Land Clearing

3 November 2006

The Environment Centre of the Northern Territory (ECNT) has called for an Inquiry into the current operation and planned expansion of the Tiwi Island forestry project – a ‘partnership’ between Great Southern Plantations (GSP) Pty Ltd and the Tiwi Land Council (TLC). The current project involves clearing 26,000 hectares of native forest on Melville Island for woodchip plantations.

ECNT Coordinator Peter Robertson said there is increasing concern about how the existing project on Melville Island has been managed to date and how plans for a three or four fold expansion are being conducted – including the general lack of oversight, openness and accountability surrounding the whole project.

“Yesterday for the first time the public heard – via a Senate Estimates Committee hearing – that GSP and the TLC intend to expand their operations onto Bathurst Island , with around 20,000 hectares of clearing proposed. The Senate was also told that only two (2) Tiwi Islanders currently work for the forestry project – after five years of operation, and out of a total full time workforce of about 60.

[ECNT now understands (as of August 2007), that there are thirteen (13) Indigenous Tiwi Islanders employed full time on the forestry project after 6 years of operation. In the face of growing objections to the project the operators are being forced to improve their record on Indigenous involvement.]

“The proposed Inquiry should be an NT Inquiry established under the NT Inquiries Act. It should be conducted by a panel headed by a judge or other suitably qualified person with a legal background, and include people with expertise in the areas of environment, corporations law, financial audits, and Indigenous affairs.

“The current project is already the single largest native forest clearing project anywhere in northern Australia – with 10,000 hectares (100 square kilometers) approved for clearing in 2006 alone.

“This is close to the annual amount of forest clearfelled each year in Tasmania – but compared to Tasmania the oversight and regulation of the Tiwi project is almost non-existent.

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