Humans are now the most environmentally influential species on Earth.  As such, we have an ethical and practical responsibility to respect biodiversity and care for one another, other species and all habitats, both now and into the future.  The maintenance of a healthy environment is crucial to the legacy we leave our children and all subsequent generations.

The Tasmanian Greens recognise that a healthy environment underpins a healthy society and a healthy economy.  We also recognise that Tasmania’s environment underpins our core brand value of ‘pristine’ and provides us with a strategic asset which can be used to access global markets for our value added produce.  We contend that our core brand values provide a framework within which strategic decisions can be made regarding Tasmania’s future economic direction. 

The use of highly toxic and potentially carcinogenic chemicals around Tasmania compromises both the environment and human health.  The Greens will properly regulate chemical use and progressively reduce Tasmania’s reliance on toxic chemicals. 

The Greens believe that successive state governments have paid lip service to Tasmania’s clean, green reputation but have failed to fulfil that vision in the most destructive way.  Our marketing image must be backed by substance, not rhetoric.

Measures

Departmental structure:  re-establish a separate Department of the Environment to oversee environmental management, especially in state parks, and with water, soil and air purity

Development:  introduce stringent assessment guidelines for planning review bodies which all development applications must meet; mandate that all development applications include an assessment of the proposal’s direct and indirect impact on air, water and soil quality, and the integrity of affected eco-systems

Environmental Protection:  resource and equip a stronger EPA to ensure greater compliance with environmental protection legislation

Climate Change:  set stringent targets for the reduction of greenhouse emissions; create a taskforce on global warming to prepare a comprehensive report of its probable effects on Tasmania in terms of sea level rise and climate change, and to develop precautionary strategies to cope with these likely effects

Native species:  promote further research into the increasing incidence of disease in native species

Feral and Invasive Species:  create a Feral Species unit within the Environment Department to formulate and implement management plans which address the social, environmental and economic impact of feral and invasive species;  fund management plans for all invasive species, prioritising those with demonstrated adverse environmental and economic impacts

Noise:  develop a State Noise Policy recognising the health impacts of noise; create a Noise Unit within the Environment Department to respond to noise complaints and to conduct noise testing and mapping

Cat Management:  support the microchipping, registration and de-sexing of domestic cats as a first step in a comprehensive feral cat management plan; develop a public education process to further protect and control the domestic cat population and to reduce the feral cat population

Chemical Use:  legislate to make the wilful, careless or irresponsible release of both licensed and unlicensed chemicals into the environment a serious crime (Chemical Trespass);  ban all chemicals from the triazine group;  ban 1080 (except where there is no alternative to control dangerous, introduced species);  review the use and regulation of all other chemicals currently licensed for use in Tasmania;  introduce a system whereby members of the public can access information regarding the location and quantity of each chemical licensed for use

Threatened Species:  legislate to remove the effective exemption given to the forest industry which allows a threatened species to be taken without permit; amend current legislation to include a definition of, and ensure its application to, threatened native species communities; ensure the protection of all native species under threat from whatever source

Land Clearance:  end broad scale land clearing in Tasmania

Air Quality:  remove exemptions for a bleached eucalypt kraft pulp mill from the Air Quality Policy; subsidise the take-up of natural gas as a transition fuel in the Tamar basin to ameliorate Launceston’s air quality problems until more sustainable sources of energy for heating can be established

Landscape Protection:  legislate for, and incorporate, the principle of heritage landscape, landscape protection and visual amenity into planning scheme assessment criteria

Shooting:  ban the recreational killing of Tasmania’s native duck species