry organising against them, and criticising the way their work is conducted. There certainly is a case for examining the suggestions of scandal, corruption, influence and deceit that pervade the 2013 decision. I believe wrong-doing and inappropriate behaviour can be traced all the way to the top of the World Heritage Committee and the World Heritage Centre in Paris, as well as all through the federal Department of the Environment, and through the behaviour and performance of a significant number of academics, as well as among consultants in the private sector.

I remain incredibly disappointed at how difficult it has been to get the mainstream media to look closely at the allegations myself and my colleagues have been making about the 2013 stunt, and how much it disadvantaged Tasmania, and how dishonest and corrupt it was. We have a growing mountain of evidence, and an almost-complete picture from FOI requests, interviews, phone calls, and public document searches. So many journalists are so useless, and so many of them are running here and there like black ants, and are still not producing quality journalism and frequently what they are producing is poorly researched, half-arsed rubbish. That might be about to change, the latest guy seems a bit more promising. It really is something that the ABC's Four Corners program should spend a few months researching. The result would be up there with their blockbusters, as some of it is more strange than fiction, and has all the ingredients... The following graphic seems an apt way to conclude...