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Jim Wilkson
Tasmania is the smallest state of Australia. It is the Island to the south-east of mainland Australia. Tasmania has a well—founded reputation for its clean and green environment and high quality agriculture，especially food and beverages. This situation and reputation however has had to be earned. This paper will briefly examine how this repution was achieved.
Tasmania had the first Green Political Party in the world，the United Tasmania Group（UTG），was formed at a meeting in the Hobart Town Hall on 23 March 1972.
There have been Green members elected to the Tasmanian Parliament since 1983. In fact，they have had five members for much of this time（one—fifth of the house）. They have been in a balance of power situation for nine years during this time. Therefore，it is safe to say that there has been a substantial role in Tasmanian politics for Green members.
Although Tasmania was the last state to establish a National Park（at Mount Field in 1916），it now has the highest proportion of land in national parks of any States in Australia（44%of Tasmania is within the National Reserve System）.
Over last twenty years all political parties have embraced the “clean green” image of Tasmania. This has been most noticeable in improving air and water quality and protecting the natural environment. In many ways，this is the best illustrated in the agricultural sector. Tasmania has used its isolation from the rest of Australia to get away from many pests and diseases. In addition，Tasmania has chosen to be GMO and HGP free to give it a further point of differentiation.
The Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area（TWWHA）is one of the largest temperate natural areas in the Southern Hemisphere. The area’s size exceeds 1.58 million hectares，which is almost a quarter of the area of Tasmania（appendix 2）. It extends from the island’s exposed southern and western coastlines to the tall eucalypt forests on the TWWHA’s eastern margins and the high plateaus and escarpments overlooking the northern coastline.
The TWWHA has a variety of land tenures but it primarily consists of reserve classifications proclaimed under the State Nature Conservation Act 2002（NCA）.
The current government has made a major push to enhance the tourism potential of TWWHA and in the next few years it should provide an increased potential for Tasmania to show the world the important natural assets.
The Tasmanian Wilderness was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1982 and extended in 1989，June 2010，June 2012and again in June 2013.
The Tasmanian Wilderness was one of 15 world heritage places included in the National Heritage List on 21 May 2007.
Legislation：Environmental Management and Pollution Control Act 1994
Environment Protection Policy（Air Quality）2004
Solid Fuel Heater and Backyard Burning Regulations
Although Tasmanian has some of the cleanest air in the world，some of the larger urban areas（especially Launceston）had a significant air quality problem during winter.
Tasmanian Air Quality Strategy（TAQS）
“The strategy presents fifteen objectives covering topics relevant to the effective management of air quality in Tasmania，including：
·Information and data gaps—covering monitoring and forecasting，air pollution potential mapping，sources of pollution and public access to air quality information.
·Residential sources-such as the design sale，installation，use of and fuel quality for wood heaters，alternative fuels and energy efficiency of homes，community education and equity issues.
·Industrial sources-effective regulation of activities and effective enforcement，airshed capacities，appropriate training and cleaner production.
·Planned burning-establishing smoke management procedures，improving coordination of planned burning，minimizing smoke impacts and responding to complaints.
·Vehicle emissions—smoky vehicles，national fuel quality programs，alternative fuels，environmental aspects of fleet management and utilisation of public transport systems.
·Planning—promoting better integration of environmental considerations into planning processes.” [2] High levels of particle pollution are experienced in many areas around Tasmania during the cooler months. The Environment Division has been monitoring particulate matter at four sites in the states，Ti Tree Bend inLaunceston，Rowella in the Tamar Valley，George Town and at New Town in Hobart.
Recently，another particle monitoring program commenced in Tasmania known as BLANKET（Base—Line Air Network of the EPATasmania）. This program monitors population exposure to smoke from planned burns（but also serves as a valuable source of information for other air quality studies）at 13 locations（with plans to extend this to 16 locations）. In addition，the following levels are monitored；Ozone（O 3 ），Carbon monoxide（CO），Nitrogen dioxide（NO），Sulphur dioxide（SO 2 ）and Lead（Pb）
The graph below indicates the vast improvement in air quality in Launceston after the passage of the 1994 legislation. This improvement arose from a number of policy initiatives including a wood-heater buy-back scheme and extensive public education around using wood heating.
