Network to charge ahead after winning latest legal wrangle over contested Marinus project

A lone campaigner against a major transmission project in Tasmania is planning a Supreme Court challenge, after losing an appeal in the state’s planning tribunal that dismissed the evidence of environmental activist Steven Nowakowski and his infamous map.

Carol-Ann Fletcher spearheaded the appeal against the North West Transmission Developments (NWTD), a network project intended to feed Tasmanian power into the subsea Marinus Link connector to Victoria. 

She is now considering taking the suit to the state’s Supreme Court, saying the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (TasCAT) got its decision wrong, according to a media release from activist group Tassie Power.

But while Fletcher is asking the government to stay construction on the $1.3 billion project, it’s unlikely owner TasNetworks will wait. 

“We look forward to issuing notice to proceed to our head contractor Genus very soon,” said project director Richie Sheather in a statement. 

“TASCAT’s decision reinforces what the planning assessment process had already found: that the project meets Tasmania’s regulatory requirements, appropriately manages environmental and community impacts, and can be delivered safely and responsibly.”

The NWTD reached final investment decision on stage one in May, after the Clean Energy Finance Corporation promised $1.2 billion from the Rewiring the Nation Fund, covering almost the whole cost of the project.

It’s a contentious part of Marinus Link, which itself is the subject of significant opposition in Tasmania, ad criticised for its impact on the surrounding community and remnant forests in the Heybridge and Cam River Valley.

Stage one of the project runs from Palmerston (near Cressy) to Burnie/Heybridge, where the Marinus Link subsea cable makes landfall on the Tasmanian coast, and involves upgrading up to 130 km of transmission lines and substations.

The project’s state approval in March was slammed by the Bob Brown Foundation for “[upsetting] farmers and completely [dismissing] impacts on public and low-income housing residents, while sacrificing wildlife rich forest without a second thought.”

Not proved

Helped by a GoFundMe page, Fletcher appealed against the planning permission in March arguing it didn’t take into account issues such as social-economic impacts, alternatives, cumulative effects, and didn’t follow procedural fairness.

But the tribunal found last week that there was no rule requiring a public hearing on the planning application, nor for applicants to consider alternative options, in this case underground cables.

It also found that none of the documents provided by Fletcher “provides any reason to contemplate that a more extensive discussion… would establish any basis for refusing a permit.”

Rainforest Reserves Australia founder Steven Nowakowski, described in the TasCAT decision as an “expert cartographer”, gave evidence about cumulative effects, using the now-defunct organisation’s misleading National Renewables Truth Map.

The tribunal however was dismissive of his evidence and said Fletcher’s case was more of a criticism of planning laws than the NWTD assessment itself.

“[Nowakowski] did not identify any specific relevant cumulative impacts arising in connection with the proposal and any of the other projects he mapped,” the TasCAT decision said. 

“It was unclear what cumulative impacts the disparate and widely disbursed projects he identified might have, how they might be assessed, or how his evidence might be relevant to the ground of appeal. Mr Nowakowski’s evidence was of no assistance in considering the ground.”

Fletcher’s case had already seen one setback, when TasCAT refused to let her call an expert to talk about threatened species, saying it was too late for new expert testimony a week before the hearing. 

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