Rainforest Action Network

By Matthew Denholm

TASMANIA'S politicians will determine the fate of a contentious $2 billion pulp mill, prompting claims the state is descending into "cronyism and corruption".

Premier Paul Lennon yesterday announced cabinet backing for a fast-track assessment of Gunns Ltd's project, outside the planning system.

The new process - which sources said would involve assessment by expert consultants - will be put to a recalled state parliament next week.

Sources said the assessment could be as short as two months, and no longer than five, with no input from the public.

Parliament will also have the final say on whether the biggest development proposal in the state's history is built on the Tamar River, near Bell Bay, in northern Tasmania.

The fast track was agreed at emergency meetings of cabinet and the Labor caucus after Gunns on Wednesday withdrew the project from the independent planning process.

Gunns claimed that delays before the Resource Planning and Development Commission, and its inability to come to a verdict before November, had forced its hand.

However, the man appointed only last month to head the RPDC assessment, former judge Christopher Wright, has blamed Gunns for "all or most" of the delays.

Mr Lennon said details of the new assessment were still being developed, but instructed his department to search for "independent experts" to conduct it.

"We can't give up on the potential 2000 long-term permanent jobs and an extra $6.7 billion being added to the Tasmanian economy," he said.

The RPDC assessment was a joint federal-state process under a bilateral deal.

Its abandonment means Canberra must either back Mr Lennon's fast-track alternative or order its own assessment.

An expert on constitutional and planning law, Michael Stokes, told The Australian that cabinet had "kidnapped and shot" Tasmania's independent planning system.

A senior law lecturer at the University of Tasmania, Mr Stokes said no developer would now be willing to go through the normal planning process.

He said the Federal Government would destroy its environmental approval system if it endorsed the fast-tracking of the mill.

This was because under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, any joint federal-state assessment had to be under established state planning systems.

"They would be decimating the environmental assessment process throughout Australia if they allowed this to go through," he said.

The Wilderness Society called on federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull to stand by his predecessor Ian Campbell's comments to The Weekend Australian in January that the mill would not be approved if the RPDC process were dumped.

Mr Turnbull would not comment but Acting Prime Minister Mark Vaile said the commonwealth would "have to look at what we have to do to ensure that our responsibilities under the EPBC Act are met".

The Liberal Opposition reserved judgment until it had seen the detail, but the Greens accused Mr Lennon of abandoning the "rule of law".

"It sails us into the waters of corruption in Tasmania," Greens leader Peg Putt told a volatile session of parliament. "We have cronyism; we have corporate bullying; we move towards corruption."

Mr Lennon said his Government had made a "unanimous" decision.

However, sources said several ministers had expressed reservations, while backbencher Terry Martin had abstained from the caucus vote after speaking against the abandonment of the planning "umpire".

Gunns said it remained concerned about whether the mill could be developed "in a commercial time frame", but that it would "await the decision of the parliament" before making a decision.