Air Quality improvement over time.
24 hour PM 10 Air Quality Exceedences-Launceston
Tile number of days each year where the 24-hour average PM
10
conceatration measured at Ti Tree Bend（Launceston）exceeded tile national standard of 50 μg/m
3
，since daily winter monitoring began in 1997. Due to limited availability of data in 2013，the zero number of exceedences must be regarded as unreliable，Also it has not been possible to demonstrate in accordance with the requirements of the Air NEPM. That Launceston met the PM
10
goal of no nore than five exceedences of the PM
10
standard in 2013.
The Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station monitors Southern Hemispheric air. In the Northern Hemisphere，the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii has been continuously monitoring and collecting data related to atmospheric change since the1950s.
The Cape Grim station is positioned just south of the isolated northwest tip important site，as Wool north Point of Tasmania. It is in an the air sampled arriving long trajectories over the Southern Ocean at Cape Grim after under conditions described as baseline. This baseline air is representative of a large area of the Southern Hemisphere，unaffected by regional pollution sources（there are no nearby cities or industry that would contaminate the air quality）.
The Cape Grim program originated from a commitment by the Australian Government to the United Nations Environment Program in the early 1970s to monitor and study global atmospheric composition for climate change purposes. As a result，the Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station first began measuring the composition of the atmosphere in April 1976 and has been in continuous operation since that date.
Cape Grim is a joint responsibility of the Bureau of Meteorology and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation（CSIRO）. The Bureau of Meteorology funds and operates the Cape Grim atmospheric observational facility. CSIRO analyses and models the resultant data，which are made available to interested parties-Australian government agencies，industry，the public and international agencies.
Air samples are analyzed at the station to determine concentrations of greenhouse and ozone—depleting gases，other air pollutants，including aerosols，reactive gases and radon.
Also measured are weather and climate indicators like wind speed and direction，rainfall，temperature，humidity and solar radiation.
Since sampling began at Cape Grim，more than 3 billion measurements have been taken. Among these are measurements of greenhouse gases（GHGs），including carbon dioxide（COZ），methane（CH4），nitrous oxide（N20）and synthetic GHGs such as hydrofluorocarbons（HFCs），perfluorocarbons（PFCs）and sulfur hexafluoride（SF6）.
Legislation：
Environmental Management and Pollution Control Act 1994
Environmental Management and Pollution Control（Under-ground Petroleum Storage Systems）Regulations 2010
State Policy on Water Quality Management 1997
City and town water supplies.
Tasmania for many years had difficulty in building and maintaining water supply infrastructure to many of the smaller population centres in the State. In 2013，the provision of water was centralized into TasWater a company owned by the 29 municipal governmentsin Tasmania. There has been some progress in improving infrastructure but there is still further work to be done.
“In September 2011，the Board Chairman initiated discussions with owner councils about the potential benefits that could ensue from a single statewide water and sewerage corporation. After a series of reviews，council owners in all regions agreed to move to a single corporation that merged the current four corporations.
Specific governance arrangements were agreed that are now largely incorporated in the Water and Sewerage Corporation Act 2012（Tas），the new constitution and the new Shareholders’Letter of Expectation. The new corporation was registered as a proprietary limited company under Corporations Act 2001（Cth）on 5 February，2013.”
“The objectives for TasWater prescribed in the Water and Sewerage Corporation Act are to：
·efficiently provide water and sewerage functions in Tasmania；
·encourage water conservation，the demand management of water and the reuse of water on an economic and commercial basis；
·be a successful business，and to this end；
·operate its activities in accordance with good commercial practice
·deliver sustainable returns to its members；
·deliver water and sewerage services to customers in the most cost efficient manner”.
The high quality of the Tasmanian water is illustrated by the presence of a developing industry in supplying premium bottled water. Below are a few of these products and some quotes from their web sites where they promote the high degree of purity of the water used.
Cape Grim bottled water is the only bottled rain water in the world，clean enough to be approved by the Health Departments of the USA，EU，Australia and Japan.
