Ann: NBR DSO Iron Ore Project Permitting Advances, page-115

I made an FOI request to DECCWW for documents relating to the delay in the referral decision. I expect that the documents will be on their discllosure log shortly, and when they are i will link them. The key takeaways, the referral decision timeframe has been extended until tommorrow (8 Nov) - Sanjay objected to the extension, however, and this is a quote from the response back to Sanjay 'the additional time is required to ensure that any decisionmade by the department is as legally robust as possible. Unfortunately, this will require extratime beyond the standard 20 business-day timeframe as we need to liaise with both our Legalteam and relevant line areas. We feel that this is in the best interest of both the department andCatalina, as this advice will provide greater legal certainty that any approval provided by thedepartment will be upheld'. Now, why they want to dot their i's and cross their t's, well you can make your own assumptions about that, but i find this comment in a briefing on this matter to be quite telling:

'The Minister’s Office may be interested in the project• Given the history of the project and direct ministerial involvement in the past, we recommendkeeping the Minister’s Office informed regarding the progress of this referral decision.

This project will possibly result in renewed calls for the Tarkine to be heritage-listed• In 2013 Minister Burke approved of the inscription of a portion of the Tarkine – the WesternTasmania Aboriginal Cultural Landscape – to the National Heritage List, for its indigenousvalues.• He did not agree that the remainder of the Tarkine should be listed for its rainforest andlichen values, fossil flora and magnesite karst values, wilderness values, or aesthetic values asidentified by the Australian Heritage Council. This was because he felt that the social andeconomic consequences of doing so would be unacceptable.• This is because the Tarkine and the surrounding region is one of the most impoverished areasof Tasmania.'