Former Tasmanian Lands Minister and current federal Lyons MHR, Dick Adams, has spoken out for the first time over the boundary of the Ralphs Bay Conservation Area. What he said on ABC Statewide radio on Wednesday 9 August confirms that when he first moved to create the Ralphs Bay coastal reserve in 1982, the sandflats to low water mark were included within the boundary.  As it prepares to introduce legislation to eliminate the sandflats once and for all from the Ralphs Bay Conservation Area, this is possibly the last thing the Lennon Labor Government wanted to hear from one of its own.

The legal extent of the Ralphs Bay Conservation Area has been in dispute since 4 July 2005. Then Environment Minister, Judy Jackson, announced, on the advice of the Solicitor General, she had moved to ‘clarify’ the boundary to remove the sandflats. It is our very clear view that this decision was made in contravention of standard Australian New Zealand surveying practice.

The Ralphs Bay Conservation Area has been represented on government maps as extending to low water for the past twenty-four years, and to this day. There would be no dispute had Walker Corporation’s lawyers not questioned the boundary with the Lennon Government during the developer’s first, failed attempt to present its canal estate plan. State Election out of the way, on 6 July 2006, Premier Lennon announced the revived Walker plan as a Project of State Significance (PoSS), and to smooth the developer’s path through any environmental assessment, a special law to ‘remove inconsistencies’ thus protecting only the foreshore. Under a PoSS, this would lead to the conservation values of Ralphs Bay not being adequately assessed. It’s a giant con on the Tasmanian Government’s part, in support of Walker Corporation.

Save Ralphs Bay Inc. sought legal advice at the time from the Environmental Defenders’ Office. A comprehensive brief was prepared, setting out a very clear argument for the Minister to reverse her decision. Minister Jackson acknowledged conflicting legal advice and said the matter would be referred to the Crown Lands Assessment and Classification (CLAC) process for Clarence municipality. Sometime either just before, or shortly after, the March 18 election, the Ralphs Bay Conservation Area was removed from CLAC’s agenda.

SRB Inc continues to seek legal counsel. We know our case is strong. A community group on limited funds, we are daunted by the prospect of embarking on court action to seek a wider determination of the Minister’s decision.  And time is running out before the Lennon Government makes its diabolical move on the Conservation Area. We are also strongly urging members of Tasmania’s Legislative Council to see the pending Conservation Area bill for what it is - an abuse of power driven by corporate interests - and vote it down.

(ABC Radio News transcript)

HOBART - 12:30 PM News - 9 August 2006 (Dick Adams - Ralphs Bay Conservation Area)

ABC 936

The former State Labor Minister who signed off on the original map of the Ralphs Bay conservation Area has revealed that he intended the reserve to extend to the low water mark. The Save the Ralphs bay group is worried that the State Government is about to move the conservation area from the low water mark to the high water mark. Lawyers from the Walker Corporation has queried whether the original map of the conservation area extends across the tidal flats where Walker wants to build its $300 million Lauderdale Quay style development. The former State Lands Minister and current Federal Labor Member for Lyons, Dick Adams approved the original map of the reserve in 1982. Mr Adams says that the boundary of the conservation area is a matter for the current State Government to resolve. The Government says that it will legislate to clear up any doubt about the boundary.

Dick Adams: “It went down to the low water mark, now whether the low water mark covered all the mud flats, one doesn’t know”.