This uniquely pure rainwater is captured on the pristine is-land of Tasmania，Australia where the air is scientifically proven to be the purest in the world. The air currents travel over Ant-arctica and 10，000 miles of open ocean eventually reaching the western most part of Tasmania，the edge of the world.
Proudly Australian，Tasmanian Natural Spring Water represents the best Australia stands for. Widely recognized as amongst the purest in the world，our water runs through more than 300 limestone caves deep beneath the Central Tasmanian Highlands. This remote cave system is so remarkable that the whole area was granted National Park.
Status in 1966 to protect IL
Legislation：
State
Natural Resource Management Act 2002
Nature Conservation Act 2002
Tasmanian State Coastal Policy 1996
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
See Appendix 1 for Tasmanian breakdown.
Tasmania has also developed a number of marine parks to help protect the marine environment and recreational and commercial fisheries. These reserves cover 142，851 Ha and consist of 90 individual reserves（appendix 3）
Tasmania has a number of advantages both natural and agricultural practices that provide “clean and green” agricultural products.
·Agriculture added value to the Tasmanian economy：$1，976，000，000.
·Value of food exports from Tasmania：$576，510，000
·Value of Tasmania’s food exports to China：$60，240000（total exports to China$610，150，000）
Tasmanian has recently established a new entity Biosecurity Tasmania to consolidate all aspects of biosecurity in one place. There is currently a Biosecurity Legislative Framework Review underway. The review terms of reference included：
Tasmania. The Acts included form some of the primary supporting legislation within the Tasmanian Biosecurity Strategy：Plant Quarantine Act 1997，Animal Health Act 1995，Seeds Act 1985，Weed ManagementAct 1999，Vermin Control Act 2000，Biological Control Act 1985，Animal（Brands and Movement）Act 1984，and Animal Farming（Registration）Act1994.
Plant Quarantine Act 1997
Animal Health Act 1995
Seeds Act 1985
Weed Management Act 1999
Vermin Control Act 2000
Biological Control Act 1985
Animal（Brands and Movement）Act 1984
Animal Farming（Registration）Act 1994
Tasmania’s access to a number of international markets is based on the unique situation in regard to pests and diseases. Being fruit fly free allows Tasmania to export to markets in Asia that are not open to the rest of Australia.
For Example，“Tasmania has a unique market access opportunity due to the states fruit fly free status. This means Tasmanian cherries do not need to be fumigated and arrive in export markets in a premium condition”.
“Biosecurity underpins the Tasmanian brand，in many cases，the development and maintenance of domestic and international export markets are based on the demonstrated absence of certain pests and diseases. Tasmania’s unique natural environment is vulnerable to incursion by a range of pests and disease agents and to the consequent impacts of those incursions.
Effective biosecurity is critically important to the people of Tasmania，to the economy and to the environment. Tasmania’s high level of bio-security is the result of its island geography，as well as regulatory quarantine systems that have been in place for many decades. However，as biosecurity pressures and threats increase so does the potential loss of those trade advantages through pest and disease incursions.”
“Tasmania’s point of difference relative to other jurisdictions is linked to‘clean and green’factors，including：
·A ban on hormone growth promotants and a moratorium on genetically modified organisms（GMOs）
·Low-cost，high-quality，primarily pasture-based production
·Relative disease freedom
·The development of diferentiated brands and products based on a quality proposition，in domestic and international markets
·Strong animal welfare standards”
Legislation：Genetically Modified Organisms Control Act 2004
Tasmania has a ban on the growing of GMO agricultural crops. In its Review of the moratorium on genetically modified organisms（GMOs）in Tasmania Final Report，on 16 December 2013，the Tasmanian government indicates it has the following objective. “To position Tasmania in the global marketplace as a producer of food that is genuinely CMO-free by striving to ensure that no CMOs are released to or persisted in the Tasmanian environment，and by encouraging investment in CMO—free business through brand development and pursuit of CMO—free opportunities in primary industries.”
Terrestrial Protected Areas by Reserve Type in Tasmania（2014）
Summary of Tasmania Marine Protected Areas by Type
[2] Source：Http：//epa.tas.gov.au/epa/tasmanian-air-quality-strategy Particle Matter（PM 10 and PM 2.5 ）