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The Federal Court has found that the Commonwealth Government’s decision that no approval is required under Commonwealth environmental law for the Halls Island helicopter-accessed luxury tourism proposal in the Tasmanian wilderness was invalid. The Court has ordered that the Government remake its decision under the national environmental law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Act).

This important outcome was achieved by EDO Tasmania, acting for the Wilderness Society (Tasmania), following its successful Federal Court challenge to the Commonwealth decision that the tourism accommodation proposal was not a controlled action.

The Federal Court ruling of 12 November 2019 found that the Government’s decision was flawed, with the legal challenge successful on two of three of its grounds of review. Now both parties have reached agreement on the Court orders to give effect to that ruling. The Commonwealth has agreed to a Court order that the original decision be quashed and a new decision made.  These orders were made by the Court yesterday.

“The concession by the Commonwealth Government that its decision was invalid and must be remade under the EPBC Act shows that our client was right to take this legal action,” said Nicole Sommer, Principal Lawyer at EDO.

“Our client, the Wilderness Society, today submitted new evidence to the Environment Minister about this project’s noise and wilderness impacts on World Heritage values, evidence that was not before the Department when the first decision was made. This new evidence demonstrates that the project is clearly unacceptable because of the significant impact it will have on wilderness values.  It should be rejected by the Minister under the EPBC Act.

“At the very least, this project must now go through a full and detailed assessment, allowing Tasmanians to have a say on what happens in their World Heritage Area. The Environment Minister’s new decision will be a test as to whether the Government will wave through development in World Heritage Areas.